The testimonials that appear on these pages are from letters that have been sent to Arrowsmith School, or forwarded to Arrowsmith School from other schools that offer the Arrowsmith Program. Names have been changed to protect the privacy of the students and parents involved.

Comments from parents of former students who attended Arrowsmith School in Toronto

1. Jonathon (new)
2. Mark (new)
3. Gregory (new)
4. Aaron
5. Matthew
6. Deborah
7. Elaine
8. Sarah

Jonathon [top of page]

(letter from a parent of a child in the Arrowsmith Program in the Toronto Catholic District School Board to his son's homeroom teacher)

It has been my intention to send you and the school a formal thank you for your dedication and help to our family and more so for our son Jonathon.

As you are aware Jonathon was designated early on as Learning Disabled (LD). We were very concerned for our son's future based on his progress to the grade Four (4) level. As you may recall Jonathon was not able to tell time, could not read the simplest of words or retain the most basic of ideas after reading very short or simple passages. As well, if there were any more than two (2) or three (3) simple math questions on any one page he was overwhelmed by the simplest of tasks.

The most disturbing concern of all was what all of this was doing to our son's self esteem. He was one of the most well behaved children anyone had known and this situation was transforming him into a troublesome child. Worst of all he was aware of his own problems and was becoming increasingly more frustrated because there didn't seem to be any solution.

We were introduced to the Arrowsmith program when Jonathon entered the fifth (5) grade and there has been no looking back since that day. Within just one month Jonathon could tell some time and over the next few months we watched as Jonathon began to make amazing progress.

The most important issue to us as the parents was to watch this confused and lost child begin to transform back into the kind of person we had known before he realized he wasn't the same as everyone else. We watched as he regained his personal pride and no longer felt like he was a loser (his words). Jonathon was now coming home from school and was doing his homework without being asked and was able to understand it.

Before long Jonathon was participating in more of the regular programs with the other children at his grade level. As you may recall when he began the Arrowsmith program in grade five (5) his overall competency was barely a grade one (1) level. When Jonathon reached grade eight (8) we had our son back. He had exceeded our expectations in every sense.

Now to the reason I have finally decided to take the time to write to you and the school. Today I picked up Jonathon from the high school he is now attending. When he entered the car he was excited to discuss the day's activities. He quickly revealed he had received the results of a test he had written a few days earlier. He had achieved an 88% on the test. Needless to say I was as excited as he was. This however is no longer an unusual occurrence in Jonathon's routine in high school.

When Jonathon left Grade school we were well aware that Jonathon's work had only begun and a great deal of organization on his part was going to be required. As parents we work tirelessly to help him understand how to use what he had learned at your school.

Jonathon's transformation to high school was almost flawless, he had regained enough of his self-esteem that he felt like anyone else who was starting at a new school. This was a fresh start and a new beginning for him.

Jonathon finished grade 9 with a 77% average and as of today is averaging about 72%. Jonathon's average in almost all of his programs are in the high 80's or 90's. His only problem left to date is dealing with the final exams, they are still an area of concern for him, the exam marks bring his average down. Jonathon however is the one now dealing with this situation on his own. I go back to the reason I started this letter today. Jonathon had realized he needed some help in his programming, math and science courses after he had done very poorly on an earlier test he had completed, he had only earned a 38%. He, on his own went to his teachers and requested help. He and the teachers worked out a schedule of help and on the next two tests he achieved a 75% and 88%. This is just a couple of examples of how he is dealing with his education on his own. Jonathon wrote the Grade Ten Literacy test this year and passed it the first time, he made it his business to get extra help and prepare for this test on his own.

Jonathon entered high school at an applied level in grade 9. He is now taking two academic courses, History and Science, and maintaining 70% + marks. Of note was the big end of the year Science project Jonathon completed in Grade nine, his final mark for this project was 100%.

I could go on and on however I believe the most important message that needs to be heard is the Arrowsmith program gave my son his future back. I am truly thankful for your dedication and commitment to the Arrowsmith program and the children in your care.

It is my hope that this program will always be there to help other children in need and hopefully the School Board will continue to see the value of a program that helps out children to become self sufficient and self reliant.

