Arrowsmith School

I was in the Arrowsmith program for almost a year and I have noticed benefits that help me a lot in everyday life. My memory has improved. My attention span has increased, when I am in a university lecture I am able to stay locked in and my mind does not wander. My social skills have improved as well, I am able to follow conversations better and pay attention better when someone is talking to me. Overall this program is definitely worth the cost and patience.

Our journey to Arrowsmith started a few years prior to actually enrolling. We had heard about the program first through a doctor and then a year later through a tutor. Both had a clients successfully complete the program and shared stories of great outcomes. Over the course of a year or so... we read/watched/listened to everything we could get our hands on about Arrowsmith...but realized that our only options were to send our son to a boarding school or move to another state.  Because this would be a huge decision for our family, we wanted to do our due diligence. We reached out to a child psychologist that we had been working with since our son was 2 1/2 and a Professor of Psychology at Marquette University to take a deeper look at the research studies on the Arrowsmith Program.  Our son was diagnosed as high functioning on the autism spectrum and since he was an A-typical candidate we wanted to be sure that it would still be a good fit to address the deficit areas in his learning.  Both professionals agreed that our son would not only be a great candidate for the program but also thought we could see promising results! So we finally decided to take the leap of faith and move to Grand Rapids, MI to attend an Arrowsmith at St. Stephen's school.  We spent two academic school years in MI and the summer between in Toronto to attend their summer intensive program. When we integrated him back into our local school system he found attending class much easier as well as his ability to attend them independent of aide support. Since we started Arrowsmith later in his education (6th grade), we still had work to do in order to catch him up in areas of deeper reading comprehension and writing.  But with the help of a tutor and having his deficit areas strengthened, his brain was ready and able to learn...so we just simply went back and plugged in some of the learning gaps.  This is why I always advise parents with younger kids who are struggling learners to not wait!  The earlier you begin intervention the easier it will be for them to transition back to the regular classroom without those gaps in their education. Fast forward to today…our son is a junior in high school with a 3.8 GPA. He is taking all regular education classes with no support other than extended time on tests when needed. We are looking at Universities which is something before Arrowsmith was not certain would happen for him. We absolutely, feel that this has been one of the best decisions we have made in our son's life to date.  We firmly believe that if we didn’t attend Arrowsmith, he would still be a struggling learner and reliant upon others to help him get through his day.  I knew that if we didn't try this program, I would have spent a lifetime wondering....'What if...?'   So if you are reading this and wondering ‘What if…’ I encourage you to take that leap of faith and start wondering what all the possibilities that can be for your child!

I was someone who struggled to make friends, was bullied, and did not always understand academics growing up. So it was decided that I would attend this school and my life did a complete 180. One year into my three-year experience I noticed a difference in myself. I was understanding things better in an academic sense AND I had the ability to make friends, something I did not have prior to attending Arrowsmith. I would HIGHLY recommend anyone considering attending or sending someone to attend to do so. Everyone is incredibly kind and supportive, and I don't just mean the other students. The teachers are one-of-a-kind. There really is no better group of people that I have ever met than the people at Arrowsmith and the program itself works wonders. It is a truly wonderful place that changed my life in all the best ways and it has the ability to change anyone's life in this way.

The Arrowsmith School has fundamentally changed my life for the better. Before I did the program, I was struggling immensely with school. I was behind in my classes, staying up late to complete assignments, and emotionally depleted. It was unsustainable. I had tried everything from tutors to strategies but none of them worked for me. I came to Arrowsmith hoping that I could even see the slightest change. Me, my family, and my teachers were all shocked about the truly drastic results. My grades were boosted, I participated in the classroom, my self confidence soared, and my ability to make and maintain connections skyrocketed. Reading became easy (it's now my favorite activity whereas I avoided it before), and I no longer make errors in math (like transposing numbers or reading a x as a +). It's like I'm a new and improved version of myself. During the program, the Arrowsmith staff were engaging and helpful. My teacher checked in with me regularly and made me feel supported and guided through the program. Whenever I was frustrated, I could confide in her and she pushed me to keep going. Barbara Arrowsmith did the assessments of me herself. Her analysis was far more insightful and helpful then my own high school teachers who saw me everyday! I can't say enough about the impact that Arrowsmith has made in my life. I am forever grateful. Many of my peers who have learning differences and have done the program as well have noticed great results, too. I would recommend this program to absolutely everyone. It changes lives for the better. Thank you, Arrowsmith!!

