Mindpal helps kids practice and improve the following skills:

Focus: Ignoring distractions. 

Many of the games in Mindpal are designed to help you build up your focusing skills in the midst of various distractions. For users who struggle with focusing, selecting this skill as an area of improvement will help the app choose these types of games for you to practice with daily. For example, the game Match Pairs presents a grid of letters and numbers where the user is trying to find matching pairs among them. As the user progresses, the grid gets bigger and the number of matches increases, leading to more distractions that need to be blocked out. The game builds in intensity, meaning that if the user is really struggling with focus, they get to start out with a smaller task and build up to more complicated focusing demands. 

Working Memory: Recalling and retaining information in our minds while working.

Several games within the Mindpal app are specifically designed to assist with building Working Memory. One example is the game Sky Stars, where the player looks at a list of stars and then performs several unrelated actions before being asked to recall what stars were listed earlier. Games like this can help people who struggle with working memory because it allows them to practice for a short amount of time each day, building up their confidence and capacity for this skill.