Mark [top of page]

My son Mark is 12 year of age and has just completed Grade 6. He received an L.D.
designation in January of '99, when he was in Gr. 5. But, previous to that he had had a lot of difficulty in Grades 3 and 4 with concentration. He achieved below his level. His assignments weren't done.. His schoolwork suffered, as did his personal relationships. His Gr. 4 teacher called him lazy and he hated going to school. He had many, many fights with that teacher and other boys. He was a constant visitor in the principal’s office - at least once a week.
In Gr. 5, his teacher was more empathetic and committed to helping him learn. Mark had already been diagnosed as LD, and he was waiting for an IPRC in our system. But, he was in regular curriculum, and he couldn't keep up. Together we did hours of homework every night, but he just didn't seem to retain anything he had learned. After that, we'd start in on the reading assignments. By bedtime, Mark was worn out and miserable. Many nights he'd be crying because he just couldn't do everything. And many projects simply weren't done. He had difficulty falling asleep and would show up at my bedside at midnight or 1:00 AM, saying that he can't sleep.

The teacher reduced the volume of his homework and that helped, but he remained very anxious and depressed that he couldn't do 'stuff' that other less bright children could. In January of '99, he got his LD designation and joined the Arrowsmith group in Feb. of that year. At first he thought it was like playing hookey, but not for long. He worked hard in Arrowsmith, and the work was challenging. He felt proud of himself when he completed it. It was strange, but other things started changing for him. Some of these were skills - like being able to hand write cursively. Others changes were seen in his demeanor and nature. He calmed down and could sleep at night. He liked going to school again and looked forward to it. In fact, he was excited about it. He was happy again. The program was canceled in the fall and Mark returned to regular Gr. 6 class and regular curriculum. He was depressed about losing Arrowsmith and didn't understand why 'they' would take it away. As the homework and assignments for Grade 6 came his way, the anxiety returned and the sleeplessness. Happily, Arrowsmith was reinstated in January, and he quickly got into the program. He worked hard and completed SUP MOTOR in total. This year, another milestone development happened for him. He began to read for pleasure. This started in March of this year and hasn't stopped. He finally gets the 'main idea' of the story, retains it and processes it. Now the whole rich world of literature and imagination are open to him. And he's catching up for lost time. School ended a week ago, and he's still reading...I think the Arrowsmith program works small miracles in helping LD kids achieve and experience all that knowledge that simply defied them before. Being bright children, they crave this knowledge and once they receive it, they blossom before your eyes. I hope that it is available to all LD children in the very near future and I'm thankful for the time that my child has spent in the program.

Gregory [top of page]

Arrowsmith School has provided programming and support that meets the needs of our uniquely challenged child when no other service provider would or could. Our experience with the Arrowsmith program has given us hope that our child will meaningfully and positively contribute to our community in the future.

Gregory is currently ten years of age and has been a full-time student of the Arrowsmith program for the past fifteen months. Prior to Arrowsmith, Gregory attended school in the Toronto Catholic District School Board from junior kindergarten on through to the start of grade 3. His learning difficulties throughout that period were assessed as developmental. Maturity would somehow resolve the glaring difficulties experienced by a very gifted child who could not adjust to the demands of his programming either socially or academically. Gregory was often brutalised in the schoolyard because of his inept social skills. He also struggled greatly to complete the academic expectations. Years of misdiagnosis and inadequate programming culminated in a personal crisis for our son in grade 3. Gregory could not sleep at night and constantly avoided going to school in any way possible.

His fear of writing had grown so intense that he would drop pencils on the floor and proceed to spend as much time as possible under his desk in search of his misplaced writing instrument. His teacher could and would not continue to instruct him and the school was at a loss on appropriate programming. With little in the way of adequate diagnosis, we enrolled him in a private school where the teacher student ratio would be one to ten. This well-regarded academic school accepted our gifted child after a lengthy interview process. They were confident that their programming would greatly assist Gregory in overcoming his intense anxiety towards academic achievement. We were asked to remove him from the school after only 25 days. He could not control his fear of writing and his avoidance behaviour had become even more intense. This was a point of despair for our son and our family as we struggled to understand the conditions and find appropriate programming.

Gregory has multiple exceptionalities. He has anxiety, severe learning disabilities, attention deficit, and he is also very bright.

The Arrowsmith approach has helped Gregory immensely. His academics have improved significantly. His reading have improved from level 1 to level 4. All of the areas that he has worked on have improved. Improvements have also occurred in his most debilitating disability, writing. He is now volunteering to take notes for his group. The anxiety that was associated with writing is improving. I quote Gregory "Arrowsmith has helped me a lot with my writing, I feel less frustrated when I write".

