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The Woman who Changed Her Brain

The Woman who Changed Her Brain

Unlocking the Extraordinary Potential of the Human Mind

Summary

Barbara Arrowsmith-Young was born with severe learning disabilities that caused teachers to label her as slow, stubborn - or worse. As a child, she read and wrote everything backwards, was physically uncoordinated and she continually got lost. But by relying on her formidable memory and iron will, she made her way to graduate school, where she chanced upon research that inspired her to invent cognitive exercises to 'fix' her own brain, which we now now as neuroplasticity.

The Woman Who Changed Her Brain interweaves Barbara's personal story with riveting case histories from over thirty years of working with both children and adults at what became the Arrowsmith School in Toronto. This remarkable book by a brilliant pioneer deepens our understanding of how the brain works. Our brains may shape us, but this book offers clear and hopeful evidence of the corollary: that we can shape our brains.

Foreword by Norman Doidge, M. D., author of The Brain that Changes Itself

Reviews

  • In this brave, fascinating book, Barbara Arrowsmith-Young describes how she rebuilt her own damaged brain and transcended the doomful prognosis she received in childhood. This is a riveting study of both neuroscience and human determination
    Andrew Solomon, author of THE NOONDAY DEMON and FAR FROM THE TREE

About the author

Barbara Arrowsmith-Young

Barbara Arrowsmith-Young is the Director of Arrowsmith School and Arrowsmith Program. She holds both a B.A.Sc. in Child Studies from the University of Guelph, and a Master's degree in School Psychology from the University of Toronto (Ontario Institute for Studies in Education). The Woman Who Changed Her Brain was published to great acclaim by Square Peg 2012 and in Vintage paperback in 2013.
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