Equipping Minds Cognitive Development Program

“What makes this program different from others is that Carol has the research and the data to back up its effectiveness. The research on the association between working memory and academic achievement makes this program an ideal choice for sharpening a student’s academic skills. As a father, uncle, teacher, and educational researcher, I would recommend this program to any parent seeking to build their child’s learning capacity.

John Almarode, Ph.D.

Equipping Minds^® Cognitive Therapy can be implemented either in person or online from anywhere in the world. Dr. Carol Brown’s doctoral research was accepted for publication in the peer-reviewed Journal of Alternative Medicine Research and was published in June 2018. You can read the journal under the RESEARCH menu. 

Our primary mission is to work with children and adults to bring hope by strengthening their cognitive abilities and decreasing learning, emotional, and social challenges. We work individually with children and adults of all ages and abilities to reach their full potential through our onsite and online programs. We see working memory, processing speed, attention, comprehension, critical thinking, and communication skills increase, impacting academic, social, and language abilities.

Students succeed academically, improve communication and social skills, perform better in sports, and grow in self-confidence. Adults notice an increase in work performance and working memory. We encourage you to contact us for an evaluation or phone consultation. You can then choose the following options for therapy. Please take a look at the chart at the bottom of the page for further details.

1. Individual online therapy sessions with an Equipping Minds therapist from anywhere in the world. $30 for 30 minutes/$45, 45 minutes/$60 for 60 minutes No interest payment plans are available. We recommend a minimum of 60 hours. Scholarships are available if you qualify. Many states in the US have programs that cover Equipping Minds.

2. Individual online therapy sessions with an Equipping Minds therapist until you can take over the sessions.

3. ROSES: Recorded Online Sessions Equipping Students is for families, therapists, and schools that choose to work with their students daily, with support from an Equipping Minds therapist, as they watch recorded sessions with Dr. Carol Brown. You can learn more under the SHOP. You can also use the ROSES program without online sessions. Amazon games are purchased separately. We also highly recommend sound therapy. Please watch this video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3HyvOtKQPw&t=2s

4. ALL OPTIONS SHOULD BE DONE 5 DAYS A WEEK FOR A MINIMUM OF 60 HOURS FOR 12-36 WEEKS. YOU WILL NEED A TEACHER WORKBOOK, STUDENT WORKBOOK, MAINTAINING BRAINS, Equipping Minds Cards, Equipping Minds Cards Course, GAMES from Amazon & SOUND THERAPY. Please find the details in the Shop.

Suggested Daily Schedule:

1. Cognitive Exercises 30-60 minutes a day. Need a student workbook. Games from Amazon are listed in the SHOP.

2. 15 minutes: Maintaining Brains Everyday Primitive Reflex Exercises for 6 weeks. We also recommend the book The Symphony of Reflexes.

3. 60 minutes: Sound Therapy strengthens the auditory system. It should be worn during cognitive exercises, reading, relaxing, swinging, or sleeping. Purchase from the Equipping Minds SHOP.

4. Meclizine twice a day if needed. Learn more about the vestibular system below. Consult Dr. Brown for the proper dosage.

What separates Equipping Minds from other programs is its holistic approach. The Equipping Minds program uses nutritional therapy, primitive reflex exercises, sound therapy, vestibular therapy, and vision exercises, in addition to Equipping Minds cognitive training exercises developed by Dr. Carol Brown. The cognitive training exercises are designed to integrate multiple brain regions simultaneously. Learners participate in fun games and activities. These games are used to identify areas where the brain struggles, such as working memory, processing speed, perceptual reasoning, and comprehension. From there, the therapist can hone in and “give the brain a workout.” As an athlete trains at the gym, the therapist uses these games and activities to stretch and strengthen the brain.

Equipping Minds also differs from other programs in that it uses what students already know to strengthen their minds. Equipping Minds ingeniously sets aside academic skills, enabling us to quickly and accurately identify foundational roots and cognitive functions. Working memory and processing speed are among the most common weaknesses among students with learning challenges. The program also addresses the cognitive functions identified by Dr. Reuven Feuerstein and visual and auditory processing, attention, logic, and comprehension.

What makes Equipping Minds Cognitive Therapy holistic?

Physical, cognitive, behavioral, and relational skills develop together rather than in isolation. A more holistic approach to building challenge areas and enhancing strengths increases confidence, communication, memory, comprehension, processing, and relational skills. Treating the whole person through a multidisciplinary approach will give the best results. As Dr. Karen Purvis states in The Connected Child, “Too often, parents and experts look at behavioral and learning disorders as if they existed separate from sensory impairments; separate from attention difficulties; separate from early childhood deprivation, neurological damage, attachment disorders, post-traumatic stress, and so on.”  

Many children and adults tried tutoring, medication, speech therapy, occupational therapy, and vision therapy. However, they typically have done these in isolation and were only seen twice a week for 30-60 minutes. While there has been some improvement, we have seen that combining “cross-training” the brain across multiple areas, five to seven days a week for an hour a day over three to six months, enables neural pathways to connect.

