What are opinions on brainetics?

Answer 1

No, not quite. But it is not as it claims, either.

It purports to make your child exceptional in math and spelling. And charges $149.99 to do so.

What you get are DVDs and booklets which contain a large amount of "tricks". These are tricks for manipulating large numbers or alphabetizing the letters in a large word, or knowing what day of the week a given calendar date is.

These may well be cool, but they are not actually making your child a genius, or even above average, or even any better in school.

You see, first, not all kids will be able to memorize those tricks. Oh, I'd say that any kid could memorize one or two of them, but if your kid is not smart, he's not smart, and this program won't change that.

Two, if your kid memorizes them all, then congratulations - you've a mini-Rainman on your hands who can tell you what 45 squared is, but has no clue as to why squaring is important, or what the real steps are, or anything relevent to be applied to larger problems.

The program is for letting someone learn parlor games, and to be what is sometimes called a "mathmagician". It will not assist your child in going on to algebra or geometry, let alone the higher maths. (Similarly, it will let your child learn how to wow people with alphabatizing a word, but will not teach him etymologies or a love of literature.)

In fairness, there is one way in which it might help your child - it might (no guarantees) give your child enough of an interest in math or spelling as to let the child then want to learn more conventionally. In that sense, it could be positive.

However, for far less that $149.99, you can get your child books on all those tricks. Check your local library. Or order "Math Magic" through Amazon, it's about ten bucks.