Learning Problems?
No longer for life.

We don't focus on the symptoms.  We take a deeper look at what is causing the symptoms.

We know that learning in all parts of the curriculum is a complex task that requires several areas of the brain to be functioning strongly. Each area is measured for its strength during the assessment so when the person begins their program we know if they are struggling with learning because of difficulties with:

• remembering what a letter or word looks like 
• remembering a series of words they have heard
• controlling eye movements that makes the letters on the page appear to swim
• discriminating between the sounds of similar words
• blending sounds together
• understanding the relationship between ideas or concepts
• unable to hold numbers in their mind
• unable to understand non verbal cues

Each of these characteristics of 'dyslexia' is an indication that there is an underlying cognitive area which is not performing strongly enough to support efficient reading.  Each of these areas can be identified, exercised and strengthened.  The result is the person becomes able to learn and function in the community without compensations.  Here is a questionnaire to help you work out which areas of your brain might need some exercise.

Watch Barbara Arrowsmith, the founder of this program's  TedEx talk

This is a great visual to help understand these concepts as they relate to dyslexia:

https://arrowsmithschool.org/dyslexia-arrowsmith-1

Similar groupings of cognitive functions could be developed for other learning problems.

It's more than just opportunity and well designed learning experiences.

Each part of our brain has a very specific function. For a person to be able to read, for example, the areas of the brain that identify and remember what a letter and whole word look like (visual memory), have the ability to hear and blend sounds into words ( c + a + t = cat) (phonological awareness), have a lexical memory (vocabulary) that is able to remember each word, have the ability to control the movement of the eyes so they move across the page smoothly (fine muscle control), feeding the view of the letters and or words into the brain in the correct order, the ability to understand what it is the words mean (comprehension), and the ability to put concepts together to make meaning. If just one of these areas is not working so well then reading becomes very difficult or next to impossible.


5 -15% of the population, have this problem - that's 2 - 3 children in every class of 20. This could mean that they are unable to remember instructions, understand words that are used, control their pencil when writing or recognise the symbols or words that they knew yesterday. At school, children are confused and unhappy because they try but cannot succeed or understand what the teacher wants them to do. Unfortunately they can get labelled as being lazy, not trying, or inattentive.

This may result in the diagnosis of a learning or attentional disorder such as dyslexia, ADD, dysgraphia, poor executive functioning, poor memory, acalculia or auditory processing disorder.

If they are labelled as having a learning problem the usual interventions only teach the child how to manage or compensate for their learning problem - they do not address the underlying cause of it.

Adolescence is a time when many students with learning disorders really suffer. They know they are not keeping up with their peers. Some cope emotionally with struggling at the bottom of the class, but many don't. They deserve to have the opportunity to reach their potential.

Adults might be smart but feel they have never done as well as they should have. They might be stuck in a meaningless job, or running their own business but struggling with the paperwork. They might be exhausted every night after their efforts to do what should be easy.

Research shows that there is a much higher rate of anxiety in people with learning disorders than in the general population. They tend to have less stable incomes and less fulfilling personal relationships. These are all reasons to consider the Arrowsmith Program for learning problems as soon as possible.

Each person's learning profile is unique and the Arrowsmith Program is also unique in that it assesses the strength of each cognitive area known to contribute to learning. An individualised, structured program that aims to strengthen the identified weaker cognitive processes is then created. Once these cognitive areas are exercised and strengthened the area can function as it is supposed to and the person can manage without the need for any compensations. The learning problem is resolved.

They can begin to dream realistically about what they want to achieve in their life. Isn't that what we all want for our loved ones?

If learning is a problem for you or someone you know:

• Call Joanne on 04 100 451 34
• Contact us
• or connect on Facebook 

for a no obligation chat about how the Arrowsmith Program can help.

Do you want to be the best you can be?

The Symbol Relations area of our brain is the area that simultaneously processes multiple pieces of information. When it is working well it allows us to:

• process concepts across all academic areas,  
• understand and grasp what we read and hear, 
• gain insight, 
• reason logically, 
• see connections between ideas, 
• understand cause and effect,
• be flexible in our thinking and problem solving,
• make rational and considered decisions,
• grasp the meaning of language deeply and 
• reason mathematically.

