Q: Is it too late to change?
A: It is never too late to change. In many cases an individual responds better to treatment when he is older and sometimes more able to recognise the need to change.

Q: What is Mediation and Mediated Learning?
A: Mediation is the way the teacher/ parent interacts with the individual and uses that interaction as a meaningful learning experience.

Q: At what age can Mediated Learning be applied?
A: Mediated Learning is relevant to all learning and all interaction throughout life.

Q: What are Cognitive Skills?
A: Cognitive skills are the building blocks of learning. They make up the tool bag for how we function in every aspect of life, from walking home in the right direction each day of our lives, to choosing the right words to express our feelings, to recognising the faces of our loved ones, to passing examinations successfully.

Q: What is Instrumental Enrichment?
A: Instrumental Enrichment is a very effective programme which teaches Thinking Skills. It incorporates Mediated Learning and Cognitive Education.

Q: Why is Cognitive Education so effective with so many different aspects of learning?
A: Cognitive Education is effective because it provides the individual with the need to develop good working habits to improve his own performance.

Q: What is 'bridging'?
A: 'Bridging' is the application of a newly learned principle developed in the lesson to either an aspect of learning, personal relationships or behaviour.

Q: How long will treatment take?
A: Each case is different and requires careful analysis through an assessment process to ascertain the method of treatment. This process is called Dynamic Assessment.

Q: What is Dynamic Assessment?
A: Dynamic Assessment is administered in a test-teach-test method and examines not the static level of the student's performance but his potential to change and the quality and intensity of the mediation needed to facilitate that change. The focus is the individual's learning potential.

Q: Can individuals with genetic/ organic disorders benefit from Cognitive Education?
A: Yes. Given the correct quality and intensity of mediation, individuals with genetic or organic disorders benefit enormously from a cognitive based programme.

Q: What does Cognitive Education offer that my child's school does not?
A: The school provides mainly learning via the teaching of different subject matter, cognitive education aims at equipping the child with the building blocks required for the process of learning. While school teaches the 'what' of learning, Cognitive Education teaches the 'how'.

Q: My child always gets all his spellings right in a test, but when he uses the words in a piece of work, he always has to redo his work because of his spelling. Will this programme help him?
A: Spelling requires a number of cognitive skills namely, sequencing, spatial orientation, comparison and visual analysis. By teaching him how to process these skills simultaneously he will become equipped to spell, write, compose and remember information and thereby improve his performance.

Q: We have always been told that our child is innumerate. Is this programme helpful for maths?
A: Mathematical understanding relies on a number of cognitive skills namely, spatial orientation, sequencing and understanding that maths is a language of symbols. Maths also requires logical reasoning and problem solving which are two of the main goals of cognitive education and the programmes offered at the ICML.

Q: My child never sits still for a minute. Why will this help him?
A: When an individual is totally absorbed and motivated, he is able to use his energies more readily to concentrate on the task in hand. By increasing his motivation, the individual will feel calmer, more focussed and gradually have greater control of his mental processes so that his concentration gradually improves.

Q: Why should these methods work when all other methods have failed?
A: These methods are effective because they deal with the fundamental building blocks of learning. They look at the 'How?' of learning, not the 'What'. They teach the learner how to learn.