Testimonials | Arrowsmith School

There is joy in overcoming a struggle because your mind becomes free. There is growth when we learn to struggle well. You are able to make your own decisions where you couldn’t do that in the beginning of your life. A disability is a struggle that you can’t control and it pretty much controls you. There are people that have many types of disabilities like myself . Everyone, even those who don’t have disabilities, have to overcome struggles in his or her own life too. There is hope for those who struggle. They can have an open path and a better future with the help of teachers, family and faith.
When I was little I struggled to understand people and never understood life. I struggled to understand the meaning of everything, such as what other kids liked to do for fun or how to engage in their activities. I was very quiet and I couldn’t tell anyone my struggles because I couldn’t communicate well. School was hard for me to enjoy because everything was confusing and hard to understand. My preschool teachers felt that I had too many issues to address and suggested I attend public school. My parents visited an Ambleside open house and prayed that I would be able to somehow attend school there.
At Ambleside the teachers assessed me by asking me if I could write my name, or color in the shapes, or answer questions about myself. I felt like I didn’t know what I was doing or know what I should say. I couldn’t write with a pencil or understand which color to use or what shape to draw and everything was so hard for me to understand. After the assessment, Ambleside school still welcomed me in and came alongside me and taught me their subjects. Every area of school seemed very hard for me to do or understand yet my teachers were patient and came alongside me. Specialists and therapists outside of Ambleside would talk to my parents and say that I wouldn’t get past the third grade because I had too many learning struggles to address. But by the end of my kindergarten year I could recite Shakespeare’s Sonnet 91 with my classmates.
By the end of that year I could also print letters and numbers with perfect handwriting. I started speaking sentences after learning how to read. I often wanted to rest and stay inside my head but at Ambleside I learned the habit of attention and how to stay engaged and focused. There are many moments I struggled with reading literature books and history textbooks, but my mom and I would read together every night to help me understand the story and not get confused about what the chapters were about so I could keep up in class. Each year I worked hard to attend and stay focused and complete my school work. I learned that everyday I had to learn the habit to work hard to do hard things and to struggle well.
At a later age I visited the Johnson Center to figure out what exactly my struggles were and the specialist diagnosed me with an audio processing disorder and Pervasive Developmental
Disorder known as high functioning autism. That news made my parents sad and concerned
about the diagnosis as it offered little hope. My parents saw more hope in Ambleside as it was
helping me more than the hours of therapy I had been doing. I was able to read a book now. I
could recite Bible verses and poetry and learned how to use a pencil and learned how to write
sentences. Doctors and specialists said I would struggle to ever learn how to do these things but
they were wrong. This tells me that I had hope and that I could do more in life and could go past
my struggles. I never went back to those specialists or therapists because none of their advice
was useful anymore. At Ambleside School every child can be successful. The hope was at
Ambleside School.
For many years at Ambleside I did a lot of work. I had to work really hard at all things.
In my high school years I felt overwhelmed and had to do hours of homework to keep up and
understand. I felt frustrated and upset at how much work I had to do. There were moments when
I tried to talk to people and that was really hard for me because people would say conversations
quickly and I couldn’t think of my words and say them out in time. It made me feel awkward and
lonely. High school was a real challenging time in my life.
One day my mom and I went to the store to get some groceries and we ran into a man who was a
friend of my mom. She talked to him about what’s going on and how life was going. She told
him about a school in Toronto, Canada, called Arrowsmith that could help me understand life
and school. Arrowsmith school is a place for kids and adults that have certain types of learning
struggles and there they learn how to overcome them. The program helps the brain to function
better by making the brain think smoother by rewiring it to make learning easier. She didn’t have
the money to go to Toronto, Canada. My mom went to a prayer group and asked for prayer to
help get some money for going to Canada. They told her to step out in faith and bring that
program back to Ambleside school and to get our passports and buy plane tickets. She did not
have the money but she stepped out in faith and got them. In Mom’s mailbox she got a card that
had $2,000 in it. Many people from our community anonymously dropped off money for us at
the school so I could attend the Arrowsmith School and so my mother could bring the program
back to Fredericksburg.
In July, my mom and I headed to the airport and got on a plane to Toronto, Canada. School .
I did the Arrowsmith clocks program that summer and later when I went back to Ambleside
School and did the clocks program in the fall. I started with two hands then it added three hands
and afterwards I kept on going to 6 hand clocks. When I was in Canada I did it everyday for 6
hours for 6 weeks. I could do this hard work because I had learned how to work at hard things
going to school at Ambleside. My mind started to open up, something new that I had not
experienced before. I was able to talk to people more, such as joining in with their conversations.
Conversations used to be too much to take in and hard to follow what they were saying but I
could understand now. It made me feel happy and confident.
After I got back from my trip I started to feel happy and joyful that I understood more about life
and I felt like my brain was free. I felt like I was engaging more and open more to my family and
friends and I didn’t feel left out anymore with my friends. I felt very calm talking to people now
and I was able to get my words out instead of saying them at the last minute. School started to
feel comfortable and easy for me to understand my subjects and my reading. I started reading
more and started to read by myself instead of asking someone to read for me and help me
understand.
At first, I felt very depressed and felt like I wasn't getting anywhere in life but now I feel very
confident that there's more to me in life. I can accomplish great things in my adult life and be
able to help others that suffer with the same struggles that I had. I am driving now and I have a
part time job. My relationship with my family got better because I am not in my head anymore
and I am able to talk to my family more. I have started to have some freedom from my struggles
and it was no longer controlling me anymore. Before I felt overwhelmed and frustrated with
myself and that I would always struggle but now I feel happy and joyful and free.
Therapists said I wouldn’t be able to pass the third grade, but now I have read many books such
as Crime and Punishment, The Odyssey, and Dante’s The Divine Comedy. I have performed in
many Shakespeare plays and other challenging high school performances. I have come to know
the artwork of Leonardo DeVinci, Vincent Van Gogh, and Matisse. I have listened to many
composers such as Bach and Mozart and Stravinsky. I have studied the human body and its
working parts such as the heart, the cells and blood. In art this year I created a portrait of Helen
Keller out of scraps of paper. I once was unable to speak but now I am confident and able to do
public speaking like I am here reading my graduation speech. I am joyful that I am free. I would
like to thank Ambleside school for helping me.

