Students with Attention-Related Learning Challenges Significantly Increase Academic Performance using Digital Learning Tool in Atentiv School-Based Study

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. and WALTHAM, Mass., Feb. 14, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Children with attention-related learning challenges can improve their academic performance and ability to complete school work at home and in school with the help of a new personalized digital learning tool, it was announced today at the Learning & The Brain conference unfolding in San Francisco where more than 1,000 educators, psychologists and neuroscientists are gathered.  The study data were presented by Dr. Ned Hallowell, a child psychiatrist and author of numerous books on attention disorders, including "Driven to Distraction."

The study conducted at the Churchill School and Center in New York City and Carroll School in Lincoln, Massachusetts evaluated the effectiveness of Atentiv's proprietary and personalized digital learning tool to improve academic achievement.  The study encompassed 24 children in Grades 2 through 7 with attention-related academic performance challenges and other learning disabilities. Study subjects trained with Atentiv's game-based digital learning tool for 24 sessions of 20 minutes each over an 8 week period. Study participants demonstrated improved scores on multiple objective measures of academic performance, including math fluency, reading fluency and ability to detect grammatical errors.  Additionally, trained students exhibited fewer problems planning and completing their homework and completing written work in class.  Study participants will be followed through the completion of the school year to evaluate the extent to which these benefits are sustained following completion of training.

In the study, performance on the Woodcock Johnson® III Math Fluency and Reading Fluency subtests improved by 0.7 and 0.5 grade level equivalents, respectively, and 8 and 7 months in age level equivalents, respectively.  The Woodcock Johnson® III Tests of Achievement are nationally normed, objective assessments of academic achievement.  Furthermore, trained students' performance on a skill-adjusted timed math test improved by 27%, increasing from 77 to 98 the number of math problems completed correctly in 10 minutes.  Similarly, the students detected 43% more grammatical errors in written passages with incorrect grammar.  Parents reported 35% fewer problems with homework planning and completion, and teachers reported a 23% reduction in challenges completing written work in class.

"Results such as these are unprecedented in my experience," noted Dr. Hallowell.  "Having worked with children with attention-related issues for decades, and reviewed all types of technologies, I am struck in particular by three aspects of these data.  First, the training with the Atentiv product appears to have reversed the fundamental issues of inattention and poor inhibition control that these kids routinely display, almost as if each child could feel a distraction coming and then correct for it.  Second, academic achievement improved substantially in core subjects such as math and reading fluency, which is remarkable for such a short training period, indicating that the skills the students learn from the tool transfer into the classroom.  And third, the consistency of results across multiple objective academic measures, as well as parent and teacher ratings of educational behaviors.  Overall, I believe these are dramatic and very encouraging results," Dr. Hallowell said.

Eric Gordon, founder and CEO of Atentiv stated: "Our firm has undertaken a series of studies in recent months to demonstrate the effectiveness of its first product, for use by 8 to 12 year olds.  All the studies to date – including the one presented today – have shown similar results among children with mild to moderate attention and impulsivity issues, with more than three-quarters of children trained with the Atentiv product experiencing improvement of these behaviors to normal or near-normal levels. We believe this is a remarkable achievement and are pleased that these improvements in attention control resulting from Atentiv's unique dynamic cognitive modeling technology have now been shown to translate to improved school-related behaviors and performance on objective measures of academic achievement. We look forward to playing an important part in closing the 'attention gap' that affects millions of youngsters in this country and around the world."

About the Atentiv Product

The Atentiv™ System is a new generation of personalized digital learning tools that uses an individual's unique 'cognitive signature' of brain wave activity to measure and manage cognitive function development to improve attention skills and reduce impulsivity.  Atentiv's digital learning tools are fun, personalized and interactive, using the player's mind to control the course of the game and skill development.

At the beginning of the Atentiv experience, the product measures the child's unique 'cognitive signature'. The child then plays an adaptive video game that, in real-time, personalizes a fantasy world in which the child advances through a number of increasingly difficult tasks using the child's actual attention levels, adapting to challenge them to develop attention and impulsivity control skills. The product then presents tasks that enable the child to transfer those newly learned skills into the real world.  Parents whose children have participated in recent studies describe that their children's ability to pay attention to tasks, function effectively in school, and interact in routine home situations has dramatically improved.

About Atentiv Inc.

Atentiv, headquartered in Massachusetts, was founded by the parent of a child severely affected by attention challenges. Based on a proprietary technology platform, Atentiv develops and markets a new generation of personalized digital learning tools that reduce inattention and impulsivity to significantly improve academic performance and home behavior in children.

For more information, please visit www.atentiv.com 
For Media inquiries, please contact:
Eric Gordon (508) 954-0494

SOURCE Atentiv Inc.