We notice many areas of improvements. The most significant area being self-image. Gregory entered Arrowsmith feeling defeated. His self-esteem had been deeply bruised. He was very frustrated and had learned to distrust teachers because of the mixed signals being sent. On one hand teachers were applauding his 'brightness' and depth of knowledge while on the other hand he was being punished for being distracted, disruptive and not writing. By grade 3 Gregory started defying authority and would not take constructive direction from teachers.

The concept behind the Arrowsmith program is clearly working with our child. The individualised Arrowsmith program, which has been designed from extensive testing, is significantly and positively influencing Gregory's confidence. Arrowsmith's (Barbara Young's) belief that weak cognitive or learning capabilities can be strengthened through brain-based programming is well illustrated by the improvements in our son thus far. The dedicated team at Arrowsmith has successfully gained Gregory's trust.

• Gregory is more tolerant when his behaviour is being re-directed.
• He is taking more initiative in managing his feelings of frustration.
• His tolerance level has improved. We have noted this with school assignments and his siblings
• There has been an increase in his ability to organise himself.
• He remembers and executes a series of steps (wash, brush, put on your pyjamas, put your clothes away and come back downstairs). Last year half way upstairs he would forget what he was supposed to be doing, and would end up playing on the steps. He can now remain focused and on task.
• Gregory had difficulty finding the words to express his feelings, and when rushed to explain, he invariably would get overly emotional, frustrated and feeling exasperated. This is changing as a result of the Arrowsmith program. Gregory is trying to identify and articulate his feelings.
• He is starting to become more aware of social skills. He has difficulty reading social cues and is not readily accepted by groups. His strength is with one-on one relationships. His new ability to be part of the Arrowsmith class is something that Gregory finds very enriching. One of his favourite activities is the lunchtime excursions to the park with his classmates. This would have been a horrifying experience previously.
• Helping with chores is not as overwhelming as it used to be. He can now enter a messy family room and tidy it up; he organises and sequences the necessary steps to accomplish 'tidy up time'.

Gregory still faces many challenges, but the success that he has experienced with Arrowsmith has increased his willingness and ability to work at strengthening his disabilities. He has asked to return to Arrowsmith. He feels empowered and we have a program that directly matches the needs of our unique and wonderful son.

Aaron [top of page]

Aaron had been in various special education programs since the fifth grade. As he finished grade 10 last year, it became increasingly clear that he would not graduate unless his learning disabilities were addressed. In addition to his learning difficulties, his self-esteem was at an all time low and his dependence on his parents had increased to an all time high.
Fortunately, Arrowsmith School has turned things around for him. Aaron is now on a track that will most certainly give him the opportunity to graduate high school in a timely manner. The most significant academic change has been a 31 point increase in his Regent's high school competency math test score bringing it to a passing level. While in the past he had difficulty grasping his school work, now he is keeping up in his regular classes. In addition, his reading comprehension has significantly increased as a result of the program at Arrowsmith School.

Aaron is now more independent than ever. He takes two buses by himself as he travels between school and home. His success however, is not unique.

Matthew [top of page]

When Matthew was diagnosed as being "learning disabled" and in need of treatment, his parents considered the many different types of therapy available in Toronto, and chose to send him to Arrowsmith School.

Matthew’s parents wrote:
"At the time, Matthew's future looked bleak. He had struggled without success at the grade 10 level and was unable to handle the workload. His self-esteem was very low, and after repeating both grade 9 and grade 10, he could not face the prospect of more academic failures. Matthew began a learning program designed for his specific needs and did not attempt any academic work during his first year at Arrowsmith School. The work that he performed was very demanding, requiring a great deal of time, energy and patience.
Initially he felt discouraged, but gradually things began to change as he was able to measure his progress against the original test results. During his second year, an academic component was added and Matthew found that he was able to understand and handle assignments that had previously been impossible for him. After approximately three years, Matthew completed grade 12 with a high academic standing and was accepted into a program at college. Matthew has been very successful in his chosen career. He believes that the improvement in his self-esteem which resulted from realizing he could overcome his learning disabilities was an important aspect of the program. He states that his success would not have been possible without the treatment he received at Arrowsmith School."

Deborah [top of page]

When Deborah was not quite two years old, she could cut perfect circles out of construction paper. But when her mother tried to prepare her for kindergarten, she refused to print her name.

"I thought it was just a stubborn quirk," says the mother of the now 13-year-old Deborah. "And believe me, she has lots of them!"

