Feuerstein Program for ADHD
The Instrumental Enrichment (IE) program is a series of cognitive tasks, created to strengthen learning skills through various exercises. Designed to enhance an individual's learning and thinking strategies, the IE tools are puzzle-like paper and pencil tasks, focusing on perceptual-motor function. Reuven Feuerstein, a student of French psychologist, Jean Piaget, identified 28 specific cognitive functions foundational to learning and living. Those 28 thinking skills are the target of all Feuerstein programs.
During the IE sessions a trained Feuerstein mediator leads learners through increasingly complex tasks by mediating the process of analysis and how to solve a problem systematically. The progressive nature of the IE tools allows the learner’s progress to be monitored, and the program to be modified in accordance with the learner’s changing needs.
IE utilizes a style of teaching called mediation which guides the learner with specialized questioning in a way that is meaningful to them, so that they understand the lesson and are able to apply the strategies learned in other contexts, called bridging. The trained mediator’s skilled questioning helps the learner to think about their thinking, also known as metacognition. The process of learning is the focus of all IE programs.
Organization of Dots (example on the previous page) is one of the 25 programs developed by Reuven Feuerstein to develop the prerequisite cognitive skills necessary for all learning. Clients are carefully guided to find and create shapes such as squares and triangles by connecting dots even though the shapes have been overlapped and rotated.
Tactile/Kinesthetic I.E. is a program developed by Reuven Feuerstein and Roman Gouzman to assist children and adults with ADHD or a visual impairment to develop the same 28 cognitive functions as Organization of Dots provides, just in a different modality. Clients are blindfolded and learn how to focus and visualize symbolic representations of the objects from raised lines on special paper. People with ADHD are strongly impacted by this program as it requires them to control impulsivity, to focus, and to plan. An engaging program, participants of all ages find Tactile I.E. enjoyable and motivating.
The MindCAP Center in Fort Wayne, IN is the only Authorized Training Center in North America offering both clinical services to children and adults as well as training in all Feuerstein Programs. Director and founder Dr. Jeanne Zehr and Assistant Director Greta Ehlers are international trainers for the Feuerstein Institute in Israel. They and the team of certified Feuerstein mediators are dedicated to helping all people who come to MindCAP to unleash their limitless potential.
Learn more about the Feuerstein Institute at www.icelp.info and The MindCAP Center at www.mind-cap.org.