Not retarded - just adopted!

Here is a beautiful story written by a mother in Denmark about the work I did with her adoptive daughter using Feuerstein's Dynamic Assessment of Cognitive Modifiability. I was doing an internship with Professor Feuestein in Israel while working with Kristen and Ajo. It was AMAZING!!! Today both mother and child have made HUGE changes!!!

Enjoy - KB

After 3½ years of fight with the municipal school authorities for my daughter's schooling, which has over the years gone from bad to worse, I can now look with confidence at my little girl's future. From the side of the municipality there are still no interest in seeing her as she is, see her background and late adoption, but choose the easy way and doom her retarded - severely so, to top it all off. In the meantime Ajo is 10 years old and has almost 3 years of school attendance in Denmark behind her - 3 years of frustrations, school shifts and grotesque tests, only revealing what she should have learned - had it all gone according to plan, but not what she is capable to learn. In Denmark (and more or less the rest of the world) it is taken for granted that brains cannot be changed, that they are static.

Ajo was tested with the WISC test ½ a year before she was starting school here in Denmark, 1 year after she arrived here from India, 7 years old, and the test showed that she was - in all areas - functioning on the level of a 3-4 year old. At home she was starting to act more and more the 8-year-old, she had in the meantime become, which I tried to explain to high as low within the municipal system. None the less, she was referred to the local special school for children with massive difficulties - what was earlier called the dummy-school.

The first year, I choose to "go behind the back" of the municipality and placed Ajo in a private school, a good solution for everybody, because classes were small and there was focus and closeness to the individual student was a matter of course. Unfortunately the same private school made no use of the support options available, and after well over half a year, they threw the towel into the ring. Ajo needed more one-on-one contact than they were able to offer and furthermore, the new principal did not want his school stamped as a school to which you send your problem children.
Seen from my point of view, Ajo was surely still not age appropriate, but she fully proved her ability to learn.

The next step was one test more - again WISC, showing only what the child HAS learned, not what she CAN learn. Again Ajo scored equivalent to a 3-4 old across the board, which, in my firm conviction, shows how ill-suited the test was to test her. She had gone through tremendous development in all areas, so I decided to, on my own initiative and at my own expenses, have her tested by way of a non-verbal test, Leiter R, which surely gave quite another picture of my little princess' abilities. I could live with age level 6-7 years - she had, after all, only been in Denmark for 2½ years. The municipal School Administration insisted on her being severely retarded, did not even throw a glance at the result of the Leiter R (and moreover did not register it in our file) and again referred her to the special school. With the assistance of Solveig Gaarsmand, Skole og Samfund (The National Association of School parents), "the sentence" was overturned to special class in an ordinary public school.

In the special class Ajo was surrounded by peers, relatively normal functioning children, and thrived. She pulled ahead, socially and academically, loved school and threw herself enthusiastically over both numbers and letters, but....

Last spring the whole special education system in our municipality was reorganized and the municipality again - amongst other adopted children - referred her to special school WITHOUT having ever seen, tested or in any other way done anything to clarify the children's situation or functioning level.
This time I have had to turn to The National Board of Special Education, for my daughter is still not retarded - she was adopted late. The National Complaint Board has still not made a statement and Ajo is, at the present, attending the special school, the municipality has wanted her to attend all the way. She is learning - as she puts it herself, not a dime, is behaving like an unmanageable 5-year old, she is frustrated and not feeling the slightest bit well in a class where the other children - though peers - functionally are way below her level.

But soon it is over, soon she will be in a totally normal 4th grade in a totally normal school, surrounded by normal functioning children, where she can thrive and develop into the bright, little kid she is.
Approximately two months ago, I stumbled over a man in Israel, a professor in child psychology, a man who has quite his own meaning of how the human brain acts and what can be done with it. A man, who believes (read: knows) that a person's background, childhood and lack of basic trust and life experience has considerable influence on the person's learning ability. A man, who has "saved" children, adolescents and adults by the thousands all over the world, from a future as illiterates on social security, just because they have not had decent schooling.

Feuerstein is his name, Reuven Feuerstein. A professor in child psychology, he has worked with culturally deprived and culturally different people since right after WW II.

After years of fight with the municipality regarding Ajo's schooling, I now continued this fight during daytime and at the same time read the book by the man with the solution during nighttimes.

