The Instrumental Enrichment program is a series of non-curricular tasks, designed to strengthen learning skills through various cognitive exercises. 

What it is?

Designed to enhance an individual's learning and thinking strategies, the IE tools are a series of non-curricular paper and pencil tasks, focusing on perceptual-motor function. 

There are two sets of Instrumental Enrichment programs: The IE Basicprogram for young children and low-functioning individuals, and the IE Standard program, which is used with older children, high-school students, and adult learners of all ages. 

How it works.

During the IE sessions, a trained Feuerstein mediator leads learners, either one-on-one or in a classroom, through increasingly complex cognitive tasks and works with them on how to analyze a problem and how to solve it systematically. The progressive nature of the IE tools allows the learner’s progress to be monitored, and the program to be modified in accordance with the learner’s developing needs.

IE utilizes a style of teaching called mediation. In our terms, mediation means to teach information to the learner in a way that is meaningful to them, so that they understand the lesson and are able to apply it in other contexts. 

IE Basic

IE Basic consists of a set of playful learning activities that develop basic concepts and thinking skills of younger children and low-functioning individuals. Through a series of increasingly complex tasks, learners explore the operations of comparison, orientation in space, analysis of geometric shapes, numerical skills, empathy for others and the like – all with the help of a mediator who guides the learner to develop strategies for problem solving and analytic thinking.

IE Basic can be used in a classroom setting, with small groups of targeted learners, and as a one-to-one therapeutic intervention. It may also be preparation for the IE Standard program, which takes students to higher levels of mental processing and cognitive functioning.

IE Basic consists of 11 Instruments.

IE Standard

IE Standard is a series of structured paper-and-pencil exercises that gradually increase in levels of difficulty and abstraction. The materials are organized into workbooks called “instruments” and each instrument focuses on a specific cognitive area such as analytic perception, comparison, classification, orientation in space and time, and so on. They may include verbal, mathematical, logical and even emotional skills, depending upon the needs of the learner. Learners are guided through the tasks by a mediator who helps them develop strategies for problem solving and analytic thinking that they can then carry on into the rest of their lives.

IE Standard can be used in a classroom or workplace setting, with small groups of targeted learners, and as a one-to-one therapeutic intervention.

IE Standard consists of 14 instruments.

Want to learn more?  

The International Renewal Institute in Chicago is one of seven authorized FIE training centers in the United States. Multiple case studies are published through this institute and are peer-reviewed, analyzing how Feuerstein impacts school-aged children. If you click on the links below this will display each Instrument, it's intention and an example of one page from each instrument.