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Children struggling at school are frequently labelled as having low intelligence or behavioural problems when in fact their brains are not correctly wired to enable them to effectively learn in a classroom environment.
Neuroscience* research has now identified that the human brain can be ‘rewired’ for better learning with the use of specialised computer programs, and just four hours a week over six to eight weeks can assist some children in achieving a one to two year gain in learning skills.
The concept is already gaining wide acceptance in Australia, with the Federal Government funding the full cost of a neuroscience-based computer program, Fast ForWord, for parents with autistic children aged under seven, as part of a $190 million package designed to help these children access mainstream schooling.
Internationally renowned US language and learning expert Dr Martha Burns** will visit Australia and New Zealand in March to speak at a series of educational seminars titled ‘Building Brains for Learning’. She will reveal the latest insights on how we can rewire the brain to optimise cognitive abilities and learning.
Dr Burns said the application of neuroscience research to education would result in “all but a very few marginal students mastering educational content at every level” within the next five to 10 years, and had the potential to eradicate learning problems for most children.
“Children with learning disabilities like dyslexia, attention deficits and social or emotional problems will be able to receive short-term, brain-based interventions that dramatically enhance the brain’s systems and networks that support literacy, numeracy, mathematics, problem solving and memory,” Dr Burns said.
Neuroscience is a relatively new area, having only been practiced since 1995 when functional magnetic resonance imaging technology (FMRI) allowed researchers to map the brain. FMRI scans of children struggling in the classroom were compared with scans of those who were not. The struggling children were then helped in their areas of need and their brain rescanned, only to find the brain had changed.
“The research identified three areas of the brain which are vital for learning,” Dr Burns said. “The Wernicke’s area, where we ‘hear’ sounds and understand the internal detail of words; the Broca’s area, where we take sounds and convert them into words; and the working memory where we hold sounds and visuals.
“These three areas were found to be linked by a network of superhighways that relay messages between them. These superhighways are built in the first four to five years of life and provide the ‘support structure’ for effective learning.”
Dr Burns said damage to one of these areas of the brain through repeated middle ear infections, damage from loud or continuous noise or genetic disposition will result in language not being effectively processed and the superhighways not being built. The child then enters the classroom unable to learn, especially in a noisy environment.
“It’s not that they’re not trying, not that they’re not motivated and not that they come from a bad home – some children don’t have the underlying processes intact to support learning,” she said. “A child may be predisposed toward language skills, but if they have not experienced language from a young age they won’t be good at it.”
Dr Burns said new insights from many different fields were currently converging to create a new science of learning that has the potential to transform current educational practices. She said the future of effective education lay not in the curriculum but in a teacher’s understanding of the chemical processes required to increase a child’s attention in the classroom and retention of material taught.
Already, research has resulted in the development of computer programs which ‘rewire’ the brain by building the superhighways. The programs slow down speech so that the child’s brain is retrained to understand language and to process and sequence words. The result is the child is able to understand what is said in the classroom and to learn.
Scientific testing of one such program, Fast ForWord, was completed in Australia in 2006 and produced significant results for students of all abilities. More than 70 Australian schools currently use Fast ForWord, and more than 5,000 Australian students have benefited from the program.
With one in eight Australian school children at risk of learning difficulties by the time they start school***, it is hoped science will provide the answer for thousands more children underperforming in the classroom.
Dr Martha Burns will be a guest speaker at the ‘Building Brains for Learning: It’s all in the Connections’ educational seminars to be held in Sydney on March 8, Melbourne on March 10 and Auckland NZ on March 12. Dr Burns will address the implications of new neurological and literacy research and how both parents and educators can help children achieve better results in the classroom.
For further information on the seminars, visit www.fastforWORD.com.au/seminars2010
* Neuroscience is a scientific discipline that includes a range of areas that explore, among other things, how the human brain learns and what factors affect that learning.
**Australian Early Development Index released 2009
***Dr Martha Burns
Dr Martha Burns is a renowned expert in the field of neuroscience and its application to learning attentional disorders including Dyslexia, Autism, Auditory Processing Disorders, ADHD and other language disorders.
Dr Burns has been a practicing speech language pathologist in the Chicago area for 35 years. She serves on the Faculty of Northwestern University, department of communication sciences and disorders, and on the medical staff of Evanston-Northwestern Hospital, both in Evanston, Illinois. She has received honours from Northwestern University, Evanston Hospital Corporation, the American Speech Language Hearing Foundation and St. Xavier University.
Dr Burns is the author of several books on brain function, aphasia and cognition and has published numerous articles on language development, language disorders, auditory processing disorders, and adult neurological disorders in professional journals. Doody’s Rating Service selected her book on the Right Hemisphere published through Aspen Press as one of the best health sciences books of 1997. Dr Burns is also the author of a book on aphasia and the test Burns Brief Inventory of Communication and Cognition published by The Psychological Corporation.
Dr. Burns is currently serving Director of Clinical Specialists at Scientific Learning Corporation.
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