How do you support students with learning differences in the classroom?

Mastermind Cognitive Training reads each student’s cognitive profile: attention, working memory, processing speed, and impulse control. It then strengthens those skills through short, game-based sessions that auto-level to where each student is. It works across the full range of profiles, starting from what a student brings rather than from a diagnosis, so a team supports the skills beneath the learning, the same skills behind most IEP goals and 504 supports, alongside the instruction already in place.

What are evidence-based practices for students with learning differences?

Effective support tends to share three moves: identify the specific skills involved, strengthen them with targeted and consistent practice, and measure whether they change. Mastermind is built on that loop, with an objective baseline assessment, adaptive training in the skills each student’s profile identifies, and reassessment on the same scale. Its approach is backed by a registered clinical trial; see the trial’s findings below.

Does Mastermind support students with ADHD?

Yes. ADHD is one of the profiles Mastermind supports. It strengthens attention, impulse control, and working memory, the cognitive skills most bound up with how ADHD shows up in a classroom, at a level that adjusts to each student. Mastermind does not diagnose or treat ADHD; it builds the underlying skills, alongside the accommodations and support a student already receives.

What is the Mastermind Learning Readiness Profile, and how does it relate to formal evaluations?

The Mastermind Learning Readiness Profile is an objective read on a student’s cognitive skills, attention, working memory, processing speed, and impulse control, without diagnostic labels. It is designed to supplement the academic and diagnostic data a team already holds, not to replace a formal psychoeducational evaluation or the IEP process. It gives that work an objective baseline of the skills beneath classroom performance.

How does the Learning Readiness Profile support IEP and 504 planning?

The skills the Mastermind Learning Readiness Profile measures, attention, working memory, processing speed, and impulse control, are the same skills behind most IEP goals and 504 supports. For a team it works like a practical, plan-ready summary: where a student is strong, which skills to build, and clear signals of progress to track over time. It supports the planning a team already does; it does not replace the formal IEP or 504 process.

Does Mastermind work alongside existing accommodations and supports?

Yes. Mastermind strengthens the cognitive skills that accommodations, instruction, and specialist support all draw on. It supplements what a team already provides rather than replacing any of it, and the training runs in time a schedule already has.

Is there research behind Mastermind’s approach to supporting students with learning differences?

Yes. A registered, randomized controlled trial (ISRCTN75915439) of 168 students aged 8 to 10 found statistically significant improvement in teacher-reported attention (p=.017) and in eye-tracking measures of visual control (p=.001) for students who trained on Mastermind, compared with a control group. The trial ran across mainstream schools with a general student population, and the platform’s auto-leveling design means it adapts to each student’s profile whatever their neurological differences. See the trial’s findings for the figures, the institutions, and the preprint.

How much staff time does implementation require?

Minimal. The baseline assessment takes about 30 minutes. Training sessions are self-guided and auto-leveling, run 20 minutes three times a week, and need little to no ongoing staff facilitation. Mastermind is designed to extend staff capacity, not add to it.

Strengthen the Learning Skills Every Student Needs

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Mastermind Cognitive Training strengthens the cognitive skills behind learning for the full range of students a school serves: attention, working memory, processing speed, and impulse control. These are the same skills behind most IEP goals and 504 supports. It starts from what each student already brings, so support builds on strengths rather than beginning from a label.

A registered clinical trial at the University of Bedfordshire found significant improvement in student attention and eye movement control: the steadiness that lets a student track along a line of text and find the next one.

ISRCTN75915439 · N=168 · See the trial's findings

3×

Growth in focus and behavior

Staying on task through a lesson
3×

Growth in eye movement control

Holding a point and shifting to the next

Across Mastermind studies

The skills behind how every student learns

Every learner brings a unique combination of cognitive strengths to the learning process. Attention, working memory, processing speed, and self-control shape how any learner takes in a lesson. Each of the four is a strength in some students and still growing in others, and every one of them strengthens with use.

Settles on a lesson and holds while it runs

Attention looks different from one learner to the next, and for any of them it is the skill that keeps a lesson in view while it runs. When it settles, a lesson has somewhere to reach, and it steadies with practice in every learner rather than sitting at a fixed point.

Keeps hold of an instruction long enough to use it

Working memory carries what was just said into the work that follows. Some learners hold a longer instruction at once and others hold a step at a time, and either way it grows with use, so more of a lesson stays intact from the moment it is given to the moment it is used.

Takes in a lesson at the pace it is taught

Processing speed is how quickly a learner takes in what is in front of them. It runs at a different rate for every student, and as it strengthens, more of a lesson is understood as it is taught, so a learner meets the practice ready to do it.

Takes the beat before the first move

Impulse control is the beat between a task and the first move. For some learners that beat is already there and for others it is still forming, and it lengthens with practice, so a fresh problem gets a considered start and attention stays on the work rather than on a reset.

IEP, 504, and MTSS

Support for students who learn differently

IEP goals and 504 supports are built around cognitive skills, and MTSS teams plan from data on the same skills. Mastermind makes those skills visible, builds them, and shows growth over time, so a team works from a clear, current picture.

