TED talk: Michael Merzenich: Exploring the re-wiring of the brain
Wednesday, April 29th, 2009
This is a great talk by Michael Merzenich done at the TED conference.
The training program is from Dr. Merzenich’s company, PositScience.
I’m not sure about the training program but the talk is fascinating generally and as it applies to people with language learning issues.
My 7 year old grandson who used to suffer from a variety of learning difficulties, recently began a program from betterlearning institute that has had a hugely positive impact on his life. I thought that I’d share this incredible program with others, as it may be helpful to many more families out there.
It’s a learning program that only involves movement based exercises. Its based on theory of replicating earlier stages of development and making sure different parts of the brain and central nervous system have completely matured. Apparently many children who suffer from learning difficulties, have simply skipped an earlier stage of development and never been given a second chance to complete that stage, resulting in an inability to learn and grasp concepts compared to kids who didn’t skip stages (ie crawling) or have delays.
The program is simple. The child just completes a number of exercises and movement activities each night over a period of time. The results started to show within weeks, but they recommend you do it over an extended period of time so that long lasting changes are maintained. Josh (my grandson) enjoys the activities and is actually the one who reminds his mum each night that’s its ‘game time’.
My grandson did have difficulties with in learning to reading, handwriting, coordination and some associated emotional issues, and was considered to be two year levels below his year. We thought he had ADHD or ADD, but have now realized that he didn’t (although these programs are supposed to be great for those diagnosed with these LD’s) and he is now performing at his age level and we hope to have him performing even better as we continue with the program.
We just downloaded the program to her computer directly from the site and started it that night. I think my daughter said it was only $30, but I could be wrong. It was definitely under $50. It may not suit every child, but we found it to be very helpful for us. He’s now a confident learner (in many aspects) and has discovered a new sense of pride in himself. The site is http://www.betterlearninginstitute.com