Business Spotlight: LearningRx

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By Samantha Prust

LearningRx is on a mission to improve your brain. No other brain training compares with Learning Rx, says Mike Winchell, owner of a franchise in Fort Collins. “Other brain training is just videos, which is akin to learning to play tennis by watching a video,” says Winchell. “Instead, we feature one-on-one, face-to-face training, and we have demonstrated, researched results.”

“My plan since college was to work in a field making brains work better.” —Mike Winchell Director at the LearningRx Fort Collins Brain Training Center

When Winchell discovered the program in 2008, he found his calling. “My plan since college was to work in a field making brains work better.” As a former electrical engineer who programmed neural networks, Winchell knew LearningRx was a natural fit for his skills and goals. He also credits Sue Ann Highland, his organizational development director, with helping him achieve success through his franchise. Highland has a background as a school principal and loves working with children.

LearningRx has helped a wide variety of both kids and adults achieve better learning outcomes in school, says Winchell, noting that it has also benefited those who have been diagnosed with ADHD, dyslexia, traumatic brain injury, learning disabilities and autism, as well as age-related cognitive decline. In addition, the training helps people who have no cognitive struggles but just want to boost their brain power to be at the top of their game to pursue their life goals.

The process begins with a LearningRx trainer, who uses nationally recognized cognitive tests to assess a client’s abilities, and then designs a series of personalized mental workouts. Trainers measure cognitive skills through the Learning Model, which is based on the Cattell-Horn-Carroll theory of intelligence. Cognitive skills include attention, processing speed, working memory, auditory processing, visual processing, long-term memory, and logic and reasoning.

Unfortunately, the legitimacy of brain training is compromised by “neuro-myths,” as Highland notes. Some of those myths include:

• The average person uses only 10 percent of his/her brain.

• Humans are either right-brained or left-brained.

• Adults cannot improve their cognitive abilities.

Science has since dispelled these myths, and fortunately, they didn’t discourage LearningRx founder Ken Gibson from pursuing his goal to develop an effective brain training system. In the late 1970s, he began to work on brain training methods out of a desire to help students struggling with reading.

The success of Gibson’s program is illustrated by numerous studies. For example, a group of 17,998 clients who completed training between 2010 and 2015 show an average gain of 26 percentile points in IQ. You can find many other peer-reviewed articles and studies at learningrx.com under “Research & Science.”

When you read the inspirational stories displayed on the walls of LearningRx, you see just how amazing the results are and what the program can do to restore confidence through better cognitive performance. Highland and Winchell are passionate about helping people, and they find their work rewarding in many ways. “It is truly life-changing,” says Highland. Winchell and Highland’s compassion reaches further into the community through their Realities for Children fund to help abused and neglected children. They also do outreach to schools, helping to train teachers and parents on the reasons why children struggle with learning.

To learn more about how LearningRx can help you improve your brain, visit www.learningrx.com, call (970) 672-2020, or visit the Fort Collins office at 1100 Haxton Drive, Suite #105.