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臨床腦智心培訓服務 Clinical Neuropsychology Service
What We Do
Training
Individual Training
Individualized Target-Oriented Intervention
An individualized target-oriented intervention is an integrative brain-based intervention that is tailor-made for the needs of the child based on the results of the comprehensive neuropsychological assessment. Given that children with SEN can manifest different aspects and severity level of cognitive deficits and behavioral repertoire, an effective intervention should be designed in accordance with the specific difficulties and baseline level of ability of the child. For children who are typically developed or gifted and would like to strive for peak performance, the individual intervention should also be developed based on the relative strengths and weaknesses in the cognitive and behavioral profiles of that child.
The individualized target-oriented intervention will be conducted on a one-to-one basis by a clinical psychologist or a psychological assistant under the supervision of Prof. Agnes Chan. Each intervention session lasts for 50 minutes.
Individualized Target-Oriented Intervention by Clinical Psychologist:
$1,800 per 50-minute session
$5,600 for 4 consecutive 50-minute sessions (Lump sum payment and non-refundable)
Individualized Target-Oriented Intervention by Psychological Assistant:
$800 per 50-minute session
$2,400 for 4 consecutive 50-minute sessions (Lump sum payment and non-refundable)
Individual Music Training
We offer individual music training to children and adolescents who show diverse abilities or have SEN. The purpose of training is to support them to reach the full potential of their musical talent. We can also appoint our music tutors to teach musical instruments at your school, please contact us directly for further information.
Classes available:
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Basic music appreciation and music theory
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Piano
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Flute
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Violin
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Folk Guitar
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Classical Guitar
Individual Music Training by Music Tutors:
$200 - $400 per 30-minute session
Group Training
Eye-Tracking Attention Training
Why Training Attention?
Attention is considered to be the building block or doorway to performing higher level cognitive functions. Individuals with difficulty in focusing their attention can impact their development of other cognitive abilities such as memory and learning, language, and social communication. Therefore, for children with developmental brain disorders (e.g., ASD, ADHD, dyslexia), timely and effective training on attention at earlier age is crucial in affecting the developmental process of attention as well as other cognitive functions.
Attention is a cognitive process of focusing on one or more external stimuli in the environment or focusing on one’s internal thoughts. Attention is not a unitary brain process but can be subdivided into specific attentional operations according to different models of attention. Major subdivisions include sustained attention (focusing attention for a prolonged period of time), selective attention (focusing on specific target but not distractors), alternating or shift attention (shifting attention from one target to another target), and divided attention (simultaneously focusing attention on two or more targets). Each operation can involve different modalities, i.e., visual versus auditory. The reason for subdividing the attention processes is that children with SEN may manifest deficiency in a specific attentional operation but intact functioning in other operations. Different attention process is controlled by different network of brain regions. For instance, research studies have found impaired sustained attention among child with ASD (Chien et al., 2015; Christakou et al., 2013; Murphy et al., 2014). Their poorer sustained attention is reported to be associated with dysregulated brain activation in their fronto-striator-cerebellar attention network (Murphy et al., 2014). Children with specific language impairment showed significantly poorer sustained auditory attention than children with ASD and typically developed children, whereas children with ASD demonstrated specific deficit in shift attention as compared to the other two groups of children (Noterdaeme et al., 2001). Therefore, training that is developed upon well-established brain-based models and scientific evidence is the key for its effectiveness and efficiency.
Why Using Eye-Tracking Technology?
