"I got a B in Math's, I've always had D's"
I heard the door swing open from the rear of the shop as I was helping in the Cafe, fast footsteps and an excited voice calls out “Tanya, Tanya, guess what? I got a B in Maths today, I never get B’s I only get D’s”. I look into the face of a smiling participant in our Arrowsmith program. “Wow, that’s so exciting to hear. All your hard work is paying off isn’t it?” and I’m answered with an exuberant nod. “It just makes sense to me now.” they state. “You keep going like this, finish the program and you could teach Maths one day” I said. A very serious look takes over the smile of our young participant “Yes I really could, couldn’t I? I haven’t thought of that before.” and you know, they really could do exactly that. A pathway that was never open before, this cognitive area was not functioning correctly, but persistance within the Arrowsmith program has now strengthened and developed functioning pathways within their brain that is helping them enormously in school and life, but for this young person especially in maths.
We are now 18 months into the Arrowsmith journey with this young person and others and this is not a unique story. Arrowsmith works through the Neuroplasticity of the brain: Neuroplasticity, also known as brain plasticity, is the brain’s ability to change both its physical structure and its functional organization in response to training and experience – to grow dendrites (the branch like structures on the cell body of the neuron which receive signals coming from other neurons), to form new neural connections, to strengthen existing connections, to grow new neurons, to increase neurotransmitters – all of which fundamentally change the brain’s capacity to learn and to function, and this can happen throughout the lifespan.
The premise of the Arrowsmith Program is that the weaker cognitive areas that contribute to learning difficulties can be strengthened through cognitive exercises and once the source of the learning difficulty is addressed, the learner’s ability to perform complex tasks will also be improved.
The philosophy that the learner is not fixed, but can be modified through the application of the principles of neuroplasticity, sets the Arrowsmith Program apart from the majority of other programs for students with learning difficulties. The Arrowsmith Program is capacity based, in that its goal is to change the student’s capacity to learn, rather than compensatory which tries to work around the problem. Strengthening these weaker capacities, it is hypothesized, increases the overall functioning of these specific cognitive areas, allowing them to be used more effectively for learning.
What we have witnessed is changed lives, like this young person, who struggled terribly with Maths, now able to confidently answer questions during maths from their teacher. Maths tests are no longer scary for them. Self-confidence has grown in so many areas. Another mum reported to me the other day with their child “At the shops, my husband threw a quick money calculation to her, instantly she answered with the correct amount, she would never have been able to do that before. Arrowsmith is really making a difference for her, we can see it.”
We’ve seen changes in so many areas with our young and not so young people within the program, during recent testing results we have seen them jump whole levels in cognitive function, some initially testing less than 0.1 of the National Percentile in that area, jumping to 30 - 80+ Nationally in 10 months. If you missed the last article I wrote on these results check it out here.
This program is so exciting. Many people we work within active addictions have issues with cognitive areas, learning, understanding instruction, communicating, emotional intelligence etc. However the more I work with young people within our mentoring program, NotEvenOnce Projects, Meaningful Art Therapy programs, within our stores I begin to question - was this issue here before they started uptake of substance? and due to this issue, were they then unable to connect and engage at school because it just didn’t make sense to them? Disengaged they moved into pathways and decision making that led to where they are now? What could have happened if they had access to something like this much earlier in their life?
The power of the brain to rebuild and strengthen is phenomenal. Our Teen Challenge centre in QLD is using this program to help those recovering from their life controlling addiction overcome damage that has occurred to their brains whether as a result of substance use, trauma, injury and more. We are seeing this with participants ourselves here in Tassie. There’s even been evidence showing that Neuroplasticity has a place potentially in prevention and slowing symptoms of Alzheimers.
We’re simply in awe of the ability for the brain to renew itself through this program. If you have a loved one or even for yourself that you feel this may be worth exploring check out “Recognize the signs” on the Arrowsmith website and make connection with Lisa-Marie to discuss further. arrowsmith@teenchallengetasmania.org
We are looking forward to seeing more lives changed with this program, for a period of time we have a funder that has provided funding for 10 people to access this program. If you would like to support this program financially, for someone to access the program please contact me via email tanya@teenchallengetasmania.org for more information or you can donate here via PayPal just pop in the notes it’s for Arrowsmith Program allocation.