There are 5 steps for Successful Learning

Now that the school year is well underway, this is often the time when parents and teachers start to notice when students aren’t performing as well as they could be. Learning has become challenging. But why?

Physical Abilities

For just the first step – receiving information – a student needs:

• good vision |  eyes that work together and can easily shift from the desk to the whiteboard
• a strong auditory processing system
• a body that can focus and is in control of itself

These abilities are important for the brain-body connection, and if they aren’t in place, will make the subsequent steps in the learning process that much more challenging.

Vision is one of the most common causes of learning difficulties. But it often goes undetected, especially if the student has good eyesight. Unfortunately, just because a student can see clearly, it doesn’t mean that the eyes are working well with each other.

Cognitive Abilities

Let’s not forget the cognitive side of the learning process! Students need a solid foundation of these abilities, too: comprehension, memory, problem solving, evaluation/judgment, and creativity. 

Memory – both visual and auditory – is often a students’ lowest overall ability. If we think of memory as “the developed art of paying attention,” then we begin to understand why this is a growing concern in education, especially in elementary school.

Comprehension is diminished by lower memory ability. Problem-solving becomes frustrating when memory ability fails to recall correct information. Teachers and parents can easily become frustrated with having to regularly repeat information. Test-taking scores are lower even though classroom performance may be solid.