| Bridges
is a program we are using at Jimtown North
to help the students succeed in school by improving attention
span, memory, eye-hand coordination, reasoning and thinking
skills. In developing students’ abilities to learn and
increasing their capacity to remember and apply information,
we find there is better learning and teaching.
 Referral
to the lab is by teachers as they see a student in need or
one with low standardized test scores. Students meet twice
a week for 30-45 minute sessions to work on activities that
develop comprehension, memory, focusing skills and sensory
integration. Helping the students prepare to participate and
succeed in the classroom and in their coming school years
is the goal.
First and second graders work their way through a group plan
of exercises which are designed to improve visual and auditory
attending, balance and posture, coordination, accuracy, sustained
focus, patterning, controlled eye movement, eye-hand coordination
and sequencing. These activities are at the foundational level
and will help to establish basic skills.
By third grade the students are developmentally more mature
and their vision behaviors are better established. They are
then tested and screened to produce their own “treatment
plan” which zeroes in on those skills which need improvement.
Going beyond the basic to strengthen and challenge in abilities
that are weak, these exercises help bring academic success.
Bridges is helping students perform better in school and be
better prepared for life.
What Does Bridges Help Improve?
General learning ability
- Concentration
- Following steps
- Sequencing information
- Focused visual attending
- Focused auditory attending
- Following verbal instruction
- Memory
Reading
- Controlled eye movement
- Transformational thinking
- Sustained focus
- Visual stamina
Math
- Patterning
- Sequencing
- Mental processing
Fine Motor skills
- Accuracy
- Control
- Hand-eye coordination
- Handwriting
Gross Motor Skills
- Coordination
- Physical stamina
- Crossing the midline
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|
 Tonita
Clark has been a Bridges specialist and lab instructor for
five years. She completed the training and requirements of
the Bridges Learning Development using the theories of Integrated
Practice Protocol and Structure of Intellect in 2000. Since
the start of Bridges in Jimtown North we have seen many students
benefit from the program.
Bridges
Learning Therapy
Physical and intellectual exercise, designed
to help pupils succeed
Areas of Concern
- Cognitive
Specific learning abilities can be made stronger. We assess
27 different abilities and work on the weakest ones.
- Sensory Integration
Without this, perceptual inputs are scrambled or confusing.
The student deals with incomplete or confusing data, making
learning difficult.
- Focusing Skills
Visual processing – Without this, the student
cannot process data quickly enough to assimilate information
in a timely or appropriate fashion. The student may appear
to be “slow” or “disabled” cognitively.
- Accommodation flexibility – Adjusting quickly
when focusing near to far
- Saccade – Quickly moving from one fixed point
to the next and processing the information seen
- Convergence – Both eyes tracking a moving object
- Binocularity – Both eyes focusing on the same
point at the same time
- Fusion – The ability of the brain to make the
vision from each eye into a single picture
- Nonreader
We evaluate the best method of learning for each student
Symbolic - A phonetic approach works
best
Semantic-A sight-reading approach works best
Figural – Another approach is needed
- Memory
Can be trained
Our
Goal
To better equip the learner to benefit from instruction
and perform better in life
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