Help with Learning
Basically there are two factors that are involved with learning difficulties.First there is the way a person’s brain works and then there is the way the person is feeling about the learning.
Let’s take the first which is how the brain processes information. Each of us has a preferred way of processing things – some people are primarily visual, some are auditory and some are kinaesthetic or tactile. Visual people see things in their minds - they see pictures, audio people hear things while kinaesthetic people feel things.
How do you learn best? Do you have to see how it is done, can you listen to a set of instructions and then know how to do it or do you have to do it before you have learnt it?
If people are learning in a way which does not match their preferred cognitive style, they may be experiencing learning difficulties. If a person is primarily visual and they are being taught by being lectured to, they will not learn effectively. In the same way an audio person will not learn as easily in a completely silent environment where the main learning is through reading.
To be learning effectively you need to be learning in a way that matches your preferred cognitive style.
To be learning effectively you must be processing the new information. If you are too passive in your learning, for instance if you are only reading the material, you may not be learning it well enough so you can remember it.
Some people have learning difficulties because of the way their brain sorts out information. If their brains cannot make sense of the information then they will have difficulty learning. This applies especially with learning to read. Some people’s brains cannot work out how to make sense of the “squiggles” that are the letters in words. These people are often labelled dyslexic.
For a full list of these types of learning problems click here.
Other people have never made the connection between the words on the page and the sounds that come out of their mouths. This is fundamental to learning to read. This is why the most important thing you can do to help your child to learn to read is to read to and with them from an early age. Read and read and read to them. Surround them with books. Mastering the reading skill is crucial to success in our education system.
Lots of people experience difficulties while learning and develop a negative response to earning. At best they turn off, and at worst do their utmost to avoid the learning situations. I see lots of people who have gone back to learning in their 30s and 40s. They walk into a classroom for the first time in 15 to 20 years and just ‘die’ inside. They are back in the exact situation they left because it was such a negative place to be.
We help these people firstly by helping them understand how they learn best and suggest learning activities that suit them, secondly by helping them let go their negative emotional reactions and thirdly building on the enthusiasm and drive that they have that took them back into the learning place.
Hypnotherapy is an effective help in overcoming most of these issues. It is not much use for helping people with dyslexia and similar problems including brain damage. It can help these people become more positive and hopeful that they can overcome these difficulties.
Lots of people have real issues about sitting exams. These problems usually come from two sources. Firstly, they have not learned the material properly in the first place so have difficulty recalling it in the exam. Secondly, they may have had one bad experience while sitting an exam and now transfer that anxiety to all exams. We provide really effective help with overcoming exam nerves.
Also see Types of Learning Disabilities.