I woke up one morning and knew that the solution was in Israel if I could make Prof. Feuerstein meet Ajo and look at her. Look if had gotten it all wrong and the kid is truly retarded or if I (and Lars von der Lieth) are right in our contention that Ajo is a bright little girl.
In brief, we did it and on October 24th we went. From approx. 10 degrees to 25 and sunshine within 18 hours. Om October 25th, early morning, we slipped into our beds in Jerusalem to grab a couple of hours of sleep. It vas Sabbath and we had time to find ourselves before Sunday where we were to go to The International Centre for Enhancement of Learning Potential or, as we quickly got used to call it: The Institute.

The first day was spent on planning the 14 days we had, to determine Ajo's learning potential, and start out with the professor's assessment system. The system that does not just test, but test - train -test, so you do not get a snapshot of the person's ability in one particular situation and one particular mood, but a full overview over the learning potential.

On the second day, we mediate on with Ajo, with me as the interpreter, and already after lunch the first opening occurs to the little lady's potential. She is working with the instrument called Organization of Dots. 2/3 down the task sheet, that for me to see is just a jumble of dots, I fell suddenly and strongly, how Ajo starts using the tools, the planning and the strategies that Kate, the mediator, has given her throughout the sheet. It is so overwhelming and fantastic - after four years - to finally get the proof that my daughter is not retarded, but adopted, that I have to leave the room to cry and wash my face before we can continue.

Other days we work with Raven's IQ-test, but INCLUDING mediation. Not just guessing or knowing, which piece is right. You need to think, use strategies and explain the connection between the pieces and why, exactly that piece and not another, is correct. A third task is to decode the layers in a picture by way of the colours and patterns - and here Ajo really shows that she got her "penthouse inhabited".
After only three days, we were called to see the Prof. himself, which was an experience in it's own league. The man is 88 years old and looking exactly so. A very old man, short, grey haired, a little unsteady on the legs and not quite as agile as he has surely been. But that is only till he lifts his face and look at you. In that moment you see the young man who has found the purpose of his life and is dedicated to it. A sparkling intelligent man, in full control of his thoughts - and furthermore of what is going on at the institute with some 100 employees and the hectic activity all over the world under the auspice of the institute.

When he shortly after - upon of course having heard about Ajo's work the first couple of days and "inspected" her himself - tells me that Ajo is not just intelligent but actually very intelligent, he can mainly have anything he wants from me.

The rest of our stay - except for the Sabbath, where we take a trip to Masada and The Dead Sea - we spend our days at the institute and Ajo slogs away and several evenings, she complains that her "brain is aching". No wonder after all those years lacking stimulation. All of a sudden, the young lady can and will think for herself. Where she, at the beginning of our stay in Jerusalem, hid her face behind her hands when praised, she sits, 14 days later, smiling shyly when praised, but at least without her hands covering her face. Where ever we go, she sees patterns, dots to be connected and connections, she had priory just passed. She draws conclusions, which are no longer child's logic, but contemplated and prudent. She stops herself when racing around and says to herself: "Stop and think, like Feuerstein says", before continuing in a more moderate and deliberate speed.

We are home in Denmark now, in the accustomed surroundings, but the systems, she learned in Israel are still with her. We are going back to Israel in the spring, so she can get the "final boost" and function normally in normal surroundings. Till then I wait for the report from the institute to arrive, so I can send it on to the National Complaint Board, for them to - I hope - send message to the municipality to move Ajo to another school, but this time to a normal school in a normal 4th grade.

Ajo cannot wait to get normal functioning peers, and I, myself, am looking forward, like at child waiting for Christmas, to finally see her in surroundings where she can thrive and develop the enormous potential that has, till now been hiding in her little head.

By Kirsten Korning
December 2008

The Power of Change: The Feuerstein Method

When I first wrote this article, my mission was to not only convince people of the power of Reuven Feuersteins work but also show how possible it is to change the "human being" no matter their condition (age, genetic make up, etc). It is the fight however with the common belief system that "CHANGE" is only possible to a certain amount or in levels of the developmental stages.

It is the work of Reuven Feuerstein who has changed more children, more parents, and more teachers lives for the better due to his systematic theories and programs which has lasted for more than 60 years. While others have "taken" or adapted his work on cognitive modifiability it is his work on the theory of Structural Cognitive Modifiability, Mediated Learning Experience, the Learning Propensity Assessment Device, the Instrumental Enrichment Programs, the Deficient Cognitive Functions, the Cognitive Map, and the Modifying Environment have shown every human being is open and adaptable for CHANGE. It is each of these sub parts of Feuersteins main theory of SCM which must be study, learned, and fully understood in order to be able to put forth the "POWER OF CHANGE".

