The character arc of Barbara Arrowsmith Young

A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record

Born on 28 November 1951 in Toronto, to an electrical engineer father and a teacher mother. Between then and now sit exceptional visual and auditory memory paired with severe deficits including dyslexia, dyscalculia and problems with spatial reasoning, logic and kinaesthetic perception, basic literacy and numeracy achieved with her mother's help, a verdict in 1957 that a mental block would prevent her learning like other children, the exercises she designed for herself, a school founded in Toronto, a programme used elsewhere, a book in 2012, and a long running argument about whether any of it works. The line below draws the story so far, in order.

Drag along the line to move, pinch or use the buttons to look closer. Tap the line to pluck it, or any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of her life; the sources are at the foot of the page.

Who is Barbara Arrowsmith Young?

They told her at six she would never learn. She built the exercises herself.

She was born in Toronto to an electrical engineer who worked for a large manufacturer and a teacher. As a child she had exceptional visual and auditory memory, which is a real gift, and alongside it several severe deficits: dyslexia, dyscalculia, and problems with spatial reasoning, logic and kinaesthetic perception. That combination is a particular kind of misery, because you can clearly remember things you cannot make sense of.

With her mother's help she eventually reached basic literacy and numeracy. In 1957, aged six, she was told she suffered from a mental block that would prevent her from learning like other children, and that she was destined for a life dominated by her limitations. That is the sentence the rest of the life is an answer to.

What she did, in the end, was refuse the verdict and design her own exercises against her own deficits, on the premise that the brain can be changed by targeted practice. She founded the Arrowsmith School in Toronto, whose teaching method is built on the programme she developed, and the programme has been taken up elsewhere.

In 2012 she published The Woman Who Changed Her Brain, which combines an autobiographical account of her own severe learning disabilities and the method she developed to overcome them with case studies of children she says overcame similar problems using it. The programme is described in the record as controversial, and the claims made for the case studies are carefully attributed to her. That argument is a real one and belongs on this page alongside the rest.

The moments

Barbara Arrowsmith Young's timeline.

The 1950s

~1956

A gift and several deficits

Setback, and it changed everything. An exceptional memory, and almost nothing she could do with it.

Sep 1957

Told she would never learn

Setback, and it changed everything. Six years old, and an adult told her that was the end of it.

The 1960s

~1960

Her mother gets her reading

Milestone, and it changed everything. Her mother, who was a teacher, would not accept it either.

1 Jun 1969

Accept the verdict

Crossroads, decided.

The paths laid out: design her own way out, taken, or live within the limits. She founded a school in Toronto built on the method, and wrote the book in 2012.

The 1970s

~1970

She designs her own exercises

Milestone, and it changed everything. No programme existed, so she wrote one for herself.

The 1980s

~1980

The Arrowsmith School

Milestone, and it changed everything. A school of her own, teaching the method she invented on herself.

The 1990s

~1995

It spreads beyond Toronto

Milestone, and it changed her direction. Other schools taking the programme on.

The 2010s

24 Apr 2012

The Woman Who Changed Her Brain

Milestone, and it changed everything. Sixty years old, and she wrote down the whole thing herself.

~2013

The method is disputed

Setback, and it changed her direction. The programme is argued about, and the record says so plainly.

~2018

On the lecture circuit

Everyday. Still standing in front of rooms, explaining what happened to her.

The school in Toronto is still open and the argument about the method is still running. What she set moving is harder to measure than either: a child who was written off at six refused the verdict, and then spent fifty years insisting that other children should be allowed to refuse it too.

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Barbara Arrowsmith Young: frequently asked questions

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What is Barbara Arrowsmith Young's character arc?

A child with exceptional memory and several severe learning deficits who was told at six that a mental block would stop her learning like other children, designed her own exercises against it, and founded a school in Toronto built on them.

What was Barbara Arrowsmith Young told as a child?

In 1957, aged six, she was told she suffered from a mental block that would prevent her from learning like other children, and that she was destined to live a life dominated by severe limitations. With her mother's help she reached basic literacy and numeracy.

What is Barbara Arrowsmith Young's Arrowsmith Program?

The method of exercises Barbara Arrowsmith Young developed to address her own learning disabilities, which forms the basis of the teaching method at the Arrowsmith School in Toronto, which she founded, and has been taken up elsewhere.

Is Barbara Arrowsmith Young's method proven?

The record describes the programme as controversial, and attributes the claims made for its case studies to her rather than stating them as established. That argument is a real one and is recorded on this page alongside the rest of her story.

What is Barbara Arrowsmith Young's book?

The Woman Who Changed Her Brain, published in 2012, which combines an autobiographical account of her own severe learning disabilities and the method she built to overcome them with case studies of children she says did the same.

What were Barbara Arrowsmith Young's learning difficulties?

Exceptional visual and auditory memory coupled with several severe deficits in other areas, including dyslexia, dyscalculia and problems with spatial reasoning, logic and kinaesthetic perception. She could remember clearly things she could not make sense of.

Where does this timeline of Barbara Arrowsmith Young's life come from?

From the public record. Character Arc drew every moment on this line from the sources listed at the foot of the page, and the kind and weight of each moment are our editorial reading. Barbara Arrowsmith Young isn't a Member of Character Arc and has no connection with it, and no feeling is attributed to her.

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Sources

Barbara Arrowsmith Young, English Wikipedia biography, filed under living people.
Her own 2012 book, as summarised there, for the autobiographical account and the case studies.
The record describes the programme as controversial and attributes its claims to her; this page keeps that wording.