Neuroplasticity, a scientific way of saying that frequent and repetitive exercises create new and efficient pathways in the brain

The Science

The brain can be re-wired.

The brain can be trained to work more efficiently.

Exercising the brain helps develop efficient learners.

Efficient brains learn better and faster.

MRI has proven Fast ForWord's ability to re-wire the brain.

Neuroplasticity is "one of the most extraordinary discoveries of the twentieth century".

- Norman Doidge, M.D.

Norman Doidge, M.D., psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and researcher on the faculty at the University of Toronto's Department of Psychiatry and the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research in New York, as well as an author, essayist, and poet. Dr Doidge is the author of the internationally acclaimed book The Brain That Changes Itself. He is a four-time recipient of Canada's National Magazine Gold Award.

Read Norman Doidge, M.D.'s Chapter 3 in The Brain That Changes Itself where he discusses the programs we use and the dramatic impact they have on children who are struggling with learning disabilities and challenges.

Neuroplasticity has revealed that brains are not hard-wired at a young age as was previously thought, but that brains can be strengthened and rewired to work more efficiently. The science has provided an understanding of how the brain processes information. In particular, we now understand what areas of the brain are optimal for processing different kinds of information.

Our software programs exercise areas of the brain responsible for efficient learning. Brains cannot be taught how to think, they must be strengthened through exercises. Much in the same way as an athlete cannot be taught how to do their sport, they must practice.

fMRI and Learning

The advent of fMRI scans (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) made it possible to see what areas of the brain are activated when someone is listening (receiving auditory input), looking (experiencing visual stimulation) and reading. fMRIs have shown that struggling students use very different areas of their brain than main stream learners use for these tasks. fMRIs have further shown that students who have completed training develop new neural pathways similar to those of students who do not struggle. fMRIs further show that students who have completed training activate areas of their brain that were previously inactive.

At Reading & Learning Pathways we will work with your child to find the programs best suited for them. The programs will simultaneously develop the essential skills of memory, attention, processing and sequencing which are integrally linked to successful learning. The results are enduring and continue to develop beyond the period of training.

Neuroplasticity

In the last thirty years the science of neuroplasticity has given us the knowledge that the brain is plastic. This means that the brain can be moulded and shaped from birth through old age. Neuroplasticity combines the words neuron and plastic. Neurons are the means by which information is electrically transmitted within the brain. Plastic, meaning capable of being moulded. In the case of the brain, plasticity refers to the making, changing or strengthening of neural connections and pathways.