KJB

The study of the human being is a fascinating subject. For thousands of years, humans have shown their capacity for change, adaptability, and to become modifiable. Over the course of hundreds of years, philosophers, scientists, and psychologists have been debating how this is possible. Is intelligence really fixed? Is it a matter of nature, a predisposed factor brought on by genetics? Is it a matter of nurture, how one interacts with the environment, the social world? Or could it be both?

Similar to Vygotsky’s Theory of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), Feuerstein’s theory of Structural Cognitive Modifiability makes the point that there is more to just human development than genetics or environment. Feuerstein and his colleagues have taken this a few steps further. The theory of SCM originated on two concepts – structure and modifiability. Feuerstein considers these two concepts to be the primary reason for behavioral manifestations of the mental and cognitive structures.

The basis for the theory of SCM is derived from three different sub parts (Feuerstein, Feuerstein, Falik & Rand, 2006):

1. The Human being is the outcome of a triple ontogeny – biological, social- cultural and the interactions of the mediated learning experience (MLE).
   
2. Model behavior represents states rather than traits of the a organism, and leads to a new and more adaptive definition of intelligence .
   
3. Brain plasticity results in the generation of new structures, created through internal and external behaviors.

Professor Feuerstein and his colleagues continually argue that IQ tests are not measuring the individual’s potential to learn. Rather, IQ tests measure the individual’s current abilities compared to the current population they are in (this would mean that every individual learns in the same way). This in turn goes back to the theory that all individuals are different and that they all have different abilities in the learning process. For example, if one individual likes math and the other likes art, the two may perceive, internalize, externalize differently – in turn, giving different interpretations to what is on an IQ test.

They also argue that the environment and the culture of every individual is different, and that every environment and every culture is different everywhere. We know from many different theories that the environment has a large impact on the individual’s learning process. If the environment were the same everywhere and the internalization process were the same, I would then fully agree with an IQ test. But is this a false statement?

It is not necessarily to dispute the field of psychometric testing. It is that society believes that this type of testing is the only way in which we can help an individual learn. But this is not true. The blame is never put on how we are teaching or why the individual is not learning what they are supposed to learn. In our society, we need to ask the questions, “How?” and “Why?”.
Just because an individual has the genetic makeup of Down syndrome, Autistic Spectrum Disorder, or Learning Disorders, is he/she unable to learn? Our society replies, “To a limited amount, or no, and that we should only…”

This is what Feuerstein defines as “passive acceptance." The individual manifesting cognitive, emotional, and behavioral interventions which are based on the belief (overtly or covertly) that regardless of the nature of the intervention the low functioning individual is and will remain virtually immune to change. This leads in the best case to an acceptance of the individual as he or she is, in many instances reinforcing the existing condition, adapting the environment to minimize stress or disruption and thus minimizing the amount of adaption required of the individual.”

But, with the right type of mediation, we can teach this individual to learn as a “normal” individual or even more than a “normal” individual. If we believe that they are incapable then they will be incapable. If we believe that they are capable they will become capable.
We need to learn not only this but also how to understand the cognitive and the deficient cognitive processes. The locus of the deficiencies resulting from the lack of mediated learning experience is peripheral rather than central, and reflects attitudinal and motivational deficiencies, lack of working habits and learning, rather than structural and elaboration incapacities. Feuerstein’s Learning Propensity Assessment Device (LPAD) has enabled us to establish an inventory of cognitive functions that are undeveloped, poorly developed, arrested, and/or impaired. They are categorized into the input, elaboration, and the output levels. There are 28 different and similar deficiencies of cognitive functioning.

The LPAD is designed of different static/conventional tests. The major difference is that we are assessing the individual before and after mediation (teaching). If the individual shows a difference from before to after, they are called modifiable (i.e., the individual can learn and with the right type of mediation there is hope for him/her).

The Learning Propensity Assessment Devise (LPAD) is a method of dynamic assessment by which a trained examiner identifies the development of an individual’s cognitive functions. The examiner watches the learning and retention of what an individual learns in response to different ways of teaching. The dynamic assessment with the LPAD enables the examiner to understand how the examinee thinks, learns, and the possibilities for the development of the examinee’s learning potential. The most important things to understand about the LPAD are:

1. It is about learning and not the obvious level of functioning.
   
2. The examinee is made comfortable and is encouraged to perform as best as they can.
   
3. The examiner teaches the tasks and sees how the examinee learns.
   

The LPAD differs from traditional educational and psychological evaluations in that the examiner gains information not from scores or single responses, but from observations of repeated responses to the tasks and from teaching the examinee how to solve the problems and respond correctly (meditation).

