There's an interesting study out on what fraction of teachers believe "neuromyths," defined as "misconceptions generated by a misunderstanding, a misreading, or a misquoting of facts scientifically established by brain research, to make a case for use of brain research in education and other contexts."  In addition to the study itself, there's useful discussion about what are the neuromyths, and what is their basis in fact vs. what is the misconception.

You can view the full article online here: http://www.frontiersin.org/Educational_Psychology/10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00429/full

"Should I spend $2000 on a program to help little Johnny's learning issues?"

When people find out that I'm in a cognitive science/neuroscience department, I often get questions like this:

Do you know anything about [some training program] for kids with [ADHD/dyslexia/other].  It's a little expensive but I am wondering if it would help little [Johnny/Madeline]. 

I probably haven't heard of the program you're asking me about, but here's my educated guess:

Does it cost a lot of money?  Does it invoke the word "neuroscience"?  Does it have a pretty picture of a brain with some regions colored a pretty color?  Then put down the brochure and walk away.

This may seem a bit of an extreme position to take about a hypothetical training program.  But even though I don't know about the particular program, I know that neuroscience is in its infancy.  Don't get me wrong, it's an exciting field to be in, with new discoveries all the time.  But to a first approximation we still basically have no idea what the heck is going on in the brain.  The effect of training programs on lasting changes in the brain? Forgetaboutit.  

Furthermore, here's a typical day of an occupational therapist: They spend the whole day helping individuals with difficulties. They see the same people over a long course of treatment.  They get a lot of feedback about what works and what doesn't, observing their patients doing real-world tasks.  They adapt their program to the individual.  Similarly for your child's teachers.  On the other hand, this, to a first approximation, is a typical day for a cognitive neuroscientist: They spend a few minutes to an hour running each subject through a controlled experiment.  In many cases they will never see the subject again; in some cases the subjects will come back a few times.  If an intervention doesn't help a particular subject, they don't typically try to adapt it to help that subject -- to do so would screw up their controlled experiment.  

This is not to slight cognitive neuroscience.  It aims to answer different questions than occupational therapists and educators.  But if I had to guess which field is likely to discover the utility of a training program first, I'd put my money on the OT's and teachers.

(Some reviews of iPhone games, from October, 2011. This is sort of my basic, "it's ok, you can let your kid play games on your iPhone" list.)

FUN, YET APPROVED FOR TIGER-MOM

• Cut the rope: intuitive physics, logic puzzles
• Mr. Giggle: logic puzzle, a bit like "bejeweled". As I was writing this, my girls were playing Mr. Giggle,and kept running up to tell me who was winning. (Update, August, 2012: This game still keeps the kids entertained, but I'm less convinced of its value to your brain. It seems the kids can do well at the game without actually thinking about it -- just swiping at the screen.)
• Rush hour (we have "free"): logic puzzle. The high levels are virtually impossible even for well-educated adults. The low levels are fun, our girls can do them.
• Cute math: Good for young kids. Depending upon your kid's math abilities, maybe around kindergarten.
• Pop math: Sort of like doing arithmetic math tables, but in a fun game. The girls like it.

APPROVED FOR TIGER-MOM-LITE (they use their brains, at least):

• Jirbo match: concentration game -- find the pairs
• Angry birds: mostly for fun, the girls love it, but also the physics are pretty good so they are probably learning something.
• Tiny wings: lovely design, some intuitive physics, my older daughter and I both love it. You tap the screen to make the bird fly over hills.
• Shape builder: simple jigsaw puzzles, guess what the picture is. For very young children, maybe pre-K. (Though my kids still find it fun even though it is way too easy for them.) You can get it in Spanish, and maybe learn some vocabulary.
• Hidden pix lite: Highlights magazine find the objects hidden in the pictures
• riddle race iSpy: iSpy game

CREATIVE/SOOTHING:

• Bloom: creativity. Make pretty pictures out of circles, and at the same time make music. Developed by Brian Eno.
• Koi Pond: Just peaceful and fun. Disturb the water, hear splashes, chase the fish around. Like a watery zen garden for your phone.
• Art of glow: peaceful, make pretty pictures out of glowy lights
• iDoodle2lite: simple drawing program (note: on the iPad there are way better drawing programs. There's sort of a limit to what you can do on the iPhone.)
• kidart: ditto
• Diego music: Would like more levels/variety, but decent story and a better music program than the above. (Again, note that the iPad has at least one keyboard app which is pretty cool.)

PURE FUN/OTHER:

• Dress up: pure fun, the girls are totally addicted. My husband admits it is more addictive than he expected. A bit "bratz" looking, but somehow it doesn't bug me in this case. Keeps the kids quiet in a restaurant.
• quiet game: My husband got this. It tries to trick the kids into being quiet by timing them and recording sound to see if they are actually being quiet. The kids find this surprisingly entertaining... maybe one time per night. But nonetheless, that few minutes of quiet can be a real blessing when the kids are going nuts in a restaurant or in the car.