Part 4: Smart Kids and Learning Disabilities

Part 4:  Smart Kids and Learning Disabilities

Today, I'll delve into the root of most learning struggles.  In a previous article, I mentioned that as a teacher, it was very confusing and disconcerting when I had kiddoes that struggled to learn the content I was presenting.  After going through the recommended remedial steps to help those students and not getting the knowledge return that the efforts should have realized, I was one of the many adults that felt that I had not done enough, that I had let the child down, that if I could have just done something differently, their world would be "fixed."  And the child was sent on, with all the adults in their lives hoping that next year would be different.

Then I discovered that the majority of learning problems have weak cognitive skills at their root.  From a scientific research standpoint, we now know more about how the brain works and how it responds to training.  The weak cognitive skills that lead directly to academic struggles include visual processing, attention, processing speed, logic & reasoning, memory, and auditory processing.  Schools, teachers, and parents can't "fix" those skills, because they must be trained, not taught and academic institutions are focused on teaching. 

The good news is that, because we now know more about how the brain works and how it responds to training, these weak cognitive areas can be strengthened, making academic and life struggles much less, if not disappear altogether!

Tomorrow, I'll break each of the cognitive areas down and list the symptoms that someone might exhibit if they are deficient in each area.