Another important feature of the LPAD is the inclusion of the various modalities of processing and responding to information – verbal, pictorial, numerical, figural, symbolic, and graphic – and the subject’s responses to each. The LPAD battery consists of a variety of instruments. As the examinee responds, the examiner gathers information, develops ideas about the learner’s needs and functions, uses these insights in choosing LPAD instruments for further assessment and analyzing performance in subsequent instruments. Used in conjunction with standardized tests, the LPAD adds a perspective on the types of interventions that are needed for the individual’s learning abilities and potential for growth.

Built from Feuerstein's Theories of Structural Cognitive Modifiability (SCM) and Mediated Leaning Experience (MLE), the Instrumental Enrichment program is a cognitive intervention/enrichment that can be used both individually and in a classroom framework. When the child is weak in use of any functions, for whatever reason, it is necessary that a teacher or other helping professional mediate the development. If the weak functions are not strengthened, the student is most likely to achieve poorly throughout his or her academic and work life.

FIE is an effort-based cognitive intervention/enrichment program with a rigorously and widely researched conceptual framework. This framework identifies, defines and classifies a set of cognitive functions. By developing the cognitive functions exclusive of content, FIE causes significant and powerful gains in student learning and achievement.
When the child is weak in use of any functions, for whatever reason, it is necessary that a teacher or other helping professional mediate the development. If the weak functions are not strengthened, the student is most likely to achieve poorly throughout his or her academic and work life. More than 2000 studies with a wide range of learner populations from countries around the world attest to FIE's power in increasing students' cognitive performance and academic achievement.

Teachers, trained as cognitive mediators, have provided even the most challenged students with new thinking dispositions that will improve learning habits for a lifetime. For this to occur, a teacher must develop new teaching dispositions, which focus on developing the students' cognitive capabilities and overcoming the limits of thinking and learning caused by such factors as poverty, special needs, or language. To develop these dispositions, FIE provides an intensive and rigorous training program that prepares the teacher or helper to "mediate" development of the cognitive functions using the "instruments", a series of pen and paper tasks, which increase in difficulty, are independent of content in any subject area, and target the development of cognitive functions on a daily basis.These are ways of showing hope to communities of individuals that they are not stuck in one place. There are options to every human. These are wonderful tool are not only for psychologists but also for teachers, parents, and most importantly, the individual. It is not just the idea of changing an individual, it is creating change; the whole philosophy of structural cognitive modifiability.

Reuven Feuerstein Lectures Live From Israel

In a Press Release the internatioal Renewal institute announced that Reuven Feuerstein will lecutre live via video conference during there annual summer seminar series. At NCETL we are excited to partner with iRi on this wonderful and engaging lecture.  

Here is the Press Release:

Chicago, IL April 21, 2009 - Dr. Reuven Feuerstein will lecture live via video conference at iRi's Critical Thinking Summer Seminars in Troy, MI. Feuerstein is an internationally renowned cognitive psychologist who first challenged the common belief that Intelligence is fixed and cannot be changed. Since Feuerstein's first challenges to the theories of fixed intelligence more than 50 years ago, his theories have given impetus to intelligence and brain research that support his belief in the structural cognitive modifiability of human intelligence.
 
Over the last five decades, Feuerstein's has designed systematic cognitive intervention/enrichment programs that have been implemented and validated in schools and clinical settings in over 80 countries. Feuerstein's systematic methods and student materials' for "teaching for intelligence" are recognized by Robert Sternberg, Howard Gardner, Robert Marzano, and other experts on intelligence around the world.

By special arrangement in a two-way video conference live from Jerusalem, Reuven Feuerstein will lecture and engage participants to learn best practices for changing the structures of students' minds. Participants attending this video lecture will:

• Understand why intentional development of cognitive abilities is especially critical for students in the 21st century.
• Discover how to use Mediated Learning Experience (MLE) in a classroom or clinical setting to promote students' thinking abilities.
• Develop a deeper understanding of Feuerstein's theories and their implications for enhancing all students' learning potential in the 21st Century. 
• Engage in Q&A directly with Professor Feuerstein and seminar participants

Participants are also invited to select from specific focus seminars based on Feuerstein's programs. All programs are headed by leading Feuerstein trainers both nationally and internationally recognized. Each of the seminars is designed to show practical application for general education, special education, psychologists and other education professionals.  
 
