A warning blow to companies making unsubstantiated claims for brain-training programs

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Debbie_Hepplewhite
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A warning blow to companies making unsubstantiated claims for brain-training programs

Post by Debbie_Hepplewhite »

This is interesting and very important - a report via the Federal Trade Commission:
Marketers of One-on-One ‘Brain Training’ Programs Settle FTC Charges That Claims about Ability to Treat Severe Cognitive Impairments Are Unsupported
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-r ... tc-charges
The developers and marketers of the LearningRx “brain training” programs have agreed to stop making a range of false and unsubstantiated claims and pay $200,000 under a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission.

According to the FTC’s complaint, LearningRx Franchise Corp. and its CEO, Dr. Ken Gibson, deceptively claimed that their programs were clinically proven to permanently improve serious health conditions like ADHD, autism, dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, strokes, and concussions and that the training substantially improved school grades and college admission test scores, career earnings, and job and athletic performance. They also allegedly claimed that LearningRx brain training is 10 times more cost-effective than tutoring.

“Companies that say they can significantly improve serious health conditions or how your brain functions in everyday situations need to back up those claims with sound science,” said Jessica Rich, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “In this case, the defendants couldn’t show their training provides the health or other real-world benefits they claimed.”
We have various examples of companies making dubious claims about their brain-training programs causing considerable financial pain and angst in the field of reading development:
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Debbie_Hepplewhite
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Re: A warning blow to companies making unsubstantiated claims for brain-training programs

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http://www.jr-press.co.uk/making-sense- ... rders.html
Making Sense of
Interventions for
Children with
Developmental Disorders


A GUIDE FOR PARENTS AND PROFESSIONALS

CAROLINE BOWEN AND PAMELA SNOW

In this book, aimed at both parents and professionals, the authors discuss the non-evidence-based interventions that proliferate in the fields of children's speech, language, literacy, fluency, voice, communication, attention, cognition, working memory, behaviour and social connectedness. They explore the science - or lack thereof - behind the interventions and suggest evidence-based alternatives that enjoy stronger scientific support.

The authors approach their topic with a deep understanding of, and empathy for, the parents and professionals who are doubtful about conventional treatments, disappointed with the practitioners associated with them, and attracted to controversial interventions.

Written in lively, readable, plain English, Making Sense of Interventions for Children with Developmental Disorders - A Guide for Parents and Professionals provides:

Clear descriptions of each intervention and the populations to whom they are marketed;
Reasoned explanations of why the intervention should be approached with caution or rejected outright; and
Suggestions for interventions with proper scientific support, suitable for the children in question.
PUBLISHED SPRING 2017
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Debbie_Hepplewhite
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Re: A warning blow to companies making unsubstantiated claims for brain-training programs

Post by Debbie_Hepplewhite »

Dorothy Bishop also works hard to urge transparency in the claims made by those selling published programs - this is a very important blog post (including the post-script) for educators and parents to read:
July 2017

The STEP Physical Literacy programme: have we been here before?
One day in 2003, I turned on BBC Radio 4 and found myself listening to an interview on the Today Programme with Wynford Dore, the founder of an educational programme that claimed to produce dramatic improvements in children's reading and attentional skills. The impetus for the programme was a press release of a study published in the journal Dyslexia, reporting results from a trial of the programme with primary school-children. The interview seemed more like an advertisement than a serious analysis, but the consequent publicity led many parents to sign up for the programme, both in the UK and in other countries, notably Australia.
http://deevybee.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/ ... ramme.html

Dorothy comments:
I'm well aware of dodginess in alternative medicine and have blogged about it. My concern is about the contrast between publicly funded medical vs educational systems. In the UK we still have an NHS, and there is scrutiny of treatments in terms of cost-benefit, which means looking at scientific evidence. In addition, purveyors of alternative medicine are limited in terms of what they can say about their products: again, there has to be robust scientific evidence. In our publicly-funded education system, however, it seems that anything goes. A head teacher can decide to spend school funds on pretty much anything, creating quite a market in educational interventions.
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