Kath Denholm’s learning course for children teaches skills critical for learning and academic success, writes Candice Botha.
Kath Denholm was working as a speech therapist in private practice in uMhlanga when she first came across her now-husband, Daren. “I had to teach children how to store information to their long-term memory. To be absolutely honest, I had crammed most of my Speech Therapy and Audiology Degree into my short-term memory – and the information was long gone! I felt like a complete fraud,” she says. Kath had heard about Daren who was making a name for himself as “the memory guy” after competing in several World Memory Championships.
“I researched and stalked him online and watched all his videos over and over again. The cost of his courses far exceeded my meagre budget, though.” But in a divine twist of fate, Kath and Daren met through church, fell in love and Daren soon had a wife who shared his passion for learning and memory enhancement. “He encouraged me to compete in the World Memory Championships too, and we went to China when I was six months pregnant,” Kath says.
There she met a nine–year–old girl who was not only a talented competitor but found learning genuinely enjoyable. “She set me thinking that kids could find learning and memory development fun – and it was this that set the stage for what has become Little Genius.”
Daren has built a successful Durban-based business around teaching memory and learning skills to high school and university students and adults after his almost failing grades at university were completely turned around by implementing them in his own life. But for Kath, she has adapted the skills he teaches – through Genius Series – for a younger audience. “The sweet spot is from around Grade 2 to Grade 5,” she says.
The programme uses a group of entertaining puppets to teach children skills including effective listening, the distinction between critical and non-critical information, identifying key concepts, effective reading, note-taking, summarising, and the art of revision. “The tone is entertaining and humorous and children find the 40 minutes a week that the course takes, genuinely enjoyable,” says Kath who has run the courses at local schools, children’s homes as well as working through it with her own son, Jack, who is in Grade 2.
Little Genius has been eight years in the making and Kath has seen students who worked through the material in their early school years successfully matriculating. “Learning is a science we can all get better at,” she says. “Organised, creative and consistent reinforcement of key information leads to superior academic or learning results. Building the foundational skills that we teach through the puppets on Little Genius enables kids to see results and learn effectively.”
The facilitator of the online course is an essential element, especially for younger children, but Kath says that parents have been amazed at how much they have learnt about how they learn themselves, through working through the course with their children. “It is so important to equip yourself with the strategies and model them for your children. Starting early – as soon as they can read – is also essential as is being consistent and working through the course week by week,” she explains. “Parents who understand the concepts and how it increases their child’s potential and makes learning fun and straightforward are also able to help them to implement the strategies which is key to success.”
The online Little Genius series includes the puppet show videos, workbooks, quiz books and star charts and runs for three terms of 12 weeks with lessons taking 40 minutes each. “Parents enjoy the fact that they can revisit the course as their children grow, and refresh just certain skills if necessary,” says Kath. “The skills children gain apply to all areas of learning – from comprehension to fact recall – and we find it so rewarding to see how our Little Geniuses grow in confidence.”
FOR MORE INFO: kath@genuisseries.com.
Pictured: Daren and Kath Denholm with their three small children.