Will Dr Norman Doidge's new book "The Brain's Way of Healing" have the same dramatic impact as his original best seller " The Brain That Changes Itself", which has sold over 1 million copies?

In "The Brain That Changes Itself" Dr Doidge alerted us to "brain plasticity", our brain's ability to change its structure and capabilities in response to experiences and training. This book increased our understanding of the power and potential of everyone's brains - young or old .

Now seven years later, his second book seeks to extend this theme.

Children today are doing much less handwriting than children did 20, 30 or 40 years ago. Before computers became commonplace, handwriting was much more important for everyone. Back then schools put considerable time and attention on making sure students developed their handwriting. 

I recall entering cursive handwriting competitions when I was a young child (I went to primary school in the 1950s), and the sense of pride for the kids who were judged the neatest writers.

Now, typing on computers and tablets is replacing the act of writing by hand for many students (and adults).

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST

A great old maths learning tool......

It's interesting to think about how educators, sports coaches, music teachers and other teachers have always instinctively incorporated the principles of brain training in their teaching activities, without necessarily being aware of them.

The principles of brain training described by neuroscientists from their brain research over the last few decades are:

Has your child ever been told by his or her teacher to "just try harder"? Have you thought that their difficulties with reading, maths or inability to keep up in class would be fixed if they would just put in a bit more effort?

While this may be a common reaction by adults to a child they think could do better, it is not the answer for children with learning difficulties. No matter how hard they try, a child with learning challenges just can't achieve the desired result because their brains won't let them.

Does your primary school child come home on Monday with a spelling list to be done each night and taken back to school on Friday?

Have they been instructed to “look, cover, say, write & check” each word?

If they are doing well with spelling, that’s great. But if they have trouble learning to spell, is this system helping them?

Therese is the mother of three boys who go to Narooma Public School, on the NSW South Coast.

She recently spoke with LearnFast about how Fast ForWord helped her youngest son learn better and made his attitude to school much more positive. The results were so good she now has her middle son on the program.

Her youngest (Matt, Year 3) did Fast Fast ForWord in Terms 1 & 2 (2014), and his brother (Joe, Year 4) is doing the program in Terms 3 & 4 (2014).

Why was Matt selected to do Fast ForWord?

If you could look inside the brain of a struggling reader, you would notice it is not the same as the brain of a child who finds reading easy.  How do we know this?

Well, thanks to advances in neuroscience and brain imaging technology, scientists can actually "look inside" brains. Here is a really good infographic (courtesy of We are Teachers & Scientific Learning Corporation) which explains the key differences.  

Includes four tips for teachers (and parents) to help overcome dyslexia in children.

Celebrating its 125 year anniversary this year, Narooma Public School, located on NSW’s south coast, has seen a lot of changes since the first students started in 1889. The slate boards and chalk in the classrooms of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries have been replaced by electronic whiteboards, computers and the Internet.

The current Principal and teachers at Narooma have not only kept pace with the changes, but they are leading the way by using the latest neuroscience based educational tools to help their students build their learning capacity and read better.

What is maths learning disability? This disability, known as "dyscalculia", is not as well known as other learning disabilities, such as reading disability, but it can effect more than one in 12 children.

Here are some facts that experts say about maths disability (courtesy of the USA National Center for Learning Disabilities).

Brodie's Story Part 1

"I would never have begun to imagine that he could make progress on the scale that he has. It 's been absolutely incredible".

That's Heather Walker, grandmother of Brodie, an 11 year old severely dyslexic boy, describing the extraordinary improvements that the Fast ForWord program made to his reading.