| Imagine, if you will, a young child standing before | | | | keep up with the others on the road if they |
| their classmates, trembling inside, feeling stupid | | | | restored its ability to shift into higher gears; |
| and deficient; they are struggling, not only with | | | | instead, they beat themselves up for not being |
| the fact that they don't know the answer to the | | | | able to do go as fast as the others, convinced |
| question, or understand the concept being | | | | they are already operating at their full potential. |
| discussed, but with the inferior feelings that grow | | | | Neurofeedback is a tool that say's "LOOK! There |
| more intense each time the teacher puts their | | | | are other gears you can use." The first step is |
| "ignorance" on public display. | | | | realizing that there are other gears (brain waves) |
| I'd love to be able to tell you that this was an | | | | available to you. Then, it's a simple matter of |
| antiquated example; one that used to happen | | | | conditioning your brain to choose to enter those |
| each day in classrooms from coast to coast. | | | | brain waves at the appropriate times. |
| However, this is a pretty good description of | | | | In 1985 a study was published after using |
| what many bright young men and women face | | | | neurofeedback for learning disorders. Researchers |
| on a daily basis. | | | | were startled by what they discovered. IQ scores |
| "I was dyslexic before anybody knew what | | | | in these children improved; there was an average |
| dyslexia was. I was called 'slow'. It's an awful | | | | increase of 19 points on the Wechsler- full scale |
| feeling to think of yourself as 'slow' - it's horrible." | | | | IQ test. |
| ~Robert Benton | | | | In no way am I suggesting that all of those with |
| The brain of a child with learning disabilities is like a | | | | learning disabilities will increase their IQ using |
| truck that is stuck in low gear, and a driver that | | | | neurofeedback. However, I'm not suggesting that |
| has forgotten that higher gears even exist. It is | | | | they won't, either. My hunch is that even further |
| exasperating to trudge from point A to point B in | | | | jumps in IQ will eventually be seen using this |
| a grindingly slow forward crawl, while other | | | | wonderful tool for introducing people to their true |
| vehicles are effortlessly passing you by. The | | | | potential. |
| driver never once considers that their truck could | | | | |