These three authors will not be new to many readers. For more than thirty years, they have been developing and refining the method created by Reuven Feuerstein.
The method rests on three core principles: structural cognitive modifiability, dynamic assessment for learning potential, and instrumental enrichment programming. These words may sound complex, but they offer a strikingly different—and deeply optimistic—approach to working with people who have intellectual disabilities. The book's subtitle captures this well. At first glance, it may seem harsh to those with disabilities: haven't we always said that love means accepting people as they are, limits and all, especially when those limits come from a handicap? The authors disagree. What we must not accept, they argue, is the handicap itself. Instead, we should do everything possible to strengthen and develop the child's cognitive abilities—sometimes even more deliberately than we would pursue motor recovery.
According to the theory of structural cognitive modifiability, there is no age, level of intelligence, cause of impairment, or severity of handicap that can, by itself, block the brain's capacity for development and cognitive growth. Recent advances in brain imaging—such as positron emission tomography—have confirmed this theory. They show that the brain is plastic: it can change its structure and chemistry in response to the environment. The brain can reshape its connections through systematic, focused external stimulation. It can hold onto the changes it makes. And it can sustain further changes.
The method's primary aim is to help people acquire the skills they need to learn on their own—to learn how to learn.
Dynamic assessment of learning is fundamentally different from traditional IQ tests, which measure what a person can demonstrate by completing tasks alone. Drawing on the Russian psychologist Vygotsky—a contemporary of the better-known Piaget—this approach measures learning potential. It asks: what can an individual do with the help of a mediator (a parent or teacher, for example)? What a child can do with an adult's support indicates what the child will eventually do alone. Once that first shift happens, others follow, building on it through instrumental enrichment programming. This targets the learning process itself, reshaping the mental structures that underlie learning.
The program consists of tools to master—gradually increasing in difficulty—and guided learning experiences. There are two normally observable ways a person learns and changes: learning through direct exposure to stimuli, and learning through a mediator. Children with intellectual disabilities often lack the capacity to learn through direct exposure alone. That is where support matters most.
A mediator steps between the learning child and the environment, offering support the disabled child lacks. The goal is to make the child gradually independent of that mediation.
Implementing the method correctly is far from simple. The approach is holistic. It must involve the child in every aspect of daily life. It demands not only many hours of formal training but also the commitment of parents or caregivers to transform even the simplest moment of the day into a guided learning experience—all while honoring their own parenting and teaching style.
The book is genuinely compelling, written with passion and full of practical insights for any reader. (The instrumental enrichment program has even been adapted for training top executives.) The authors also share case studies, including those of Reuven Feuerstein's own son and Yaacov Rand's daughter. Hearing how these experts navigated the birth of a child with a handicap offers a vivid, deeply moving example of how to face that moment in your own life.
Cristina Tersigni, 2006