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The P.A.C.E. (Processing and Cognitive Enhancement) Program

PACE, researched and developed by Growth Strategies, Inc., has been described a "mental boot camp." It trains cognitive processing skills that directly affect academic learning.
These skills include:

1. Attention (the ability to stay on task even when distractions are present);
2. Simultaneous Processing (the ability to handle more than one thing at a time, to see the whole or "gestalt");
3. Sequential Processing (the ability to learn step by step, linking a series of inputs over time);
4. Planning/Problem Solving;
5. Processing Speed;
6. Memory;
7. Auditory Processing (including phonemic awareness or thinking about the sounds inside of words);
8. Visual Processing (the ability to perceive, analyze, and think in visual images)

 

An Introduction to the PACE (Processing & Cognitive Enhancement) Program

The Processing and Cognitive Enhancement (PACE) program was developed to train cognitive learning skills. It is referred to as a “mental boot camp”.

The PACE program can benefit a wide range of students and adults. Those who can benefit from the program include high or average performers who want to perform mental activities faster and more efficiently, and even better than before, as well as those who have learning difficulties and greater academic challenges.

The child who is an excellent candidate for the program using has one or more of the following symptoms that do not seem to improve with just extra work and tutoring:

• Trouble paying attention and staying on task; easily distracted
• Working too slowly or too hard
• Difficulty comprehending what is read
• Problems remembering, forgetting instructions
• Difficulty sounding out words and spelling
• Have problems creating mental pictures from a word math problem
• Making the same careless errors repeatedly without realizing it

Because of these processing problems and the resulting frustration, academic performance, self-esteem, and relationships with family and friends suffer. If something is not done to correct these deficiencies, the long term effects can be quite drastic impacting choices in future education, friendship circles, vocation, earning capacity and sense of personal well being.

PACE focuses on enhancing the cognitive abilities of a child that process sensory information and that which the academic level relies upon. PACE does not teach academic content, rather it will help make learning easier and faster.

Assessments that probe different areas of processing are completed to determine if there are deficiencies that can be addressed by the program. Skills assessed include:

• Attention: the ability to stay on task, even when distractions are present
• Simultaneous Processing: the ability to handle more than one thing at a time (e.g. the ability to recognize a word without sounding it out, to listen to the instructor while taking notes, or to drive a car while carrying on a conversation.
• Sequential Processing: the ability to link a series of inputs over time (a skill required for reading so that the beginner can blend a series of sounds to create words and the advanced reader can link a series of words to understand the story or idea).
• Planning: the ability to decide how your are going to solve a problem, make sure it gets done, check it for mistakes, and modify it if needed.
• Processing speed: the ability to perform cognitive tasks quickly; an important skill for complex tasks or tasks that have many steps (e.g. if we are dividing two numbers in our head but processing is slow, we might forget an earlier calculation before we are done and have to start over again --- we took longer to do the problem than our ability to remember.)
• Short-term Memory (STM): the ability to store and recall small amounts of information about the current situation. Children with STM problems may need to look several times at something before copying, have problems following instructions, or need to have information repeated often.
• Long-term Memory (LTM): the ability to recall information that was stored in the past when needed. It is very important for spelling, recalling facts on tests, and comprehension.
• Auditory Processing: the ability to perceive, analyze, and conceptualize what is heard. It is critical in beginning reading and spelling because it includes hearing, identifying and blending sounds, and sounding out words.
• Visual Processing: the ability to perceive, analyze, and think in visual images. This includes visualization, which is the ability to create a picture in your mind. Children who have problems with visual processing may reverse letters or have difficulty following instructions, reading maps, doing word math problems, and comprehending.

Studies show that by using proper training methods, one can target, modify, and develop the brain to improve deficiencies. The fastest and most efficient way to do this is through cognitive training exercises that specifically and directly target a deficient skill.

How so?

Poor learning can be caused by lack of skills needed for efficient learning, which should be subconscious (automatic) are not. For example, a fluent reader does not sound out words or pause to think of their meanings. If these skills are not automatic then comprehension suffers. A child who has to work consciously at sounding out letters and blending those sounds, uses all of his or her effort on the act of reading. This means that there isn’t enough left over to comprehend the ideas that were read. Therefore, understanding and memory suffer.

The PACE program is an 8-10 week, intense, one-on-one, cognitive training program that corrects and enhances learning skills:

To improve a poor habitual skill, the skill must first be brought from the unconscious level (where all habitual skills are) to the conscious level. Then, as the skill is refined, it is forced back to the subconscious level so that the child can perform better. PACE training asks the student to do an increasing number of processing tasks at a time. If the student is able to do two tasks at the same time, a third is added. If he or she is able to do three tasks simultaneously, a fourth is added. Since the conscious mind can only handle one task at a time, the others are force to the subconscious, which is exactly where you want most processing skills. The result is that the child no longer has to learn to process information and can now process information to learn.

PACE improves concentration, memory, visualization, integration, and processing speed and makes them all become more automatic. This makes learning easier, faster, and more enjoyable.

Successful learning is the ability to stay on task and not be distracted.

Successful learning is the ability to handle multiple things at one time.

Successful learning is the speed at which a child can handle tasks.

And successful learning is the ability to comprehend and remember what was read.

When a child achieves success after success and can see the improvements in his or her ability to learn, this causes their self-image to improve. Sixty percent of parents report at the end of training a noticeable increase in their child’s self-image and attitude. Additionally, the average improvement (across the broad population of students using PACE) after 12 weeks of training is a +3.6 year improvement in processing skills.

Information is sourced from www.processingskills.com