Strengthening Learning Capacities® COGNITIVE ENHANCEMENT: Keeping Our Brains Fit and Healthy Debbie Gilmore Executive Director, Arrowsmith Program Established in Toronto, 1978 In over 100 public and private schools throughout Canada, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Thailand, South Korea and Spain
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Strengthening Learning Capacities®
COGNITIVE
ENHANCEMENT:
Keeping Our Brains Fit and Healthy
Debbie Gilmore
Executive Director, Arrowsmith Program
Established in Toronto, 1978
In over 100 public and private schools throughout
Canada, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Thailand,
ARROWSMITH PROGRAM• Designed by Barbara Arrowsmith Young to address her
own cognitive deficits by utilizing the research of Luria and Rosenzweig
• The Arrowsmith Program is a suite of cognitive programs comprised of intensive and graduated cognitive exercises that are designed to strengthen a series of cognitive functions.
• It is a facilitator-led program.
• The teacher has specialized training by Arrowsmith Program.
• The 19 cognitive functions addressed by the Arrowsmith Program are those involved in reading, writing, auditory memory, non-verbal learning, reasoning, executive functioning, numeracy, visual memory and spatial awareness.
• Programs are designed to address an individual’s unique profile – no ‘one size fits all’
Strengthening Learning Capacities®
COGNITIVE FUNCTION
Cognitive functions are the characteristic function or
job of a region of the brain or network of regions
Strengthening Learning Capacities®
CONTINUUM OF FUNCTION
Very Severe
Average Superior
Strengthening Learning Capacities®
EXAMPLES OF COGNITIVE FUNCTIONS
• capacity to read non-verbal
cues necessary for
navigating social
interactions
• visual memory functions
necessary to learn reading
and spelling patterns
• executive functions
necessary for thinking,
planning and problem
solving
• capacity for grasping
relationships
• auditory memory functions
involved in retaining
information
• capacity for quantification
required for time
scheduling and budgeting
• ability to learn motor
patterns necessary for
writing
• capacity to recognize faces
• spatial reasoning
Strengthening Learning Capacities®
UNIQUE COGNITIVE PROFILE
• Every individual has a unique learning profile due to his or her combination of cognitive strengths and deficits
• Cognitive deficits combine to create various academic and social learning problems
• The Arrowsmith Cognitive Profile Questionnaire is available on www.arrowsmithschool.org
Strengthening Learning Capacities®
Brain Activity while Reading Out Loud (Lassen et. al. 1978)
Example of a Functional system (neural network)
as postulated by A. R. Luria
Strengthening Learning Capacities®
COGNITIVE LENS
Think about the person who:
• Is socially awkward or rude
• Cannot see another person’s point of view
• Is rigid and needs routine
• Can’t tidy their room
• Can’t see a specific item in the fridge or their closet
• Can’t use a map or find their way to a familiar place
… various factors can contribute to loss of synapses, shrinkage or retraction of
dendrites (de-branching), and pruning of axons, thereby reducing
communication in those areas” (Kays et al., 2012)
“I can’t”; “I don’t”
Mindfulness
Growth Mindset
Strengthening Learning Capacities®
CHANGE SUSTAINED OVER TIME
To ensure the change in functioning is sustained and not just practice effect or short-term temporary wiring change we need to:
• Keep our brains active over the lifespan
• Integrate and use the cognitive gains resulting from mental training
• Reduce factors that lead to negative neuroplastic change
• Increase factors that lead to positive neuroplastic change
Strengthening Learning Capacities®
CHANGE SUSTAINED OVER TIME
“If one wants only a temporary trick, it can be induced quickly; if one wants it to last, it must be induced gradually, allowing for harder neuroplastic change.”
“Regardless of the source, a sustained change in a pattern of neural activity is a necessary trigger for neuroplasticity.
Lillard & Erisir (2011)
Donald Hebb’s principle: neurons that fire together wire together. In other words, all of the brain’s activities that occur together (fire together), strengthen their connections and inter-connections (wire together)
The more they fire together, the stronger the connections.
Strengthening Learning Capacities®
COGNITIVE RESERVE
Cognitive reserve refers to the ability to optimize or maximize performance through differential recruitment of brain networks and/or alternative cognitive strategies.
The brain can change the way it operates and thus make added resources available to cope with challenges.
This concept holds out the promise of interventions that could slow cognitive ageing or reduce the risk of dementia.
Strengthening Learning Capacities®
COGNITIVE RESERVE
Cognitive reserve is not fixed – it can change across the lifespan depending on exposure and behaviours.
Therefore changes in lifestyle, even later in life, might impart reserve against age-related cognitive decline or dementia.
The exact “recipe” is still unknown. The generic recommendation is to maintain educational and mentally stimulating activities throughout life.
Strengthening Learning Capacities®
COGNITIVE RESERVE
Yaakov Stern (2012, Columbia University) found that:
• Lifetime exposures including educational and occupational attainment and leisure activities in late life, can increase cognitive reserve
• Those who engaged in more leisure activities had 38% less risk of developing dementia
• The protective effect of higher cognitive reserve decreased risk of developing dementia by 46%
• Experiences at all stages of life, even late in life, can impart cognitive reserve. The findings support the possibility that it may be possible to intervene even later in life in order to impart reserve, slow age-related cognitive decline and prolong healthy ageing.
Strengthening Learning Capacities®
COGNITIVE ENHANCEMENT
• The adult brain has the plasticity ‘switch’ mostly turned “off”.
• Change is only permitted for those things that have captured the brain’s attention, and only when the brain itself judges that change to be beneficial for it.