Even if it does not detract from their ability to learn the way Barbara’s did, it has the potential to impact on their professional success in later life because most careers require the use of multiple brain functions.
What is the significance of this? My children don’t have learning disabilities.Įveryone has some weak brain functions. She did so by practicing with exercises she designed herself until she “normalised” her deficiencies.Īfter her breakthrough, she founded the Arrowsmith school to help others like herself who had learning disabilities to overcome them with brain exercises that she developed. It wasn’t until she was 28 years old when she discovered that the key to treating her learning deficits was not to compensate for them (which she had been doing her entire life) but to exercise her weakest areas. Because of this, she was able to use her the power of her memory to cover her deficits and get through “normal” school, albeit she managed this with great difficulty and was under tremendous pressure. For instance, her auditory and visual memory tested in the 99th percentile. The interesting thing about Barbara was that although she had some severe learning disabilities, she was also brilliant in other ways. In chapter 2 of “The Brain That Changes Itself”, Norman Doidge writes about Barbara Arrowsmith Young who was labelled retarded but she managed to “heal” her brain dysfunctions through brain exercises that she developed.
Well, it goes a little further than that. It is said that the brain is like a muscle that needs to be exercised to get stronger.
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