| PRINICPLES
The combination of appropriate, specialized tools with expert skills training is the key to the success BRAIN BOOK® System’s students experience. In either case, increased function improves quality of life!
Wall calendars used at home do not work very well on the bus. “To Do” lists that work when making calls at the kitchen table may not be effective in the office or the construction site. And “Memory Notes” that are dashed out on Post-it notes may not be effective anywhere! The BRAIN BOOK® System provides one complete, comprehensive tool that is effective in a hospital or nursing care setting, as well as in residential rehab, at home, on the bus, in the mall, or at the job site! A whole brain was injured and a whole life needs to be restored. The BRAIN BOOK® System does not slice of the “vocational part” and address it in a vacuum. It does not slice off the keeping-appointments part as if other aspects of life did not matter. It does not slice off the emotional part, as if emotional control were the key to regaining function! The BRAIN BOOK® System restores function and produces self-reliant, meaningful lives to people, one tactic (skill) at a time. Brains don’t heal the way bones do. They require different tools and skills.
Revolutionary even! May require a paradigm shift. New enough it has not penetrated the mainstream (yet). . . But not experimental either It simply works! |
Tools and Skills
When a person with brain injury does not have necessary tools to work with, the skills we try
to teach them don’t have anything to “stick to.” A false conclusion is often drawn - either
they are unteachable (the are too impaired) or worse, that they are not exerting sufficient
effort or discipline. BRAIN BOOK® System
operates from the premise that appropriate tools and skills training need to be provided first
- before any of these conclusions can even be considered! 
In some cases recovery is miraculous! People who had been “written off” to live lives of quiet
(or not so quiet) desperation are able to live independently, work again and enjoy their
families! 
Less dramatic, yet significant improvements are experienced by others. Perhaps a person is
able to independently know when and how to get dressed in the morning, whereas prior to
learning necessary skills they relied exclusively on external cues of their caregivers. Perhaps
they can navigate their transportation system by themselves and get to and from the store
without forgetting where they were headed. Perhaps they are able to successfully follow
instructions at a volunteer site and regain meaningful life activity during the day. 
Over the last five years, the BRAIN BOOK® System’s program has been successfully taught one-on-one and in small groups at BRAIN BOOK® System’s school in Medford, Oregon. It has also been taught in family settings and in
vocational day-programs. Vocational Rehabilitation counselors have successfully used BRAIN BOOK® System’s program, as have independent living centers, private speech therapists and others.
Professionals (notably, speech pathologists and occupational therapists) have taken BRAIN BOOK® System’s trainer training seminars. And over the last two years, the Internet has become an
important resource to both students and professionals alike. Some students actually teach
themselves skills by using distance-learning tools BRAIN BOOK® System provides. 
Students start with a foundation of basics and build on skills they can transfer to other
situations. The heart of the system is the BRAIN BOOK®,
an assistive devise some people favorably compare to a cognitive wheelchair. Skills training
is provided in the form of video and audio tape support, as well as Internet “classrooms” and
cyberspace “lessons." Family members can be taught to be a person’s “coach.” Private teachers
can be hired and taught the system. Professionals too! 
Student feedback is overwhelmingly positive. Some report that they are successful after a
lifetime of failure or many years of traditional rehabilitation therapy. Others report that
the BRAIN BOOK® System literally saved
their lives. These testimonials are available, and many students welcome sharing their success
stories. 
When failure is experience, either the injury or the person is often blamed, when it may be
more likely that the tools and skills the person was provided fell short because they were not
designed to last over the person’s entire lifetime. 
The BRAIN BOOK® System replicates cognitive
function on paper. Whether it’s information capture, storage, retrieval, or use, the BRAIN BOOK® System addresses it. Communication, emotional control, shopping, errands, routines - all the
bases are covered with one complete, integrated system. 
This integrated systems approach helps a person learn how to live again - in an entirely new
way - using compensatory tools and skills known to be successful. It is not based on theories.
It is not based on false assumptions. It is based on what has been shown to work in real life
with real people who have experienced brain injury.
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