Have you used BrainWare Safari?

[Leonor]

What age is your dc?

[emonline]

We tried this, but did not totally finish it. It seems like a very interesting program, and my daughter enjoyed it, but I can't say I saw any definitive results. The Homeschool Buyer's Coop has this listed as one of the products they have deals on -- I believe they are offering it now for $79. She was 8 when we did it.

[Dobela]

We did briefly as well. My son was 8 or 9. He liked some of the games,some he didn't understand why he was doing them and therefore didn't like them as much. We stopped becuase of a busy life, and because he started vision therapy and reading tutoring. Since those more specifically addressed his issues I wasn't as concerned about him finishing this program. He definately had to pay close attention and focus in on some of the activities. He also needed me to stay close by while he worked on it to make sure he didn't only play in one area or otherwise not follow directions. Directions were another issue as well. He wasn't reading yet when we bought the game and the program's feature that reads the directions was fast and didn't always make sense to my son. So I had to be available to read and explain the instructions.

 

Overall it wasn't bad. I may let him work with it more again later, I may not. It wasn't the miracle worker for my son that some people described it as being.

[Laurie4b]

My ds did it at about age 12 or 13. I saw clear results. One thing that is important to know is that this is like exercise or physical therapy for the brain. Just like you get results from exercising regularly for a certain amount of time (like 30 min per day 5 days per week) that you do not get if you exercise 30 minutes one day, 10 min four days later, and 15 minutes a week later, so you won't see results on Brainware Safari if you dip your toe in occasionally. My son did not like some of the games--they were hard and making his brain work. I ended up sitting with him during his time on the Brainware to encourage him to stick with it, and also at times resorted to bribing to get him to keep working toward the next level. I believe the Brainware Safari people recommend 20-30 min per day, 5 days per week. You are also supposed to work so that the levels stay pretty even--not get all the way to level 7 on one game while you're at level 2 on another. That's because the different activities support each other.

 

The improvements I saw were in working memory and visual processing skills. Though he was doing vision therapy at the same time, I saw a clear jump when he was doing Brainware Safari that had not occurred during vision therapy. I really think that it was the BS that made the difference, but I didn't want to drop the vision therapy "just in case."

[emonline]

I would agree with Laurie that memory and visual processing were strong focuses of this program. We did regularly for about 6 weeks.

[choirfarm]

This is one of the programs we had to use at home during the last 6 months of vision therapy. She was 7 and 8 when she used the program. She zoomed through parts of it, but the parts where you had to remember a pattern or number after a day... forget it! I think its great if you can get it for a reduced price. It was included in our therapy.

 

Christine

[Leonor]

Thank you for all your replies.

 

I was asking because the homeschool buyers co-op does have it for $79.

 

I've gone ahead and ordered.

[emonline]

We paid full price and I thought it was worthwhile (though I do wish I had waited for the discount).