There is no additional fee required for Feuerstein's presentation.  All courses that day will begin after the video lecture. Enrollment is limited. Pre-registration is required as space is limited for this inspirational keynote lecture by the most notable student of Piaget whose theories and practices are influencing change in educational practice around the world. 

To register, go to www.iriinc.us  click on Learn2enablelearning and "Register Online". To complete registration click "Register Now" in the upper right hand corner of the web page. For more information on this program, please contact iRi conference staff members' toll free at 877.474. 4900 or 847.835.4206.  

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Our Mission

To provide the educational and mental health communities with services, training, and research in a revolutionary framework, that is accompanied by unique methods and practical tools, in order to facilitate cognitive and behavioral changes in individuals’ thinking and learning.

The National Center for Enriching Thinking & Learning (NCETL) was organized to promote the enrichment of critical thinking and learning skills – based on the work of world-renowned cognitive psychologist, Reuven Feuerstein – in children, parents, and educators throughout the United States and Canada. Feuerstein’s methods and programs have been effective in classrooms, homes, clinics, and tutorial centers around the globe for more than 60 years.

Our Purpose
The United States Internal Revenue Service has approved NCETL as a tax-exempt organization exclusively for charitable, educational, and scientific purposes. NCETL shall conduct and support such activities as clinical dynamic assessments and cognitive interventions for those in need – individuals and their family members – while increasing public knowledge and understanding of cognitive educational programs through sponsoring “experts” panel discussions, research, evaluations, and school implementation.

The Need
Parents, educators, psychologists, and other helping professionals around the world have been utilizing and implementing Feuerstein’s work for 60 years. Today, the Method is used in more than 80 countries – throughout most of Europe, the UK, Africa, Asia, South America, the Middle East, Australia, New Zealand, and North America. Due to the size of North America (United States and Canada), it is very difficult for sufficient families, educators, and schools to adopt the Method in order to address the needs of every individual.

The concept of human modifiability addresses not only those who are very low in functioning but a very broad and diverse range of individuals. It addresses a very wide variety of populations with diverse levels of functioning, and differences in cognitive, social, emotional, genetic, age, and other variables, which are in “need” of change but may not have the tools or cognitive processes in order to do so. It takes highly dedicated and trained personnel to enable the individual to become adaptable and malleable, and to enhance their ability to constructively increase the quantity and quality of their thinking and problem solving skills by means of direct and indirect learning experiences throughout life events.
In today’s world, the individual is faced with a high paced, high tech, high moving life style. But, to succeed, the individual needs to be equipped with specific concepts, processes, strategies, and operations. These great demands for enabling all individuals in becoming more productive, active, insightful members of society are applicable only in the Feuerstein Method.

Objectives
NCETL is planned as a dedicated, practical service center providing a custom-designed solution for a highly specific function. Our long-term objective is to construct a unique set of services for individual students, families, educators and schools for improving the quantity and quality of thinking and learning. It will be a dedicated facility designed specifically for enriching and enhancing thinking and learning for all individuals throughout the United States and Canada.

NCELT will seek funds in order to provide clinical services to assess and treat individuals in order to enrich their learning potential. The Feuerstein dynamic assessment of cognitive modifiability and cognitive intervention programs will be used with students who are diagnosed as developmentally disabled (ASD, PDD, PDD-NOS), emotionally disturbed, and those labeled as ADHD/ADD.

NCETL will identify schools that are committed to the full integration of the Feuerstein Method into their school community. Over a 5-year period, NCETL will assist each adopting school to build a program centered on clinical and school practices. NCETL will partner with organizations in order to prepare, manage, and evaluate the Enriched Learning Schools it creates. NCETL will provide financial assistance to charter schools, small public or private schools that elect to use the Feuerstein Method as the core program to improve the quality of student learning. Specifically, NCETL will coordinate the integration of the Feuerstein Method into the school’s curriculum, with a special emphasis on improving math and literacy scores.

NCETL will seek funds to research the best practices in cognitive intervention that not only effect student achievement, but also sustain programs. It is our goal to research the effectiveness of the Feuerstein method with targeted populations, and includes studying the effectiveness of clinical methodology, parental involvement, and the school.