Heather

Participant

Program: Full-time

Participant Age: Adult

2 Years after Arrowsmith School

I am naturally inquisitive and have always been intrigued by the learning process and the pursuit of knowledge. As a student I loved to learn and yet I found aspects of my schooling very challenging. In the later part of my high school career I was diagnosed as being both Learning Disabled and having Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

One of the learning disabilities that was diagnosed was one which affects the expression of thought through speech, and more significantly in my case, in writing. At that time I felt frustrated because I knew that I understood the material, but because I had difficulty expressing my thoughts on paper I was unable to keep up with the required written assignments. I also had great difficulty completing tests and exams in the allotted time. The few accommodations made by the school and the suggestion of doing remedial work did not feel encouraging. I struggled, but managed to complete high school.

When I thought about what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, I was confronted with the importance of a university or college education. The thought of trying to get a university education was overwhelming.

My love of knowledge led me to Arrowsmith School, where I was a student for a year in 1996 to 1997 in anticipation of pursuing a university education.

One of the primary reasons for my decision to attend Arrowsmith was the knowledge that the work done there on remedying learning disabilities would enable me to get the most out of the university experience, and assist me in reaching my full potential. I have been pleased that not only do I notice improvements and a greater ease in performing tasks that had previously been challenging, but also these improvements can be felt and seen in day to day activities. The test results were dramatically different from September to the re-testing in June.

I find that I now am able to write in a more concise manner, and am able to write much more quickly than in the past. My reasoning skills have also benefited and are a strength. I am more comfortable with and better skilled at performing mathematical problems mentally.

