A life-changing trip

Rockville Centre residents Kathy and Bob O’Brien had tried everything for their daughter Justine, who suffers from a severe learning disability that makes it hard for her to understand concepts and retain knowledge.

They tried occupational therapy, physical therapy, vision training, vision therapy and many additional programs and treatments, all in the hope of helping their daughter work around her disability.

So a year and a half ago, when they heard about the Arrowsmith Program and how it supposedly cured children of learning disabilities, Kathy and Bob knew it would be the best thing for their daughter to try, even if it meant Bob would have to drive her to school in New Jersey every day.

“She’s asking questions that she was never able to ask before,” Kathy said of her daughter. “She wants to learn—you can see an absolute thirst for learning in her. The way she’s using language is much more sophisticated. It’s just amazing.”

Justine is less than half way through her Arrowsmith Program, and, as her mother said, she is already seeing results. Hers, they say, is just one such success story.

The Arrowsmith Program was developed 30 years ago in Canada by Barbara Arrowsmith Young, who herself was born with multiple learning disabilities. Her research, and the program that it spawned, are based on the concept of neuroplasticity — the brain’s ability to change itself.

Much the way a stroke victim’s brain is able to recoup and regain functionality, the Arrowsmith Program consists of a series of exercises that children perform to strengthen their brains. It starts with an Arrowsmith-trained person evaluating the child. The results are sent to the Arrowsmith School in Toronto — the hub for all Arrowsmith Programs in the US and Canada — and the school sends back results, which dictate what exercises the child has to do and for how long.

“The program works on brain exercises,” said Dr. Carol Midkiff, principal of the American Christian School in Succasunna, New Jersey, where Justine goes every day for the Arrowsmith program. “You know how you’re learning to play the piano, you start going C, F, G, and it’s just ping, ping, ping. And you practice and practice and repeat, repeat, repeat.

“They practice certain exercises where they’re growing neurons in the brain,” Midkiff continued. “Instead of compensating for a person’s need, it reeducates the brain. So things they couldn’t do before, now they have the ability to learn.”

The program is so successful that children who participate in it tend to learn better than those who never had learning disabilities to begin with. Annette Goodman had two of her children attend the Hebrew Academy of Long Beach to take the Arrowsmith Program (the school no longer offers the program) and saw amazing results. Her daughter, now in fifth grade, had trouble with reading, and is now reading on a seventh grade levels. And her son, who just started high school, amazes his teachers when they learn that he used to have a learning disability.

“It was incredible,” Goodman said. “[My children are] no longer learning disabled.”

Although the Arrowsmith Program has been in Canada for 30 years, it only started to make its way into the U.S. in 2005, and is only available in a handful of schools — none of them public. The program was brought to the American Christian School three years ago, after a father who lived in Toronto with his son for two years (so he could attend Arrowsmith) came to Midkiff at an open house and told her about the program.

“And when he started explaining it to me, I said, ‘This couldn’t be going on, because if it was I’d know about it,’” said Midkiff.

The relative obscurity of the program in the U.S .is the reason the O’Brien’s drive every day from Rockville Centre to New Jersey. Bob, who is retired, joined a YMCA near Justine’s school to give him something to do while she is in class all day.

But they’re determined to have Justine finish the program, which will take her five years (the average time for completion of the program is three years). They are also paying all the expense of her schooling themselves — about $17,000 a year.

The O’Briens will host an informational meeting at their home on April 13 to spread the word about the Arrowsmith Program — and they hope to bring it into a local school.

“I wish somebody had told me about it earlier,” said Kathy O’Brien. “I just feel like we’ve wasted so much time not doing it. I just feel that the more parents that know about it, it could become more widely available. Children’s lives could be changed, truly changed.”

Those interested in attending the meeting at the O’Brien’s house can e-mail Kathy O’Brien at Kskob1615@aol.com.

Comments about this story? ACostello@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 207.