The Brain That Changes Itself

The boy's reading was very slow because he skipped words, lost his place, and
then lost his concentration. Reading was overwhelming and exhausting. On
exams he would often misread the question, and when he tried to proofread his
answers, he'd skip whole sections.
At the Arrowsmith School this boy's brain exercises involved tracing complex
lines to stimulate his neurons in the weakened pre-motor area. Barbara has
found that tracing exercises improve children in all three areas — speaking,
writing, and reading. By the time the boy graduated, he read above grade level
and could read for pleasure for the first time. He spoke more spontaneously in
longer, fuller sentences, and his writing improved.
At the school some students listen to CDs and memorize poems to improve their
weak auditory memories. Such children often forget instructions and are thought
to be irresponsible or lazy, when in fact they have a brain difficulty. Whereas the
average person can remember seven unrelated items (such as a seven-digit phone
number), these people can remember only two or three. Some take notes
compulsively, so they won t forget. In severe cases, they can't follow a song lyric
from beginning to end, and they get so overloaded they just tune out. Some have
difficulty remembering not only spoken language but even their own thoughts,
because thinking with language is slow. This deficit can be treated with exercises
in rote memorizing.
Barbara has also developed brain exercises for children who are socially clumsy
because they have a weakness in the brain function that would allow them to read
nonverbal cues. Other exercises are for those who have frontal lobe deficits and
who are impulsive or have problems planning, developing strategies, sorting out
what is relevant, forming goals, and sticking to them, They often appear
disorganized, flighty, and unable to learn from their mistakes. Barbara believes
that many people labeled "hysterical" or "antisocial" have weaknesses in this area.
The brain exercises are life-transforming. One American graduate told me that
when he came to the school at thirteen, his math and reading skills were still at a
third-grade level. He had been told after neuropsychological testing at Tufts
University that he would never improve. His mother had tried him in ten
different schools for students with learning disabilities, but none had helped.
After three years at Arrowsmith, he was reading and doing math at a tenth-grade
level. Now he has graduated from college and works in venture capital. Another
student came to Arrowsmith at sixteen reading at a first-grade level. His parents,
both teachers, had tried all the standard compensation techniques. After fourteen
months at Arrowsmith he is reading at a seventh-grade level.
We all have some weak brain functions, and such neuroplasticity-based
techniques have great potential to help almost everyone. Our weak spots can have
a profound effect on our professional success, since most careers require the use
of multiple brain functions. Barbara used brain exercises to rescue a talented
artist who had a first-rate drawing ability and sense of color but a weak ability to