Those "stubborn quirks" didn't disguise Deborah's innate intelligence. She walked, talked and rode tricycles and bicycles long before the norm. Entering junior kindergarten at age four, she was tested and found to be advanced by a year and a half mentally, socially and emotionally. She was quickly moved into senior kindergarten.

Expected to catch up with more mature classmates by the end of the school year, Deborah, according to her teachers, matched older pupils' abilities and development much sooner. But her accomplishments masked immense frustration.

"Through all of first, second and third grade, nobody guessed she could 'read' the little storybooks because she'd memorized the words that went with the pictures," says Ruth. "Underneath, she was struggling - a lot."

Precisely because she possessed superior intelligence (her IQ is 139), Deborah invented a host of compensatory strategies to work around the tasks she found impossible, such as reading. But as she grew older and her schoolwork became harder and more complex, these strategies were increasingly less effective.

At the beginning of fourth grade, Deborah began fighting simple homework assignments. Almost every night saw her in tears at the challenge of writing a simple sentence. "I got impatient and a bit angry with her," Ruth recalls. "I knew she was bright, yet here she was, struggling with this simple little chore."

Part of the problem, too, lay in the fact that Deborah is a reticent, quiet child. "She won't tell you what's wrong," Ruth says. "It wasn't until she started having migraines and dizzy spells in the middle of fourth grade that we found she had a teacher who was totally bad for her."
After many rounds of testing and investigating, she was finally discovered to be learning-disabled. The prognosis was not encouraging.

Her mother was told that Deborah would never read for pleasure, but because she was so bright, she would manage to read what she needed to get through college. University examinations would have to be conducted orally, but, "they make these exceptions these days," declared the tester.

The diagnosis reduced a great many of Deborah's tensions, according to her father. At last she knew why there were some things she simply couldn't do, no matter how hard she tried.
Her mother gave Deborah's teachers and principal a list of suggestions from the psychologist who had diagnosed Deborah's learning disabilities. It was not well received.

"They were all very polite, but I could see they thought I was just another neurotic mother," says her mother. A special education teacher heard Deborah read a brief paragraph and then told her she didn't really have a problem, nearly destroying all the child's new self-esteem. "That made it a 'stubbornness' thing once again," her mother says.
Toward the end of Deborah's fifth-grade year, her mother was at her wits' end and Deborah was miserable. She was learning nothing and her physical problems had returned. "This has come to a showdown," declared the teacher who had tried to force her to recopy a story perfectly for the 15th time.

Through a friend who knew of other children with similar problems, Deborah's parents learned of the Arrowsmith program. A program that specializes in the identification and treatment of learning disabilities.

Extensive testing revealed that Deborah was indeed of superior intelligence. Five separate, severe learning dysfunctions, however, kept her from using that intelligence for academic skills and forced her to use those time- and energy-consuming compensations.
Deborah's worst problem was a severe motor symbol sequencing disorder which meant that all information that had to be expressed in writing was scrambled. All her life, from the time her mother had tried to teach her to print at age four, she had been frustrated because she couldn't express herself in the ways our society requires.

A severe visual symbol recognition dysfunction kept Deborah from remembering and recognizing words or symbols, such as numbers or musical notes. She had to study a word 10 or 20 times before she could memorize and repeat it, severely limiting her ability to read and spell.

Nor could Deborah grasp the relationships between ideas, due to her severe symbolic reasoning dysfunction. She couldn't grasp the 'why' of mathematics or grammar. In general, she had difficulty reasoning logically.

Though less severe, her predicative speech handicap kept Deborah from rehearsing information and actions inside her head and expressing herself in well-structured sentences. She also couldn't learn the steps in a mathematical process.

Deborah had trouble using phonic skills in learning to read words because of her speech pronunciation dysfunction. She also mispronounced some words and found learning foreign languages difficult.

During the year at Arrowsmith, Deborah worked extremely hard in spite of depression brought on by years of failure. And as her disabilities were addressed, her depression lessened.

Elaine [top of page]

The life of a single mother is never an easy one, especially if the system tells her that her child's problems are her fault. Joanne, a psychiatrist, found herself in exactly that position when her daughter, Elaine, began having math troubles in third grade. By sixth grade, the situation hadn't improved.

"I watched Elaine keep score in a game we were playing. When she had to write '62' she'd put the two under the six, not next to it," Joanne recalls. "I knew she had a problem. But the school psychologist who assessed her just told me I hadn't spent enough time with her teaching her the times tables."

