You don’t have to be religious to believe in the transformations taking place at Gateway Christian Schools’ Bainbridge campus.
Cutting-edge science is at the core of a program that equips children and adults ages 6 to 82 to overcome their learning disabilities.
Barbara Arrowsmith Young was a 26-year-old graduate student at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education when she encountered the book that would change her life: Alexander Luria’s “The Man With a Shattered World.” Studying the traumatic brain injury of a soldier, the neuropsychologist found that complex mental activities — like reading and mathematical calculation — require specific areas of the brain to work together and that a weakness in one area can cripple the entire process.
Connecting Luria’s work with Mark Rosenzweig’s research on neuroplasticity, the ability of the brain to physically change in response to sustained stimulation, it occurred to Arrowsmith Young that she might be able to rewire her own brain to remove the myriad “mental blocks” — including dyslexia, dyscalculia, difficulty with spatial reasoning, logic, and kinesthetic perception — that she had been plagued by since childhood.
She started with analog clocks. Arrowsmith Young could not tell time, so she created hundreds of flash cards showing various clock faces and drilled herself for hours every day until she understood the relationship between the two hands. As she grasped the concept, she increased its complexity, eventually adding a third hand for seconds, and a fourth hand for a 60th of a second.
Remarkably, Arrowsmith Young discovered that her newfound ability affected other areas of comprehension. Suddenly, she could distinguish cause and effect, follow mathematical reasoning, and interpret abstract ideas. With Luria’s research as a guide, Arrowsmith Young began designing cognitive exercises to address other learning disorders.
Fast forward 37 years, and the Arrowsmith Program is offered in more than 65 schools across the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Malaysia.
Public schools are still slow adaptors, however.
“It’s a complete paradigm shift of how we teach,” Kathleen Mitchell, the multi-campus director for Gateway Christian’s Arrowsmith programs, explained. “It’s controversial because it’s not academic.”
Other programs are strategies-focused, concerned with how students can keep up with peers and compensate for disabilities. Arrowsmith, on the other hand, is corrective, concerned with fixing the cognitive deficits.
Plenty of work
It can be a laborious process. A new student must first undergo a four- to six-hour assessment that evaluates 13 areas of cognitive function. Next, a psychometrist at the Arrowsmith School in Toronto analyzes the results and creates a customized program based on the student’s strengths and weaknesses.
Then comes the repetition. Arrowsmith students complete the same four to six exercises Monday through Friday, spending 40 minutes on each, until it’s evident the exercise is no longer needed. Though many will see improvements after three months, most will need two to four years in the program before they’re ready to return to typical school and workplace settings.
But Mitchell will tell you the payoff is worth it.
“I have seen students with severe dyslexia, that have never read a book before, pick up a chapter book and enjoy reading it; students who begin reading billboards while their parents are driving; students who want to cook because they can read and understand proportions with a recipe,” she said.
“One parent had her son tested after six months and his reading ability increased from fourth grade to eighth grade. Another student grew in her ability from a second grade to a fifth grade [level] in the two years she was with us.”
Parents see difference
Mitchell’s not alone in her praise for the program. One Bainbridge parent shared that, besides making significant gains in reading and mastering mathematical principles, his son, who has participated in the program for two years, is happier and more confident. “He has the sense that he’s not as stigmatized,” he said. “He’s at an area where he has a comfort zone.”
While anecdotal evidence abounds, some Arrowsmith skeptics are concerned with the lack of independent research validating the program’s claims.
But hopefully that’s about to change. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, whose daughter attends the Eaton Arrowsmith Academy in Redmond, is partnering with researchers at the University of Washington and the University of British Columbia to test brain functioning in 20 Arrowsmith students three times during the upcoming school year.
Gateway Christian Schools facilitates Arrowsmith programs in Bremerton and Bainbridge Island. Both programs have limited availability for the 2015-2016 school year, which begins Sept. 1.
For more information, contact Kathleen Mitchell at 360-377-7700.
