Brain training to assist students

A CONTENTIOUS brain-training program will be offered in Sydney's Catholic school system next year.

A CONTENTIOUS brain-training program that claims to overcome learning difficulties will be offered in Sydney's Catholic school system next year as part of a two-year research project to assess the benefits for students.

The Catholic Education Office Sydney will offer 20 students enrolled in its schools in years 9 and 10 next year the option of trying the Arrowsmith program -- 19 brain exercises claiming to address cognitive functions causing problems in students.

The program was developed by Canadian Barbara Arrowsmith-Young, who claims she "changed her brain" and overcame her own learning difficulties after devising these exercises based on neuroscientific research.

But the Arrowsmith program has been widely criticised. Linda Siegel, a professor in special education and fellow Canadian at the University of British Columbia, said there was "absolutely no evidence" the program was effective in overcoming learning difficulties.

Director of curriculum in the Sydney diocese Seamus O'Grady said the organisation was very cautious about implementing the program, but had been impressed by the anecdotal evidence that it helped students and so decided to offer it as part of a research and development project.

"It's pretty radical but in the past decade in particular there has been a number of books and studies around, people claiming you can reprogram your brain," he said. "There are always kids for who teachers say 'I can't do anything for that kid, just advise him to leave school', but you wonder if there was anything we could have done that might give them another chance."

In Australia to receive the 2012 eminent researcher award of Learning Difficulties Australia, Professor Siegel said the exercises were not related specifically to any learning difficulties and showed no evidence of helping students struggling with maths, reading or writing.

"They do exercises which are not clearly related to the learning disability. You may become proficient in Arrowsmith exercises but what's not been shown is that it transfers to the basic academic skills you need," she said.

The Arrowsmith program is not aimed at children with severe intellectual or behavioural disorders, such as autism or attention deficit, but at children who struggle to remember how to spell, or read backwards who would have been called slow learners in earlier days.