Program: Full-time

Participant Age: School-Age

Bradley has an auditory processing disability. When I used to give him directions to do something, he would then look at me and say- "wait...What?" It was very hard for him to process the directions, especially for multi- tasks. Since he started Arrowsmith for this year, I have not heard him ask for repetition of task directions at all. He seems much more confident that he heard the directions and he is ready to follow through on them without further clarification. In school, he didn't have the ability to ask the teacher each time to clarify the directions so he just wouldn't start the task at all. This could lead to a "meltdown" with Bradley unable to do the task at all. A teacher who has worked with Bradley for the past three years reports no "meltdowns" this year and Bradley's willingness to start and mostly complete the tasks asked of him.

Arrowsmith has given Bradley a confidence that he can do what is asked of him. He is very proud when he "masters" a task in Arrowsmith and can bring in a special treat for the class. His self esteem has improved significantly since he began Arrowsmith.

Bradley posesses above average intelligence but his learning disability keeps him from achieving what he is capable of achieving. We hope that by strengthening the weak areas of his brain, Bradley will be able to reach his potential and most importantly be confident that "he can do it".

At home, when Bradley works on a school assignment, he now asks for help when he needs it and finishes the task without any frustrated behavior. He used to not even want to attempt his homework and would shutdown and be unwilling to do it. He approaches the task with a calmness that wasn't there before. Family members have remarked that Bradley is more affectionate. He seems to have knocked down some of the walls he had put up around himself. Seeing Bradley happier with himself has been a tremendous thing for our family.

When a child is frustrated in school, he might exhibit behaviors to protect himself from being hurt by the disapproval of others- teachers, parent classmates. In Arrowsmith, Bradley has achieved a degree of success which helps him shed these behaviors and be able to learn more effectively.

Participant, Parent/Guardian, Arrowsmith Community

Program: Cognitive Intensive Program

Participant Age: School-Age

Speaker1: My son is doing the summer intensive for six weeks. I saw Barbara Arrowsmith Young about three years ago in Sydney. She came out to do a presentation at one of the schools out there, and she has been having interventions probably since she was about three years old. And after I read her book, I it just made so much sense that rather than learning strategies that they would be actually working on the weaknesses in the brain.

Speaker2: My family lives in Vermont, and we're here because friends of ours, their two boys, attend school here, and she told us that there was a summer program and oh, we don't have anything like this near where we are.

Speaker3: We've come to Arrowsmith. Um, because Isabel's really struggled through her entire school career. She's 12 and particularly struggles with maths, but has struggled with everything through, you know, through her life, um, with anything to do with education, working memory, uh, all of those sorts of things through the traditional education system being told, I think, to accept what you know, how Isabel is and that she's always going to struggle and not she she can't tell the time. She has got no idea of money. Um, and yet deep down, for us, we felt there was more there with Isabel. We didn't think that it necessarily reflected her true level of intelligence and and grasp. And so we stumbled upon Arrowsmith and this summer intensive, and we thought, well, we'll give it a shot. So we've come to Toronto for six weeks to see how we go.

Speaker4: We discovered this place through Anna's, um, occupational therapist who passed me the book of, uh, Norman Doidge, uh, which I read the second chapter, which particularly speaks about Barbara's work. And I suddenly felt very excited about what I was reading. And it's here on the six week intensive, um, course. And she's absolutely delighted. She's loving every minute of it. She's working really hard.

Speaker5: I came here because I have a learning disorder, which makes it harder for me to like, read books and understand things in school, like on tests. And it just got very complicated and I didn't understand it. And the teachers weren't helping at all.

Speaker6: He struggled through school ever since I can remember, and in fact it struggled to the point he was so unhappy. We took him out and started homeschooling.

Speaker5: I've been here for two weeks, and I've noticed that reading things like complicated things like, uh, Lord of the rings has gotten a lot easier. I hope that doing things like, uh, I guess like math tests and other things like that will be easier, easier for me than they have been in the past. That's really what I'm hoping for. He struggled.

