Stronger Effort Needed To Prevent Mental, Emotional, And Behavioral Disorders in Young people, Experts Urge (Science Daily)

- “The federal government should make preventing mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders and promoting mental health in young people a national priority, says a new report from the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine.”

- “Research has shown that a number of programs are effective at preventing these problems and promoting mental health, the report says.  Such programs could be implemented more broadly, but currently there is no clear federal presence to lead these efforts.  The White House should create an entity that can coordinate agency initiatives in this area, set public goals for prevention, and provide needed research and funding to achieve them, said the committee that wrote the report.”

- “There is a substantial gap between what is known about preventing mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders and what is actually being done,” said Kenneth E. Warner, committee chair and dean of the University of Michigan School of Public Health.”

In the post Top 10 Brain Training Future Trends I asked for suggestions to refine our predictions for the 2007-2015 period. A good number of people contributed, and the winner is…

Scott Spears, retired public schools superintendent.

His prediction: 

“Prediction 11: The notion of schooling will be structurally dramatically altered through the use of diagnostics related to the acquisition and improvement of basic cognitive skills (such as brain processing speed, attention, memory, and sequencing), along with prescriptions employing emerging brain fitness software exercises, beginning in the earliest grades and progressing through high school.

Schools will be structured around the acquisition of foundational cognitive skills, Read the rest of this entry »