Over her mother's objections, Elaine was scheduled for a special alternative school program that relied on the self- discipline of its students. "I knew Elaine couldn't handle it," Joanne says. "In the previous six years in school, she'd never been able to settle to a routine of organizing her homework efficiently. She put off the things she hated, like math, until last, and of course by then had forgotten entirely how to do the problems. I knew this new program would be a disaster. But no one believed me."

Schoolwork wasn't Elaine's only problem. She was a shy, quiet child who never joined in conversations, but smiled and giggled a lot, mostly to cover her social ineptitude. "She had managed to invent a lot of covering strategies," says Joanne. "And she had a tendency to be very narrow-minded about her interests. She never wanted to try new things."

Elaine also had handicaps that led to friction in daily life. "Though her intentions were good, she couldn't remember being told to do things. I'd say, 'Elaine, clean your room, then go do the dishes.' She'd forget. It was easy to call her lazy and irresponsible," says Joanne.
Because of her lack of verbal skills, Elaine had few friends. "She couldn't speak up for herself," says Joanne. "By sixth grade, the only way she could handle kids who bothered her was by beating them up. She couldn't put them in their place verbally. She even ran away from school a few times."

Finally, Joanne started to look for help outside the public education system. She found it, in a brochure from Arrowsmith.

When tested Elaine was found to have a severe motor symbol sequencing dysfunction which led to her 'careless' math errors and sloppy handwriting. She was able to work around this handicap a great deal, though, because she tested high in symbol recognition and could read well. This made it more difficult for traditional testing to identify her learning disabilities.
Elaine's poor symbolic reasoning ability was responsible for her communication problems. A predicative speech disorder made grasping the meaning of sentences or using them to express herself difficult. She couldn't do arithmetic in her head or learn her addition and times tables due to her supplementary motor disability. And a left frontal lobe disorder led to behavior which was often inappropriate as well as difficulty organizing herself and developing strategies for problem solving.

In spite of all this Elaine had been previously assessed as having a general IQ of 133. Non- verbal testing revealed an even higher score, close to 145. With that kind of mental ability it's easy to think this child didn't have any problems.
The test scores revealed something else to Joanne -- she'd been right all along. "I had always thought there was some kind of a brain dysfunction," she says. "Now I knew for sure."

Elaine spent the next two years attending Arrowsmith full- time. Her mother noticed results within the first few months. "She finally learned the times tables - and then she checked herself the next morning to make sure she retained the information. I said, 'O.K., she's fixed!'," says Joanne. She did her homework enthusiastically, and because she could communicate better, began to make some friends.

Joanne and Elaine's relationship began to improve as well. "I realized she couldn't express her emotions," Joanne says. "She had the feelings, but because of her dysfunctions she couldn't find the words to describe them. This is no longer a problem."

At the end of her second year at Arrowsmith, Elaine was helping her friends choose clothes. She picked up the two years of math she had missed in a one-month review in ninth grade when she reentered public school. She relates better to her mother and behaves more like a mature 14-year-old instead of a young child. And last summer she navigated her mother and herself on a car trip across the U.S. and calculated the mileage, mostly in her head.

Sarah [top of page]

Sarah was two years old when her mother noticed that she had problems with her language skills.

By kindergarten, her mother started to look for help for her daughter. Sarah spoke individual words, but never sentences.

When Sarah was seven years old, a private psychologist diagnosed her troubles as a maturational lag and told her mother not to worry, that time would take care of everything. Seeing no progress, Sarah’s mother had her tested several times over the next few years, both in school and at the Hospital for Sick Children. The tests, she found, were consistent only in their inconsistency. "We were told she was an overachieving retardate and an underachieving genius and everything else in between."

After many years of struggle and investigating, her mother found the solution to Sarah's problems: Arrowsmith School. Specialized testing revealed that Sarah's learning disabilities affected her ability to handle the symbols of language, like writing. She had a very low capacity to remember words she heard and connect meaning to them, and an inability to put words into sentences. In addition, she had trouble understanding relationships between concepts.

After only a few short months the change in Sarah was evident. Upon viewing a television news clip of Ethiopian refugees Sarah was able to ask her mother who those children were and where did they come from. Most importantly, she was able to remember the word "Ethiopia" with no repetition from her mother. "Before, I could have repeated it until I was blue in the face and she wouldn't have remembered anything," says her mother.
After three years at Arrowsmith School, Sarah entered school as a ninth grader and confidently tackled a Chekhov short story for her first literature assignment. Her most significant result, however, is her development as a happy, social, verbal individual.

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