This Play Attention exercise increases the ability to focus on moving targets, which helps with anything from watching a teacher move about the classroom, to sports like baseball or football, or to activities like driving or riding a bike. Sustaining visual concentration in these types of endeavors increases the potential for learning and can positively affect safety.
Visual Tracking beginner, intermediate, and advanced end in 5, 6. & 7 minutes respectively.
In the Beginner skill option, the screen will shows 25 blocks arranged in a square five blocks tall by five blocks wide. Once the game begins, random blocks will light up and beep in quick succession. The student's objective is to click on these blocks as they light up and beep. The more successful the student is, the longer the sequences will get.
In this way, the student is visually tracking from point to point while increasing hand-eye coordination. In addition, focus is being monitored in real time, so the game only runs (i.e. flashes and beeps are only offered) if the student is in an attentive mental state. You can see focus displayed in the top, left hand corner of the screen as a red bar. When the bar is empty, the student is distracted or day dreaming. When the bar is full, the student is focused and the game begins.
As before, there are 25 blocks. This time, however, each sequence begins with a 'this only' block of a specific color, (green, red, or blue). This block appears at the center of the screen. In the ensuing sequences, the student is only to click on those blocks that are the same color as the 'this only' block. Blocks of any other color are ignored. In this way, the student not only trains their visual tracking ability, focus, and hand-eye coordination, but they also learn valuable discrimination skills. The latter skills help a person pay attention to only what they want to, while ignoring other things that might normally be distracting.
There are no visible blocks at the start of Visual Tracking Advanced -- it's just a blank screen. But once the student is focused, a 'this only' block appears in the center that displays a distinct pattern. As in Intermediate, the student is only to click on blocks of the same pattern, while ignoring blocks that are different from the 'this only' block. What makes the advanced skill option challenging is that all the blocks are invisible until they light up and beep. As such, a student has to stay extra attentive since there's really nothing on the screen to focus on until a sequence starts.
Once the sequence has completed you will be prompted to focus again and a new 'this only' block will be shown.