Microfinance programs are recognized as a way of improving incomes and creating employment for large numbers of low-income families, but there are concerns that working conditions within these informal microenterprises are far from ideal. For example, when families receive loans to expand a microenterprise, children may make up the labor shortfall until the family can afford to hire adult worke...

Working memory plays a crucial role in supporting learning, with poor progress in reading and mathematics characterizing children with low memory skills. This study investigated whether these problems can be overcome by a training program designed to boost working memory. Children with low working memory skills were assessed on measures of working memory, IQ and academic attainment before and a...

This study examines the relationship between working memory and reading achievement in 57 Swedish primary-school children with special needs. First, it was examined whether children’s working memory could be enhanced by a cognitive training program, and how the training outcomes would relate to their reading development. Next, it was explored how differential aspects of working memory are relat...

IMPORTANCE Working memory training may help children with attention and learning difficulties, but robust evidence from population-level randomized controlled clinical trials is lacking. OBJECTIVE To test whether a computerized adaptive working memory intervention program improves long-term academic outcomes of children 6 to 7 years of age with low working memory compared with usual classroom...

The paper studies whether visuospatial working memory (VSWM) and, specifically, recall of sequential-spatial information, can be improved by metacognitive training. Twenty-two fourth-grade children were involved in seven sessions of sequential-spatial memory training, while twenty-four children attended lessons given by their teacher. The posttraining evaluation demonstrated a specific improvem...

The working memory skills of children with four categories of special educational needs (SEN) were investigated: general learning difficulties, language problems, literacy problems, and attentional and behavioural problems. Children with general learning difficulties performed poorly on measures of all three components of the working memory model: the phonological loop, central executive, and t...