Children and Learning
How would you like a way to help your child to feel more
successful at home, at school, with friends?
How would you like to feel less stress in your life and have a
better relationship with your child?
What if your child knew simple, effective strategies that will
enable him to learn easily and quickly?
It has been my experience that virtually every young person that
I have worked with has had the desire to do well, to be accepted
by their peers, to feel pride from their parents, and to feel
good about themselves. If they are not doing well in school or
with learning, it is not because they lack the desire to learn.
The number one problem that I find children and adolescents
facing is that they don't have effective strategies for
learning the information that is being taught to them.
When children feel that they don't learn well, it often affects
their self-esteem significantly. As a result, many young people
will not only experience problems around learning, but also
self-esteem issues, emotional and behavioral problems, social
skills problems, anxiety, depression, or family issues.
Virtually every aspect of their life is affected.
Our public schools, unfortunately, often work from the
assumption that a student already knows how to learn and
therefore focus on teaching content rather than on the
process of learning. Most students learn as they go
along, figure out what works, and modify their strategies as
they go. Many, though, have never learned effective
strategies for learning; they often use strategies that take a
long time and simply do not work, and they struggle in school.
Students need strategies for how to learn, not just
what to learn so they don't have to continue to struggle.
The most effective learning strategy for academics is a
visual learning strategy. Tasks such as learning
spelling words, math facts, memorizing facts and data and
learning vocabulary words are learned more easily and
quickly if the student learns them visually. When students learn
visually, they tend to be more interested and learn quickly and
easily. When they don't learn visually, they tend to struggle.
The very first thing to address is the student's perception of
his ability to learn and use his mind effectively.
Once he realizes that he has the ability to use his mind
effectively, then we can teach him precise, effective strategies
for how to learn. When he has effective tools for
learning, it dramatically enhances his perception of his own
ability to be a successful student, his performance in school,
his self-esteem and relationships with friends and family, just
to name a few. When a young person understands (for many, for
the first time in their lives) that he IS intelligent, that he
IS a good student, that he CAN learn easily and that there is
nothing "wrong" with him, that has a dramatic impact on every
aspect of his life! Now we can move on to teaching strategies
for mastering thoughts and emotions and taking action on
goals.