We are getting to the end of this Crew year and today
I am excited to tell you about a product that has literally changed our homeschooling for the better! Last year we were blessed to receive a
Forbrain from the Sound For Life LTD to use. We shared it between Mikayla (14 years-old), Montana (11 years-old), and McKenzie (8 years-old) and it got a workout between the three of them. This year, we were blessed to receive a second one so that the girls would not need to share and I have seen even greater improvement in focus, speech, and memorization in both girls!
God designed an awesome thing when he gave us our brain. Our approximately 3-pound organ is essentially the crown jewel of our body and does everything from initiating movement to controlling behavior and interpreting our senses. It is our powerhouse and over the course of this review period I have found that my daughters have improved their attention span and comprehension just by using the Forbrain from Sound for Life LTD for 15-20 minutes a day.
SOUND FOR LIFE Ltd, is the company that produces this FORBRAIN. Their mission is to enhance individual’s cognitive abilities, i.e. attention, speech, memory, reading, comprehension, and language with bone conduction through regular practice. The state of the art device they created with the help of Aftershokz LLC, is portable and easy to use.
Mikayla and McKenzie both struggle in their own ways with reading fluency and comprehension. This gem of a gadget not only helps them focus but it gives them confidence in their reading ability and that in and of itself is priceless! Just by using their voices they have been boosting their brain!
As I mentioned earlier, Forbrain is a bone conduction headset that works to stimulate your brain through the sound of your own voice. Have you heard your own voice lately? Like really heard how you sound. It is fascinating how this device transmits the vibrations from your voice to the bones just in front of your ears, resulting in bone conduction.
Wait, bone what?! Are you a bit confused because I was when we first learned about this process? Essentially, sound waves are transmitted through the bones in our heads. The bones vibrate and the sound travels along the cochlea vestibule nerve in the inner ear, eardrum and middle ear. This vibration causes nerve impulses and connects the sounds that we hear to our brains.
But you know what? Sometimes the natural process by which everyone hears sounds is interrupted causing problems with attention, concentration, working memory, and or short term memory. Using Forbrain for as little as 15-20 minutes a day for reading, speaking, or just general everyday talking you can stimulate your auditory reception and processing.
The Forbrain product is made up of a microphone, two bone conduction transduces, the parts that fit just in front of your ears, and the rectangular dynamic filter on the right-hand side which controls the power and volume. When my girls were sharing one, it was always a battle of who would use it first and when. The device is powered by a charge from a USB cord that is included. It all comes packaged in a neat little black case with extra mouth piece covers for the microphone, the user manual, and quick start guide.
Using the Forbrain is as simple as placing the headphones around the back part of your head with the ear pieces sitting on the two bones in front of your outer ears. The device comes adjusted to the right volume out of the box. Just adjust the volume to your liking and position the microphone to a comfortable place near your mouth and you will begin to hear your voice. But first you need to let it charge up for a full 3 hours before the first use. Charging was simple. Just plug it into one of your computers USB ports. The light on the dynamic filter is red while it charges. Once the charging cycle is complete, the red light will turn off. A brilliant blue light will shine when the headset is on. I also went over instructions for its usage, because I must tell you this product is not cheap! It retails for $299 USD but if you have a child struggling, it is worth its weight in gold! It really is sort of magical to actually hear your voice!
The Forbrain is recommended for children aged 4 and up for daily use over a course of six to ten weeks. It’s not just for children either, the elderly can use it too. Children aged 4-5 years old should use the product for roughly 10 minutes a day, while older children aged 6 through 15 are recommend to use the device for 15 minutes. Older teens, adults, and elderly should use the Forbrain daily for 10-30 minutes. The device should be used for a period of 10 weeks, then take a break and start the cycle again. We are currently on schedule to take a two week break from using the Forbrain over the Christmas holiday, but I know my girls will be eager to start back up in January.