Attention deficit in children with SEN can be traced back to the atypical eye gaze processing at early stage of development (Dawson et al., 1998; Mundy et al., 1986). Wass et al. (2015) compared infant with high and low familial risk of ASD at the age of 6-9 months, and they found shorter fixation duration of eye gaze among infants with higher risk of developing ASD. Furthermore, those infants who were diagnosed ASD at 36 months showed the shortest fixation duration compared to other infant groups (Wass et al., 2015). Such eye gaze processing impairment also affects joint attention, the shared attention between children and others (Tomasello & Farrar, 1986), of the ASD children (Pelphrey, Morris, & McCarthy, 2005). Impairment in joint attention is among the earliest signs of ASD and joint attention skills is highly related to outcome of ASD. There were rich studies reported joint attention impairments and its relation to social communication abilities among ASD children (Charman, Swettenham, Baron-Cohen, Cox, Baird, & Drew, 1997; Dawson et al., 2008; Mundy, Sigman, & Kasari, 1994). Apart from ASD, children with ADHD were also found to have shorter eye fixation duration than typically developed children and their fixation duration is negatively correlated with their ADHD symptom severity (Airdrie et al., 2018). Since attention is highly associated with our eye gaze patterns (Kuhn, Tatler, Findlay, & Cole, 2008), eye gaze training maybe one of the ways to enhance attention. Powell et al. (2016) has conducted a computerized attention training to a group of ASD children using an eye tracking system. Throughout the training, participants have to fix their eye gazes at the targets, but not the distractors. After a training of 120 mins within an average of 12 weeks, there was improvement in visual sustained attention, as well as a trend of improvement in disengaging visual attention.
Our Eye-Tracking Attention Training Program
Based on our brain science knowledge about attention, eye-tracking technology and SEN, our research team has developed an eye-tracking attention training program for children with attention problems.The training program consists of six attention training tasks, which is designed to train the visual selective and sustained attention, and impulse control of the children. In our clinical application, many children demonstrate encouraging positive treatment outcomes and they generally enjoy and are motivated to the training given its attractive and interesting design. It is also applicable to children who have limited language ability or under-developed or impaired fine motor skills.
The eye-tracking attention training can be incorporated as part of the training in the Individualized Target-Oriented Intervention program depending on the specific needs of the client. In addition to one-to-one training mode, our eye-tracking attention training can be administered on a group basis given its simple and automatic operation. The group-based training will be conducted by well-trained psychological assistants under the supervision of our clinical psychologist and Prof. Agnes Chan. Each group composes of about 6 children and is provided once per week.
Eye-Tracking Attention Training Group:
$800 for 4 consecutive 60-minute sessions (Lump sum payment and non-refundable)
$1,200 for 12 consecutive 60-minute sessions (Lump sum payment and non-refundable)
Frontal Lobe Function Training
To be announced
Music Neuropsychological Training
Music Neuropsychological Training is a program that integrates some evidence-based neuropsychological theories into music training. The goals of the training program are to improve the abilities of children with SEN in the areas of attention, emotion, socialization and self-control ability, as well as their basic knowledge in music.
The current education policy of Hong Kong is inclusive education. Mild or moderate conditions of SEN are enrolled in ordinary mainstream schools, instead of special education schools where more severe and/or children with multiple disabilities. Mainstream school teachers are more stressed out because they have to attend to both regular and SEN students' needs. Therefore, schools may apply for the Learning Support Grant from EDB to increase or improve educational resources for SEN students to study in mainstream schools. Choosing different training methods or resources is an important factor for providing good service to SEN students. Hence, Pro-Talent Association provides the following training to support SEN students' needs. The objective is to improve their cognitive function and learning ability, and hoping that they would live and grow happily.
Primary Goals of the Program
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To improve the following cognitive functions of children
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attention (being aware of surroundings)
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emotional processing (experiencing and expressing different feelings)
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social communication (interacting reciprocally with others)
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self-control (exercising discipline and patience)
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To let children experience different types of musical instruments (Percussion and Strings)
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To teach children basic music knowledge (including pitch/tonality, rhythm/tempo, articulation and dynamics) and provide them with opportunities to gain exposure to and appreciate music.
Format of Activities
Interactive musical activity: singing songs, playing the beat along to the music and emotional expression with music.
Passive music appreciation: Learn to be attentive and acquire basic music knowledge through quiet listening and appreciating music.
Our training period lasts for 3 months, each training period consists of 12 lessons. If you have any further inquiries about the details of the training, please feel free to contact us.
Chamber Orchestra
The Pro-Talent Chamber Orchestra is established in 2016. The Chamber Orchestra aims to provide an opportunity for adolescents and young adults, who are interested in music and have received musical instrument training, to play music together as a team. Through practicing as a team, their attention, social communication and self-control ability could be enhanced.
The Pro-Talent Chamber Orchestra is now open for enrolment and we would also like to connect with any interested schools or organizations to help us in making The Pro-Talent Chamber Orchestra a more exciting team. If you are interested, please do not hesitate and make contact with us!
