Elizabeth—By the time children with learning disabilities come to The Arrowsmith program at the Jewish Educational Center (JEC) in Elizabeth, they have already travelled a bumpy road trying to find the right school. “We have kids who were not succeeding at anything, no interventions were working,” said Rabbi Eliyahu Teitz, Associate Dean of JEC, which includes the Yeshiva of Elizabeth Elementary School, Rav Teitz Mesivta Academy (RTMA), and Bruriah High School for Girls. “Their parents were coming to me crying.” After enrolling in Arrowsmith, many of these children are learning in a way they never dreamed possible.

The Arrowsmith Program has a 35-year history, but it was new to Rabbi Teitz when a parent brought the program to his attention six years ago. The family had a child in the Arrowsmith program at the American Christian School, in Succasunna, New Jersey. Although the school was very accommodating, the parents wanted their child to be in a Jewish environment.

“I visited the school and was intrigued, although the online scientific studies and data about the program were sparse,” Rabbi Teitz said. He held an open meeting with an Arrowsmith representative to gauge interest and 50 people showed up. “I told them there were no guarantees, but I’d be willing to try. The parents said, ‘we’re willing to jump off a cliff with you.’”

Students began coming to JEC for Arrowsmith, which is incorporated into the student’s daily schedule, from Bergen, Passaic, Union, and Middlesex Counties and from Queens and Staten Island in New York.

The program was founded by Barbara Arrowsmith Young, a Canadian woman who, as a child, was so severely learning disabled and frustrated that by the time she was in her teens she became suicidal. She painfully taught herself to master basic skills, and then read a book called The Man with a Shattered World by Aleksandr Luria that revolutionized her life: She recognized herself in its pages. The book led her to research the concept of neuroplasticity, the ability of the brain to change. She developed exercises to target her specific areas of weakness and parlayed her success into a proprietary educational program, developed over 12 years with the help of lawyers and consultants. She began independent Arrowsmith Schools in Canada and then began licensing the program to existing schools, first in Canada and then around the globe. There are Arrowsmith programs in the U.S., New Zealand and Australia. In 2012, she wrote a book about her journey, The Woman Who Changed Her Brain: And Other Inspiring Stories of Pioneering Brain Transformation.

To learn more about neuroplasticity, I contacted Dr. BJ Casey, Director of the Sackler Institute for Developmental Psychobiology at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University. In an e-mail interview she wrote, “Any repetitive exercise, or experience, for that matter, that alters behavior, alters the brain. The important thing (for addressing learning disabilities) would be that the activity/exercises target the specific deficit.”

That is exactly what the Arrowsmith program does. Arrowsmith Young identified 19 specific learning dysfunctions. Each prospective student is given a detailed assessment. While one or two dysfunctions are normal and may respond to remediation, a student with five or more is an Arrowsmith candidate.

Arrowsmith uses specialized exercises and computerized programs designed to strengthen the underlying weak cognitive capacities that are the source of the learning disabilities. “Traditional education for students with learning disabilities teaches how to compensate for weakness, or teaches the material in a different way,” said Rose Kandl, Director of the Arrowsmith program at JEC. “Arrowsmith targets the areas that aren’t functioning and brings them up to functioning.”

There’s a parallel in using our physical muscles. If you have weak limbs, you can work around your limitations by, say, getting someone to do your heavy lifting. Or, you can go to the gym and do repetitive bicep curls, crunches and leg extensions with progressively heavier weights, to improve your condition. Arrowsmith uses the same approach with learning disabilities. “It’s like an Olympic workout for your brain,” Kandl said.

Rabbi Teitz said the success of Arrowsmith at JEC is largely due to finding Kandl. The summer before the program began she went to Toronto for training. She came back and reviewed all the applications and tested the students. “It’s not for everyone,” Rabbi Teitz said. “It’s for students with average to above average intelligence. It won’t help with a severe brain injury; it’s not a magic bullet. Students have to be self-motivated. If there is oppositional defiance, it won’t work.”

Up to 12 children at a time can be enrolled in Arrowsmith, and generally stay in the program three to four years. At JEC, each Arrowsmith student has four, 40-minute sessions a day in addition to a schedule of Judaic and secular studies classes. Some children start their Arrowsmith classes at 8 a.m. before the 8:30 a.m. start of the regular school day, and some come after school.

The students do auditory, written and computer exercises. By design, words in other languages are used so the student concentrates on the learning pathway and not the content. Kandl says her role isn’t to teach—the students are teaching themselves. She coaches and motivates, and helps them develop their own sense of self-confidence. There are small rewards along the way, to keep the students on track. “We have a jar with marbles. Every time someone masters something by going from one level to the next, they put in a marble. When it’s filled, we all have lunch together.” Each student has 1½ hours of Arrowsmith homework daily. They hand in their homework tickets and have raffles where one is picked to be the winner of a $5 gift card for pizza or Dunkin’ Donuts; there are also raffles for schoolwork with certificates awarded. “We applaud the children on effort,” Kandl said. “We don’t have grades, but we do have baseline expectations.” Students are carefully tracked to assess progress.

After six years, the program has a track record of students who have completed their Arrowsmith studies. The results are overwhelmingly positive.

Jessica Poulin, Managing Director of Arrowsmith, said to protect intellectual property, all the Arrowsmith schools sign confidentiality agreements, and I cannot describe the exercises in writing. “People have tried to take our methodology and open their own programs,” she explained.

Anyone who is interested in how specific exercises improve brain function can get a taste by visiting the Luminosity website (www.luminosity.com). Luminosity lets people work remotely on “a set of exercises that challenge their cognitive abilities. Lumonosity ‘games’ are based on a combination of common neuropsychological and cognitive tasks.” First time visitors are asked about the skills they want to improve such as memory or attention, and then test-drive selected games. If you want to proceed with a program tailored to your abilities, or disabilities, you can purchase training by the month, year, or lifetime.

Poulin said Arrowsmith is considering different delivery models, including remote access. “We’re always looking at ways to be more available,” she said. “Arrowsmith is also looking at how other populations can benefit.” They have developed several adult programs, full and part-time, and their oldest student is 82. But for now, Poulin said the current model of a school-based program with a structured system of support, data collection, and tracking progress works best. She said several articles about Arrowsmith will soon be published in peer reviewed neuroscience journals.

Meanwhile, at JEC, Rabbi Teitz is thinking about out-of-the-box ideas to bring education into the 21^st century for all students. “Education today is an industrial age model,” he said. “Now we are in the technology age; we need to address critical thinking, not crank out widgets.” He would like to bring in online courses and more technology so that students will be prepared “for the real world of collaboration and research.”

We could all use an Olympic workout for our brains.

By Bracha Schwartz