Given the unique role of this area stimulation to, and enhancement of, this function has broad overarching impacts on cognition/thinking.
The gains from strengthening this function are lifelong and generalizable to all aspects of learning that require comprehension and conceptual understanding or reasoning.
In particular, once this area is strengthened to a superior level of functioning students will be able to understand and analyze complex abstract relationships, think critically, and comprehend at a conceptual level. These are critical abilities for living in a rapidly changing and increasingly complex world.
Cognitive enhancement also has a direct positive impact on the success rates of graduates in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields of study. STEM skills are becoming more important as the use of technology increases. Having a strength in this cognitive function will enable students to perform consistently at a high level when reasoning mathematically, thinking critically and connecting complex ideas. They will be able to synthesize multiple pieces of information so they understand what it means as a whole as well as why it has this meaning.
There are no assessments for this area - instead we have a highly structured process for you to work through. This is the unit that will benefit everyone.

I started professional life as a Psychologist working with children and families in Burnie on the North-West coast of Tasmania.  There seemed to be an endless stream of children, mainly ten year old boys, marching through my clinic who were having trouble with learning.  My job was to discount intellectual disability as the cause of their struggles, and diagnose them with learning disability.  At the time we didn’t know what else to do except recommend a very structured learning program and lots of moral support as the child progressed through the education system.  What puzzled me, however, was that when I looked at the child’s historical school reports there were comments that indicated learning problems were evident right back to kindergarten.  Regardless of this, early intervention had not been organised for the children.

Roll on a few years and my children were old enough for me to return to the workforce and I decided to become an early years teacher so I could identify and provide early intervention for those children who were showing the early signs of learning difficulties. The aim was to refer them for speech pathology and occupational therapy. I was a bit shocked when I discovered the very low level of understanding of learning and learning problems amongst teachers. Parents were being told ‘he’s a boy’, ‘he’ll grow out of it’, ‘he’s a second child’, ‘girls always struggle with maths when these things are very untrue. Thinking it was my own lack of experience in the field, that there was something I didn’t understand, I enrolled in a Master’s degree to find out some more, and found that even at that level of study there was very little teaching about or understanding of the sorts of developmental issues that indicated a learning problem was imminent for the child. It seemed that the education system is only set up for those people who don’t have a problem with learning. Yet there are credible estimates that 15% of the population do have such a problem.

Then I saw an advertisement for a position as an Arrowsmith Teacher. I hadn’t heard of the Arrowsmith program before and was more than a little sceptical about it. It seemed to promise that learning disorders could be overcome! Parents have been promised this before only to find little or no change in their child’s learning and I didn’t want to be part of an organisation that promised but did not deliver. In addition, the claims of fundamental change being made to the person’s learning capacity were entirely against everything I had ever learned. I was, however, intrigued and investigated further. The research that had been done was really compelling and I was amazed by the seemingly miraculous changes in people’s lives that had occurred. This was something I wanted to know more about!

I applied for the position, was selected and trained as an Arrowsmith Teacher. Finally, I had found something I could dedicate myself to. Initially it was the social justice aspect of the program that appealed to me. I believe that all students have a right to receive the education they need to become independent in our literate and numerate society and this program maximises the chances of doing that for people with learning disorders.

As I’ve continued, however, I have become very aware of the pain that learning disorders cause. Children think they are ‘dumb’ because they can’t learn and might withdraw or become ‘behaviourally challenged’. Adolescents develop mental health issues because they struggle so much at school and are told – ‘just concentrate a bit more/ try harder’ as though it is their fault that they cannot learn, not the fault of the teacher who cannot teach them. Adults have missed out on reaching their potential because they are either not as literate and numerate as they need to be, or their executive functioning is not well enough developed for them to plan, manage themselves and understand the workplace.

All of these things are now unnecessary, because now we know what to do to help people with these problems.

The Arrowsmith Program helps people strengthen their cognitive skills and overcome their learning disorders so they can start to participate fully in our literate and numerate society. It is a privilege to facilitate it for people and a delight to watch them progress as their brain changes to make them more capable, stronger learners. It is incredible to me to walk beside someone and watch as they develop their underlying cognitive skills and become more aware of the world, gain independence and enable their potential.

I invite you to contact me to talk about whether this program is suitable for you or someone you love.

For more information or a no obligation chat:

• Call Joanne on 04 100 451 34
• Contact us
• Connect on facebook

Alternatively, you could do our questionnaire to see if the Arrowsmith Program could be suitable for you.

The Cognitive Strengthening Centre acknowledges the First Nations people of this land and pays our respects to their culture, people and Elders past, present and future.