California - They're Not Dreamin', They're Doing! 

Getting Serious About Processing and Working Memory
By Robert J. Doman Jr.
 
I recently returned from our Chapter in Southern California with renewed faith that our families there are really "getting" the importance of working memory/sequential processing. More importantly, they understand that they can really change it---dramatically! But before I tell you their specific stories, let's look at the key they discovered to success---success at processing, at program, at learning anything: INTENSITY.
 
A number of years ago I had a group of teenage girls in the Chapter who all knew each other and were in a competition to out-do each other with their processing skills.  This group, who had come to us with issues ranging from brain injury to learning disability and ADD, had all been on program for a year or more before they started their competition. For the most part they were home-schooled, although they took an occasional class at their local schools, and on a whole they were doing well with their programs and making good gains.  But once they began competing, their processing scores began to soar, and all of their academic and attention issues began to evaporate. 
 
How well did they do?  Most of their digit spans were in the 12 to 18 range, with an occasional spike hitting 19 and 20; and that was without chunking or chaining.  I remember one of the moms calling me during this period to tell me her daughter had taught herself calculus that day--not that year or month, but that day!  The girls in the group ended up going to college early, and as far as I know they are all still excelling.
 
The message that these girls told was that you need to raise the bar--raise your expectations of what you can do, what people can do, of what potential is, and go after it with intensity.  "Intensity" is a gargantuan word.  Perhaps the biggest piece missing from most of our nation's educational programs is intensity.  The intensity of the input determines the impact on the brain.  Put it in with sufficient intensity, and it virtually never goes away.