Many people assume intelligence is something you are born with, but educational psychologist and brain trainer Dina Halaseh argues it can be strengthened. Drawing on real stories from her work with students and adults, she explains how building core skills like attention, memory, and reasoning can improve learning, confidence, and everyday performance. Dina Halaseh is an educational psychologist who believes every brain can be trained for success. After years of teaching and seeing students struggle, she turned to neuroscience and became one of the first certified brain trainers in the region. In 2015, she co-founded Mind Matters in Jordan, bringing research-based programs that strengthen memory, attention, and learning skills for children and adults alike. Her mission: to show that with the right training, no learner is limited by their struggles. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.
Every time I say I'm a brain trainer,
everyone looks at me and says, what's that?
And I say, I train memory, focus, attention,
and other mental skills.
I make people smarter.
But the funny thing is, I'm standing right here
looking at all of you, and I can't remember my speech.
Okay, so before we start,
let's just go back to our school days.
Can you remember when you were in a classroom
with a teacher having a list of facts
just written on the board,
and you have to remember every single word?
You were tested for facts.
If you remember them, then you're smart.
Everything is okay.
And if you don't, well, that's unfortunate.
We live in the world of AI.
Our small devices in our pockets
can get any information in a matter of seconds.
But we were never taught how to use that information,
how to be creative with it, how to analyze it,
how to remember it, and how to focus.
So today, I'm gonna tell you three facts about your brain.
Fact number one.
Are you guys ready?
You can, yeah?
Okay.
You can actually train your brain, all right?
So in order to explain that,
we're gonna try it firsthand.
Let's assume we're going to the store,
and we have to buy a list of things.
And you have one minute to remember that list.
What do you think, is that easy?
Can you do it?
Okay.
Let's try it my way.
All right, so the first word is milk.
Let's imagine us, we're just pouring milk into a cup.
The milk splashes.
One of those splashes turns into an egg, all right?
The egg breaks on the bread, all right?
Cheese, the egg feels sticky.
The bread feels sticky and sticky,
and we have to go wash it off in a river of cheese, all right?
Then apples.
Can you imagine like those apple slices
turning into a boat?
There's a chicken riding the boat, okay?
And the chicken is just so excited,
throwing confetti of rice everywhere, rice everywhere.
The rice hits the tomato,
and the tomato explodes into the cup of coffee.
There's coffee all over the table.
We need to wash that.
Soap.
Uh-oh, it's juice.
We just give up, and let's just have some ice cream, all right?
Now I want you to try it.
Let's try it my way.
What was the first word?
Milk, all right.
What happened?
The splashes, eggs.
Then bread, exactly, river of cheese.
Apple, all right.
What was riding the apple?
Chicken, rice everywhere.
Tomatoes, explosion of coffee.
We have to clean it with soap.
Uh-oh, juice.
And finally, let's just have a break with ice cream.
What do you guys think?
Yeah, yeah, that was easier, right?
That's how you train your brain.
This takes me to point number two.
If you can train your brain, then you can become smarter.
I'm just gonna share a story of one of my students.
This was like 13 years ago.
His name was Sammy.
He was only nine,
and he had so many learning difficulties.
He couldn't read, write, focus, and do math.
When he first came to me, the first word he said was,
I'm stupid, I can't do this.
Can you imagine how heartbreaking that is?
Can you imagine a mom or a dad seeing their kids say that?
Sorry.
Can you imagine seeing your kids say that they're stupid,
and there's nothing that you can do to fix that?
I think that's just horrible, it's heartbreaking.
That kid we trained every day, and towards the end,
that I'm stupid, turned into I'm a genius.
A kid that was nine turned into a genius.
He now finished off his school,
and he's actually finishing
his engineering certificate now, yeah.
And that takes me to point number three.
You need to make sure that you treat your brain
like a muscle.
Make sure you spend every day just a little bit of time
to put your brain as a priority.
Give your brain the time of day to train your focus,
your memory, your logic, your speed,
just like you would do any other muscle.
So try something hard, practice it till it becomes easy,
and then try something harder, and keep doing that.
With time, I promise you,
your brain will thank you for it.
Thank you.