See the skills behind IEP goals and 504 supports.
Turn them into a plan: approaches, language, and signals.
Track growth over time, measured against the plan.

See a sample Learning Readiness Profile

A middle-school student sits at a classroom table holding a tablet, with an open notebook and supplies in front of them, while two teachers talk near a whiteboard in the background.

Built on strengths

The Learning Readiness Profile leads with what a student already does well, so a plan builds on real strengths.

How Mastermind assesses and builds skills across every profile

Assess

30 minutes

Standardized cognitive protocols and performance tasks produce a Mastermind Learning Readiness Profile.

Train

20-minute sessions

Training starts where each student is and adapts as they improve, so it fits every student.

Measure

Standardized and comparable

Growth shows up skill by skill, so each student's progress is easy to see.

Case study

Fusion Academy

With more than 80 campuses, Fusion Academy serves students with learning, social, or emotional differences. The school ran this study in partnership with Mastermind Cognitive Training.

Students using Mastermind responded about 10% faster, and more consistently, than their peers. Working memory and cognitive flexibility led that growth, the underlying skills every learner leans on.

38 trained · 27 control10–18 weeks7 locations~60 minutes per week

See the research

Mastermind students vs peers

Overall Cognitive Performance: 5.1×
Working Memory: 6.9×
Cognitive Flexibility*: 5.3×
Visual Attention & Tracking: 4.7×

Students not using Mastermind Students using Mastermind

*Cognitive flexibility is the ability to shift and adapt cognitive responses.

View all Fusion results

Mastermind students vs peers

Cognitive

6.9× Working Memory
5.3× Cognitive Flexibility
5.1× Overall Cognitive Performance
4.7× Visual Attention & Tracking

Reading

3.1× Reading Comprehension

Speed and efficiency

Reading

21% faster reading after training
35% reduction in reading response-time variability

Math

24% faster math processing, without losing accuracy
13% faster mathematical decision-making, without losing accuracy

Processing

10% faster processing and response speed vs peers (~18 ms)

Also observed

Improved performance on skills that support focus and attention
Improved oculomotor performance (saccades, pursuits, fixations)

Independently studied

Across 168 students in UK primary schools, Mastermind produced significant improvement in teacher-reported attention (p=.017) and in eye-tracking measures of visual control (p=.001), the foundation of fluent reading.

Led by Dr. Anastasia Giannakopoulou, lead researcher on the trial, with Dr. Joaquin Anguera, a UCSF cognitive neuroscientist and leading researcher in game-based cognitive training.

Read the Research

Preprint

Virtual Reality and Tablet Cognitive Training Improve Attention and Academic Skills Without Dose Effects

Giannakopoulou A, Gordon AM, Gallen CE, Seaman M, Fedele D, Anguera JA

doi: 10.1101/2025.09.16.676629 ISRCTN75915439 · N=168 · Ages 8–10 University of Bedfordshire · UCSF Neuroscape

Read a Learning Readiness Profile

A Learning Readiness Profile does more than measure. For each student it shows which skills are strong, which to build first, what helps in class, and what progress looks like, so a classroom teacher has somewhere to start. It starts from what each student already brings, not from a label, and points to the approaches and language most likely to land.

Mastermind Learning Readiness Profile

Learning is most accessible for this student when work has a clear first step and a quick reset when it feels hard, before frustration builds or attention drifts.

Maya R. · GR 4 · Baseline

Support first

Focus & AttentionStarts work and stays with it Emerging

PacingKeeps pace across multi-step work Developing

Response InhibitionPauses to check before answering Developing

Working MemoryHolds directions while working Developing

Build from

Processing SpeedTakes work in at a steady pace Age-typical

Object TrackingFollows information on the page Age-typical

Sample reportAn instructional tool, not a medical diagnosis.

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What it takes to run Mastermind in your school

A student works through a session on a tablet at a classroom desk while classmates work nearby.

An objective baseline for every profile

A team usually has scores and evaluations but no objective read on the cognitive skills beneath them. The Learning Readiness Profile measures those skills directly and points to the ones to build first, so a team acts on data rather than inference, alongside the instruction your team already provides.

Schedule a Demo

When it runs: Two twenty-minute sessions a week, built into an intervention block, rotation, or the start of a period. It fits into time your schedule already has.
How students begin: Sessions are self-guided, allowing students to start immediately without educator training or curriculum prep.
What it runs on: A tablet. Each session is individualized, so one device can serve multiple students across the week just as easily as an entire class.
How it is funded: Title IV-A (Student Support and Academic Enrichment) can support programs like this. Title I funds can also be used in schools that qualify.

We have never seen this many students improve a reading level or even a full grade level in one term as we have with the Mastermind program.

Ms. Dani Strickler Teacher · Icknield Lower School, Dunstable

Where support for learning differences fits

This page is for supporting the full range of learners a school serves, by strengthening the cognitive skills behind learning across every profile. When the concern is one framework or one skill in particular, these pages go deeper:

Frequently asked questions

The questions institutional buyers ask first. For pricing and rollout specifics, a member of our team can walk you through it.