The Arrowsmith School was truly a life changing gift for my 30 year old daughter who is an educator. After watching the TED Talk “The Woman Who Changed Her Brain,” I thought the course might be helpful for her. She is very bright but her issues with executive processing were causing her much anxiety as well as getting in the way of being an excellent teacher and realizing her potential in life in general. I called the Arrowsmith School and was able to get all of my questions answered and even met with an instructor to understand and sample the symbol relations course they recommended. The course was done online at her own pace and my daughter met weekly with an instructor. There are 10 levels in the course with several sublevels in each. My daughter was motivated to complete the levels so she could move up to the next level. The satisfaction and pride she felt as she mastered a level was exciting for me to see. In a short period of time, her executive processing abilities improved dramatically and her anxiety significantly reduced. The course has helped her in the following areas: confidence, problem solving without overwhelm, focus, prioritizing information and tasks, driving and spatial awareness, self-motivation, communication, social skills, accuracy of her work, making sense of the world, and overall happiness. I highly recommend the course to anyone struggling with any of these issues and feeling that these issues are limiting them or causing unnecessary stress and anxiety. If you are motivated to change your life with a proven tool, this course may be exactly what you are looking for.

I started this program at the beginning of March 2021. My experience engaging with this program has been nothing short of incredible. My social life, my relationships and my confidence have all improved since starting the program. I have suffered with ADHD my entire life and this program has really helped improve my focus and how i respond to anything that comes up. My capacity to focus on anything like engaging in conversation, reading, sports competitions and playing my guitar have all increased as well. I am able to retain much more and my brain capacity keeps on growing. I started this program because i could never focus on anything long enough without getting distracted or able to follow any conversations without getting lost in it or reading anything without losing my concentration. All of these things have greatly decreased and i am much better at all of these things. I am also able to visualize a lot better and see things in colors more often in my mind when reading something. I would recommend this program to anyone who wants to greatly enhance their learning capabilities and boost their confidence in all areas of life. This all comes with staying focused on the program. Without the work the results will not come it took me about 2-3 months to start noticing exceptional results in my brain.

My journey at Arrowsmith began in grade school, where I attended part time (to judge whether or not it would help my mental, social, and educational challenges). I remained part-time for a number of months, and was promptly arranged to go full time, after a dinner party where my father had said something sarcastic, and I actually identified it as sarcastic (which I had never done before). For the first time, I could remember what my parents asked me to do after walking a few paces. For the first time, I could begin to recognize social cues and behaviour. For the first time, I could recognize relationships between people. It was because of those things that I stayed with Arrowsmith for three years before heading off to public high school. During my time there, I met incredible and caring teachers that made me feel welcome, and constantly encouraged me to keep learning every day. The work was intense, but by growing accustomed to that helped in the future for when I went through high school, and all the way to my first year of university. When you are the individual doing the work each day, there's no apparent change except to those around you. In my case, it was my parents, and in the three years, their kid who started with a completely impaired memory, ended up having a memory greater than them combined. It is because of these things, that I would recommend any child, teenager, or adult who experience these challenges every day, to go to Arrowsmith and begin to change their brain for the better.

As parents of three former Arrowsmith students I cannot say enough about the care and consideration of every student’s unique learning profile and character. Mr. Kinsey, Principal, was patient with our many questions and responsive with updates along our journey. Teachers are incredibly invested in each student. Beyond all of that is the remarkable change in our kids. Abilities in reading, writing and math improved significantly - from bare phonetic readers to voraciously reading complex novels, from non-identification of letter sounds and math concepts to excelling in a mainstream curriculum. The Arrowsmith program has completely altered the future opportunities and self-confidence of our kids. What else could a parent wish for their kids.