I used this product exclusively with my two youngest daughters who are 14 & 8. They each used their own bone conduction headset for the allotted time for their ages. I labeled each of the cases with a color-coded sticker so they would know which one was theirs. I also keep them stored up on top of the lockers out of the reach of my three-year-old. Mikayla is able to reach hers when needed and I or someone else tall enough gets McKenzie’s down when it is time for her daily usage. Both girls have a specific area I was trying to help them with from reading comprehension, memory, and attention span. Mikayla has shown tremendous improvement in her reading comprehension and reading rhythm. Her memory is improving so much along with her confidence!
She used to read so fast without any pause and in such a monotone voice. Now that she has the headset on she can actually hear how she sounds and has made great strides in slowing down and reading. Her comprehension has skyrocketed too. She no longer reads a passage and cannot narrate back to me something she has read. I notice a remarkable difference in when she reads now with the Forbrain than when she reads without it! For this reason alone, I tend to not send schoolwork that she needs to read with her on her double training days at the gymnastics gym. For one, I don’t want it getting lost or broken, even though it comes in a handy sturdy carrying case, but she doesn’t like to draw attention to herself from her peers. Plus, if she doesn’t use the Forbrain we then have to reread the assignment when she returns home. So, we stick to reading aloud in the van as we travel to and from the gym or just save the reading for when training is over.
It was no easy task getting her to this point though. It has taken many well needed hours because I want her to be successful in reading and life itself, especially since she will be transitioning to University in four short years.
And YES, she will be taking her Forbrain with her if she still needs it! Anyways, to get her to where she is currently reading and comprehending well, I used the Echo and Accompanying technique, in which I overlaid my voice with hers. I would begin reading the passage and she would pick up {+/-} one second lag. It was hard tedious work, because she is a teenager and thinks she knows everything, but once she started seeing little results each day she was more eager to try and didn’t fuss too much.
For McKenzie I am just wanting her to read aloud with the device on so she can hear her voice and gain fluency. Every day she reads aloud to me with the Forbrain on. Yes, this child lives in a leotard...it's the life of a gymnast. I have just recently started trying the Echo and Accompanying technique with her, but it throws her off so she are just going to focus on reading fluently and rhythm for right now. McKenzie has struggled with reading from the beginning, but since using the Forbrain she is making huge strides. She is my special little miracle baby who had so many things stacked against her when she came into this world at 33 weeks. Her hearing and eyesight have always been issues. Now that she can see and more importantly hear the sounds the letters make to form words she has been soaring. McKenzie is a petite girl (about the size of an average 4 year old for reference), and the headset does not always fit right on her head perfectly. To remedy this, I tell her that if she stopped hearing herself to tell me so that I could adjust the headset. This is less of an issue than before because she has grown a tiny bit.
Bottom line is that
we love this product! It has changed the way my children are learning and for that I am especially grateful for the opportunity to use it and tell you about it. If your child struggles with speech or attention problems, seriously consider looking into the Forbrain. This is an amazing product and we using it daily in our homeschool. The improvement I have seen in my girl’s makes me a lifetime fan. I can wait until my son is just a bit older to use it with him for vocabulary development to give him a head start. Right now he is just a little too hands on and rough and I would hate for our bone conduction headset to get broken.
Forty-four of my CrewMates were also able to test out the Forbrain and write down their thoughts about it. Be sure to click the banner below to read their thoughts.
Company ~ Sound for Life LTD
Price ~ $299.00
Ages ~ 4 through elderly
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Happy Tuesday friends! Today I am excited to tell you about a memorization tool we have been using in our homeschool to help us remember our weekly Bible verses. Memorization is such an important skill for life, but especially so to be able to recall a scripture when you need it. Over the past several weeks we have been using The Bible Memory App - Bible Memory PRO from BibleMemory.com to help my three youngest and myself memorize our weekly Bible verses. 
The Bible Memory App is great for all types of learners! Visual learners are able to watch animated words or use flashcards to help with memorization. They also can draw pictures within the app. Auditory learners can listen to the verse and play it back as many times as necessary. The Type it- Memorize it- Master it format is perfect for your kinesthetic learners.
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