Cognitive Therapy Exercises

One-on-one and small group cognitive therapy use Dr. Carol Brown’s Equipping Minds Cognitive Development Workbook. Cognitive therapy is a fully integrated system of drills and training exercises delivered in an intense, one-on-one environment designed to attack and strengthen weak or underdeveloped cognitive learning skills. It is not designed to tutor or teach academic subjects. Instead, it will develop the underlying skills required to learn effectively. Cognitive skills-auditory processing, visual processing, working and long-term memory, comprehension, logic, reasoning, and attention skills – are foundational to a person’s ability to receive, process, and retain information. The training program strengthens these skills, enabling learning.

Cognitive therapy is a form of educational therapy that helps to develop and repair neurotransmitters. Each component of the program is essential to strengthening working memory, processing speed, visual-spatial skills, and auditory processing; therefore, each exercise (eye, primitive reflex, and sound) is vital to the student’s success. You must set aside time each day for the program.

This program is designed for five sessions per week, in conjunction with the programs listed below, and is implemented at home. Most individuals complete the program in 12-36 weeks; others may need longer. Younger students may need to meet for 30-45-minute sessions over 16-36 weeks. The Cognitive Therapy program is holistic. Participation in the entire program is imperative. Partial participation will yield partial results.

Classroom Connection with Equipping Minds

Once the underlying cognitive skills are strengthened, the academic skills become easier. Though we do not train specifically in math, English, or other academic subjects, the students are taught to make the connection to those subjects through vocabulary development, visualization of letters for spelling and reading, oral and written expression, reading comprehension, attention skills, study and outlining skills, and visualization of numbers for math facts and math sense. All of these skills are required throughout life. The key to learning quickly and efficiently lies in improving and automating these skills. The Equipping Minds specialist can support writing, reading, math, and curriculum selection.

Primitive Reflex Therapy

Primitive Reflex Therapy starts with testing and integrating the Primitive Survival Reflexes. These reflexes provide the newborn with learning experiences that lay the foundation for more complex muscle movements and later cognitive tasks. The reflexes are integrated sequentially from 3 to 11 months. A lack of integration of these reflexes over the past 6-12 months can interfere with cortical and cerebellar processing and affect learning, movement, and attention. The visual-motor system is closely involved in the transition from primitive reflexes to cortical cerebellar control of movement patterns. By replicating the stages of development, the neuro-pathways can be opened, enabling successful treatment. According to Sally Goddard, in Reflexes, Learning, and Behavior, “Most education and many remedial techniques are aimed at reaching higher centers in the brain. A Neurodevelopmental approach identifies the lowest level of dysfunction and targets therapy in that area. Once these problems have been remedied, the program attempts to build links to higher centers through specific stimulation techniques.”  We use Maintaining Brains Everyday found on the SHOP.

Sound Therapy

Sound Therapy is a unique listening system using new knowledge about the brain. The Sound Therapy Synergy program is designed to work in concert with other treatments, so all methods enhance one another. Based on the discoveries of the ear specialist, Dr. Tomatis, Patricia Rafaele Joudry’s Sound Therapy method is available as a portable self-help program. Watch the video here. Specifically recorded programs of highly filtered classical music rehabilitate the ear and stimulate the brain. Sound Therapy stimulates the ear by presenting it with continuously alternating high and low tones within the complex structure of classical music. Stimulation via sensory pathways re-maps the brain, improving our understanding and processing of sound. The brain, in turn, sends signals back to the ear to improve its function. One theory suggests that this feedback loop improves the performance of the middle ear muscles and the tiny, hair-like cells in the inner ear. As the ear becomes more open and receptive to high-frequency sounds, they are transmitted to the brain. Research has shown that brain function improves with high-frequency sound. There is increased blood flow to certain centers and increased electrical activity. The results observed among Sound Therapy listeners include increased energy, reduced fatigue, improved focus and creativity, and reduced need for sleep. Read the research paper here.

Vestibular Therapy

Dr. Levinson’s pioneering research has revealed an essential piece in understanding learning disabilities such as dyslexia, ADHD and ADD, dysgraphia, anxiety, dyspraxia, and phobic and mood disorders. Most importantly, a simple and safe combination of “inner-ear enhancing” medication, meclizine, and nutrients can rapidly and often dramatically improve the above disorders and hundreds of diverse symptoms—all resulting from previously hidden fine-tuning or signal dysfunction of inner-ear or cerebellar-vestibular (CV) origin. We recommend 12.5 white meclizine tablets. You can purchase the Rugby brand from Amazon. Begin with 6 mg in the morning and afternoon and gradually increase. Please discuss the dosage with us. If you are on other medications, discuss this with your doctor. His website is dyslexiaonline.com. Sound and reflex therapies also affect the vestibular system.

Nutritional Therapy

There is a strong connection between the gut and the brain. We will work with each family to discuss this area and make recommendations. Systemic inflammation triggers brain inflammation. A gluten-free, sugar-free, dairy-free, and processed-food-free diet is optimal. Our wellness coordinator will review your diet and discuss any gastrointestinal dysfunction symptoms, allergies, immune system abnormalities, use of multiple antibiotics, and swelling. We also recommend Karen Hurd, who is an experienced nutritionist.

Pricing Levels for Equipping Minds Therapy

What are the options for educators, interventionists, therapists, and parents to become proficient in implementing Equipping Minds Therapy?