Speaker6: With math. He had a hard time with reading, and I found a summer program here at Arrowsmith. Um, so we decided to give it a try and see if it would help Alex.

Speaker1: So Chasper was taken off five weeks from school, and and we're here and we're just putting our toe in, dipping our toe in and seeing what happens. And, um, just trying not to get too emotional about the whole thing and just seeing how he's going to go after this intense. Chasper's been trying to learn his times table since he was about six, and it's very difficult for him to actually retain that information. And so we've sort of given up on it to a degree. And and then I said to him over dinner, I said, let's just go back on your times table.

Speaker7: I didn't understand fractions, timetables and clocks. That's basically my life story.

Speaker1: And he actually was considering we haven't done it for, you know, since he was on school holidays, which is. About six weeks now. He was very he actually was able to work it out.

Speaker7: I think it's really helping me with my timetables and everything.

Speaker1: Chasper was often describes himself as feeling foggy. He said that something happens in his head and it feels like there's a fog going through. And so I asked him. I said, how's that fog going? How are you going with it? And he said, um, I think that the that it's working, the program is working. And I said, what do you mean by that? And he said, it feels like the fog has lifted a little bit and that my brain's been sorted out.

Speaker3: What we've seen this week is a really, really in a number of areas, a really interesting improvement. We're starting to see a lot more reasoning. So we're seeing some gains in in mathematics, basic things. Isabel could never really understand the concept of money. Um, or that there was 100 cents in a dollar and she's getting that now. She's talking in fractions now, which she never did. You know, she's talking about, you know, 30s is half a minute and 15 seconds is a quarter. And she never used fractions because she never understood them. And she suddenly getting that. He said to me on the train on the way here, you know, she said, gee, you know, I never believed that this could happen, you know, that I could make these sort of changes.

Speaker8: I'm here to improve my learning capability, rewiring my brain per se. Um, I've always struggled during school, and. This is kind of a final chance to improve myself.

Speaker2: I am extremely excited about what may be happening for Callie. I see so much more initiative and confidence, and those are the two skills that you need in life to to do everything else. You need confidence and initiative. And she is getting that here. Um, I also see really hopeful signs of increased critical thinking and an ability to process language more quickly.

Speaker8: Just yesterday it was my sister's birthday and I had to quickly write out a little card for her. Um, like saying happy birthday. And I used to only be able to say, um, uh, happy birthday. Um, best of wishes. And that was all I could write. Yesterday I was able to write a, like a really lengthy paragraph, so. And it was just. That's what it was, all these lovely comments I was able to put into it and. Myself and my mum. We had got pretty teary eyed because we couldn't believe how well the program had been working, and I was shocked because I myself can't. I hate writing so much. It's it's not funny. And I was able to write more than my mom was able to. I was very happy with that.

Speaker2: You know, my other two children, they they learn incrementally and they, they make slow, steady progress right there. The books that they read become more and more complicated slowly. And their learning goes like this. This is the first time in Callie's life that her learning is doing the same thing.

Speaker8: Now, when I read, I look up words more. I'm more interested in looking at words than me, just naturally just skimming over them if I don't understand them. And that's just too bad, I don't care. Now I have like more of a interest in learning what the word is.

Speaker9: I never really struggled in school. It wasn't really until the past few years in university, when I was away, that I realized that, you know, maybe something isn't. Maybe something isn't quite right. You know, I was getting, like, very high marks on my assignments and lower marks on my on my midterms and my exams. And, you know, it was taking me longer to learn things and understand things than, you know, my peers and my other classes. Definitely. I can see changes when I look back on even how I was and what I did five weeks ago. Um, so for me, I was really annoying to my family. Actually, I always used to answer questions with questions. So, you know, they'd ask me something and I'd be like, oh, why? What? What do you mean? Or, you know, why are you asking me this? And I actually just noticed that I've kind of stopped doing that. And it wasn't even something that I realized that I was doing until, you know, I came in and had my assessment, and then I was like, oh, you know, it's because I'm not really making those connections, not understanding where they're coming from and what they're trying to convey with that question. And even something as subtle as that, I'm able to kind of put together those pieces, and I don't have to answer questions with questions anymore. I can kind of interpret and I'm able to, you know, make those connections and actually understand what they're asking me.

