Barbara Arrowsmith-Young’s Followers (14)

Barbara Arrowsmith-Young

Website

http://www.barbaraarrowsmithyoung.com/

Twitter

ArrowsmithWeb

Genre

Science, Psychology

edit data

Diagnosed in grade one as having a "mental block", which today would have been identified as multiple learning disabilities, Barbara Arrowsmith-Young read and wrote everything backwards, had trouble processing concepts in language, continuously got lost and was physically uncoordinated.

Barbara eventually learnt to read and write from left to right and mask a number of the symptoms of her learning disabilities through heroic effort, however she continued throughout her educational career to have difficulty with specific aspects of learning.

Barbara Arrowsmith Young holds both a B.A.Sc. in Child Studies from the University of Guelph, and a Master’s degree in School Psychology from the University of Toronto (Ontario Institute for Studies in Ed Diagnosed in grade one as having a "mental block", which today would have been identified as multiple learning disabilities, Barbara Arrowsmith-Young read and wrote everything backwards, had trouble processing concepts in language, continuously got lost and was physically uncoordinated.

Barbara eventually learnt to read and write from left to right and mask a number of the symptoms of her learning disabilities through heroic effort, however she continued throughout her educational career to have difficulty with specific aspects of learning.

Barbara Arrowsmith Young holds both a B.A.Sc. in Child Studies from the University of Guelph, and a Master’s degree in School Psychology from the University of Toronto (Ontario Institute for Studies in Education). After her undergraduate studies were completed Barbara worked as the Head Teacher in the lab preschool at the University of Guelph for two years where she began to observe learning differences in preschool children.

Her Master’s thesis, entitled, A Follow Up Study of a Clinic Sample (1982), followed 62 students who had been assessed at the O.I.S.E. psycho-educational clinic nine months to five years prior to the start of the study.

Children who were achieving below their age expected grade level on academic tests administered during their initial assessment continued to perform poorly in the same subject areas. Further it was found that the amount of intervening educational remedial intervention was not related to change in the children’s academic problems or performance. Interestingly, it was found that students who received more than the median intensity of intervention were achieving even more poorly at follow up than those receiving less intervention.

These results confirmed Barbara Arrowsmith Young’s own experience with the limitations of academic remedial work in addressing a range of specific learning disabilities.

In graduate school she came across two lines of research that intrigued her. Luria’s description of specific brain function lead her to a clearer understanding of her own learning problem and the work of Rosenzweig suggested the possibility of improving brain function through specific stimulation, at least in animals. This lead to the creation of the first brain exercise designed to improve the learning capacity involved in logical reasoning.

The results were positive with gains in verbal reasoning, mathematical reasoning and conceptual understanding. This lead to a further exploration of the nature of specific learning capacities and to creating exercises to strengthen them. This is the ongoing work of Arrowsmith School. The program originated in Toronto in 1978 and today is implemented in 38 schools in Canada, the U.S. and Australia.

The genesis of the Arrowsmith Program of cognitive exercises lies in Barbara Arrowsmith Young’s own journey of discovery and innovation to overcome her own severe learning disabilities, a description of which appears in Chapter 2 of the book, The Brain That Changes Itself by Dr. Norman Doidge.

As the Director of Arrowsmith School and Arrowsmith Program, she continues to develop programs for students with learning disabilities. It is her vision that this program be available to all students struggling with learning disabilities so they may know the ease and joy of learning and to realize their dreams.

- excerpted from her website ...more

Combine Editions
Barbara Arrowsmith-Young’s books

Average rating: 3.82 · 1,109 ratings · 179 reviews · 2 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Woman Who Changed Her Brain: And Other Inspiring Stories of Pioneering Brain Transformation by Barbara Arrowsmith-Young, Arrow (Foreword) 3.81 avg rating — 1,108 ratings — published 2012 — 17 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Woman who Changed Her Brain: Unlocking the Extraordinary Potential of the Human Mind by Arrowsmith-Young, Barbara (2012) Hardcover by Barbara Arrowsmith-Young, Unknown Author 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

* Note: these are all the books on Goodreads for this author. To add more, click here.

Quotes by Barbara Arrowsmith-Young (?)

“This concept is central to understanding what distinguishes the Arrowsmith approach: cognitive exercises do not teach content or skill in, say, mathematics; the aim is to forge new neural pathways in the brain so that later, when math is taught, number concepts actually make sense.”
― Barbara Arrowsmith-Young, The Woman Who Changed Her Brain: And Other Inspiring Stories of Pioneering Brain Transformation

0 likes

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
Aussie Readers: Winter Reading Challenge - 2012	469	303	Sep 20, 2012 05:40PM
Aussie Readers: Summer Reading Challenge - 1/12/12 - 28/2/13	645	375	Mar 10, 2013 11:42PM

Is this you? Let us know. If not, help out and invite Barbara to Goodreads.