Table Of ContentPraise for The Woman Who Changed Her Brain
“Arrowsmith-Young’s poignant and uplifting book about her transformation
from a child born with severe learning disabilities to a dynamic pioneer in
cognitive education offers hope to anyone who has ever struggled with a
learning disorder, brain trauma, ADD, or stroke. By her own fierce
determination and passionate desire to learn, this remarkable woman changed
her own brain and has since helped countless others to change theirs. This is an
important book.”
—Mira Bartók, New York Times bestselling author
of The Memory Palace
“This is a poignant book about two people who connected across continents and
generations—a Canadian woman with an unusual cognitive makeup and the
great Russian neuropsychologist Alexander Luria, whose writings gave Barbara
Arrowsmith the tools to change her own life and the lives of her many students.
Moving, insightful, and empowering!”
—Elkhonon Goldberg, Ph.D., author of
The Wisdom Paradox and The New Executive Brain
“If you have a son, a daughter, a parent, a spouse, or a brain, this is a must-read
book. It will open your mind to new possibilities on how to deal with ‘traffic
jams in the brain.’”
—Alvaro Fernandez, CEO and cofounder, SharpBrains.com
Barbara Arrowsmith-Young was born with severe learning disabilities that
caused teachers to label her slow, stubborn—or worse. As a child, she read and
wrote everything backward, struggled to process concepts in language,
continually got lost, and was physically uncoordinated. She could make no sense
of an analogue clock. But by relying on her formidable memory and iron will,
she made her way to graduate school, where she chanced upon research that
inspired her to invent cognitive exercises to “fix” her own brain. The Woman
Who Changed Her Brain interweaves her personal tale with riveting case
histories from her more than thirty years of working with both children and
adults.
Recent discoveries in neuroscience have conclusively demonstrated that, by
engaging in certain mental tasks or activities, we actually change the structure of
our brains—from the cells themselves to the connections between cells. The
capability of nerve cells to change is known as neuroplasticity, and Arrowsmith-
Young has been putting it into practice for decades. With great inventiveness,
after combining two lines of research, Barbara developed unusual cognitive
calisthenics that radically increased the functioning of her weakened brain areas
to normal and, in some areas, even above-normal levels. She drew on her
intellectual strengths to determine what types of drills were required to target the
specific nature of her learning problems, and she managed to conquer her
cognitive deficits. Starting in the late 1970s, she has continued to expand and
refine these exercises, which have benefited thousands of individuals. Barbara
founded Arrowsmith School in Toronto in 1980 and then the Arrowsmith
Program to train teachers and to implement this highly effective methodology in
schools all over North America. Her work is revealed as one of the first
examples of neuroplasticity’s extensive and practical application. The idea that
self-improvement can happen in the brain has now caught fire.
The Woman Who Changed Her Brain powerfully and poignantly illustrates
how the lives of children and adults struggling with learning disorders can be
dramatically transformed. This remarkable book by a brilliant pathbreaker
deepens our understanding of how the brain works and of the brain’s profound
impact on how we participate in the world. Our brains shape us, but this book
offers clear and hopeful evidence of the corollary: we can shape our brains.
Barbara ArrowsmithYoung is the director of Arrowsmith School and
Arrowsmith Program. She holds both a B.A.Sc. in Child Studies from the
University of Guelph and an M.A. in School Psychology from the University of
Toronto (Ontario Institute for Studies in Education).
Visit the author at
www.barbaraarrowsmithyoung.com
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Arrowsmith-Young, Barbara
The woman who changed her brain: and other inspiring stories of pioneering
brain
transformation / Barbara Arrowsmith-Young.
p. cm.
1. Arrowsmith-Young, Barbara. 2. Neuroplasticity—Popular works.
3. Learning disabled—United States—Biography. I. Title.
QP360.5.A77 2012 362.3092—dc23
[B]
2011051961
ISBN 978-1-4516-0793-2
ISBN 978-1-4516-0795-6 (ebook)