Speaker6: Is math has improved already. Uh, just doing simple math for things, you know, in everyday life has really improved. His handwriting is better. Um, he's reading easier. He says he understands things that he's reading and he's able to read, uh, people now like nonverbal cues, which he could never do. So he's starting to be able to be able to catch on to things. Uh, you know, the non-verbal cues you'd have in a conversation.

Speaker5: I used to kind of ramble on about things, and now I'm kind of now I know, like when to stop rambling.

Speaker6: And he's going into school this year, into high school, and, uh. I'm looking forward to seeing him enjoying it instead of struggling school actually.

Speaker5: Now sounds. More appealing than it used to be, because it used to be such just a real struggle. But now I feel like it's going to be much easier.

Speaker4: She's feeling happy, confident, uh, much more motivated about challenging things in the future. She feels that she's going to be able to master other things.

Speaker3: I was like, there was a little flame inside her that was fluttering, and it was a real glow inside her. Now there's this real little burn in her of confidence, you know, and she's a and we're seeing it for the first time because she's a kid that's never had confidence. She's never gone to school and said, yeah, I can do this. She's always gone to school with an anxiety attached all the time that she's not going to understand. You know, she's come here and she suddenly gets it. She's suddenly understanding what's being given to her.

Speaker2: I am so grateful to Barbara, and so odd that she brought this to the world. Uh, we had a parent meeting last night. We were all clamoring. We want more, we want more. And, um, you know, she's dedicated her whole life to this, and she's changing lives.

Speaker4: I mean, this is to me, absolutely miraculous. And being here, I am seeing this work. And from seeing other children and speaking to other parents, I now know that this works. And it's such an important message for all children and adults with learning difficulties. Um, can get to a point with this, this work and this program that the learning difficulties are not there anymore. And I'd like to tell the whole world about that, because I think what Barbara has created here is just. Amazing.

Speaker3: This is the last day in the graduation ceremony, so to speak. Um, and it's been a fantastic experience. What we're doing, these targeted changes and exercises we do does change the brain. If you don't believe in neuroplasticity, you will after you experience this. And I can only say to parents who would be thinking to come to a, um, a summer intensive as we've experienced, um.

Just do it, just do it.

Arrowsmith School Testimonials

Alex

Braden

Ben

Adrian

Robert

Jenna

Mary

Isha's Mom, Ragini

Dare to Dream Student

Heather

Marika

Eric

Mark

Dare to Dream Student

Laura Delves

Amy

Braden

Tanya

Isha

Rachel

Kaled

Brian

Jordon

Charlotte

Michael

Aidan

Daniel

Dr. Greg Rose

Shannon

Tam

Chasper and his Mother

Dare to Dream Student

Dr. Norman Doidge, MD

Abra

Jarek’s Parent

Dr. Greg Rose

Mark

Melanie

Robert

Sam’s Parent

Austin

Cognitive Intensive Program Families

Dare to Dream Student

Alex

Corelle

Jenni

Rachel and Emma

Dr. William Lancee

Tom

Dare to Dream Student

Will

Michael

Ona

Vicki

Emma

John

Shannon

Deidre

Matthew

Kyle

Kelda’s Parent

Jordon

Meghan

Jacob

Banks Family

Jonathan

Dare to Dream Parent

Arlene

Shannon

William’s Parent

Thomas

Dr. Rachel Webber

Dr. Lara Boyd

Mark

Cody's Parent

Colby

Katie

Amy

Megan