Pre- Post Changes in Cognitive, Behavioural and Screen-Time Indicators among Children Participating in a Whole Brain Development Programme

Background: Children with developmental and learning support needs may benefit from individualized learning opportunities that address attention, memory, motor coordination, communication, participation and everyday independence. Evaluations of community-based programmes should distinguish measured outcomes from informal observations and caregiver perceptions. Objective: To examine pre-post differences in attention, working-memory, behaviour-rating and daily screen-time records among children who participated in the Whole Brain Development Programme, and to summarize trainer observations and parent-reported themes. Methods: A one-group pre-test-post-test evaluation was conducted using 40 coded participant records (22 boys and 18 girls; ages 4-12 years) with paired measurements. Participants were described by the programme centre as having mild-level developmental and/or learning-related support needs; individual diagnoses and severity classifications were not independently verified for this analysis. The programme was delivered in weekend sessions of approximately three hours. AAS, WMS and BRS were researcher-developed, expert-reviewed 10-item formats scored 0-5 per item (total 0-50); screen time was recorded in hours per day. Results: Mean attention scores increased from 31.90 (SD=9.18) to 42.93 (SD=6.36), and working-memory scores increased from 29.98 (SD=8.66) to 42.95 (SD=5.72). Behaviour-rating scores, for which higher scores indicate better behaviour according to the researcher, increased from 28.08 (SD=8.13) to 44.18 (SD=4.48). Recorded daily screen-time estimates decreased from 2.40 (SD=1.79) to 0.71 (SD=0.67) hours. Conclusion: The records indicate encouraging pre-post differences during programme participation. Because the study had no control group and the AAS, WMS and BRS have not undergone documented formal psychometric validation, the findings are preliminary and do not establish causation or guaranteed effectiveness. Further controlled research using validated measures is required.