Learners who strugle: are they 'slow learners'

One definition of intelligence is that it is the ability to react to or to interact with the environment or with thoughts and ideas. This becomes possible by the interaction between the trillions of brain cells (neurons) we have. Some children have the same number of neurons as everyone else but the communication or interaction between the neurons is inefficient. Think of a traffic jam. There is nothing wrong with the road network nor damage to the actual road. The frustrating inability to drive on results from the fact that the traffic can’t flow normally.

In the same way, disorganisation in neural networks results in the brain cells being unable to react or function as well as they could. The messages needed are unable to travel along the neural pathways to reach their destination quickly and easily. In terms of intelligence, it means, in effect, that the child has potential but is unable to access it. Many such children have average to above average intellectual ability. They don’t have brain dysfunctions or intellectual slowness. Instead, their learning difficulties are a symptom of a neurodevelopmental disruption or an environmental offender that has impacted on brain function.

Neurodevelopmental irregularities don’t mean that the child is necessarily affected in all areas. She might be very capable in some specific areas and amazingly challenged in others.

Many teachers and parents only realise there is a problem when the child begins formal learning. Of course this problem can be made worse if the child comes from an environment that offers no stimulation or much interaction with others. Apart from this, if all else is normal, a perceived learning problem can be the result of a neurodevelopmental delay or disorganized neural processing. Many learners compensate for their problems in some way – often by working really hard. Others begin to show behaviour problems. The fact remains that the problems won’t improve with age so professional help at the right age can be of tremendous help.

Very often teachers suggest to parents that the symptoms they observe may warrant the attention of a neurologist. These doctors are often unable to pinpoint any causes because they focus on brain damage and diseases of the brain. These are seldom found to be present in struggling learners. Other professionals at hand to help teachers, for example, Educational Psychologists, are not trained in neurodevelopment and have limited resources to help such learners. Sometimes parents believe that a problem is inherited. This may be so, but it doesn’t mean the child can’t be helped. Very often, Integrated Learning Therapy (ILT) practitioners find that the parent who reports similar learning problems experiences improvement if they follow the same therapeutic techniques that are given to the child.

Here is a list of some of the symptoms typically shown by learners who may be in need of neurodevelopmental help:

A history of not crawling
Delayed or skipped developmental stages
Problems tying shoelaces, making a knot, riding a bicycle
Uncoordinated running and walking
Clumsiness
Doesn’t play as capably as others; doesn’t always know how to react to other children
May be more inclined to break toys; has accidents
Poor language development
Poor listening skills
Poor pronounciation
Can’t colour between the lines
Difficulties doing jigsaw puzzles
Can’t use a scissors accurately
May be hyperactive
May be sensitive to touch, light or sounds
Struggle with reading, writing and/or maths
Show social problems – has difficulty making friends
Poor pencil control – often pushes hard
Can’t switch from one task to another
Slow to accomplish tasks
Attention easily diverted by noises, lights and friends
Tends to seek out movement – moves around the classroom
Has meltdowns – shows a quick temper
Poor self-esteem; thinks he is stupid and bad

Neurodevelopmental problems would be easier to identify and treat if the problem was the same with each child. Instead, every child shows individual shortcomings, challenges and symptoms. The important thing is that educators must be on the alert to any symptoms that may indicate the need for help. Not all children show all the known symptoms of underlying conditions. Some might show very few. As a rule of thumb, it would be wise to double check a child’s neurodevelopmental status as soon as you suspect that all is not as it should be. If no neurodevelopmental issues emerge from a screening session, then it would be time to look elsewhere.

The bottom line is that most normal children should be able to cope with the demands of schooling. Their learning problems are far more likely to be rooted in irregular development or some influence from their environment that can be treated and corrected. Unless the child has a serious mental condition, such as Fetal Alcohol Syndrome or a recognised intellectual deficiency, intellectual level is seldom to blame for their learning problem.

Image supplied by Freepik.

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Martin Doherty, writing for The Conversation, says that at the age of about four, children reach important milestones in brain development.

One of these is a huge improvement in understanding others’ thoughts and feelings. This is the start of empathy. Another is in spatial thinking—understanding how objects are positioned and related. This is the beginning of the ability to read maps.

Martin and his colleague, Catherine Sayer, conducted a study with 175 two to five-year-olds to explore how children are able to use scale models to figure out where something is in the real world. At about four, children are able to use a scale model of a room to work out where something is. We thought that this might result from children’s understanding of how one thing can represent something else. But we actually found that four-year-olds’ ability to use scale models came from their spatial abilities.

At the same age, children start to understand that someone’s behaviour is due to what that person believes, not necessarily what is really the case. This has interesting consequences.

If you’ve played hide-and-seek with young children, you may have noticed that they aren’t always very good at it. They love the ritual of looking in all the wrong places first, but beforehand they may tell you where they are going to hide, hide in the same place every time, or not be especially hidden.

After their fourth birthday, they get much better at hide and seek. They understand that the seeker looks in the wrong places because they don’t know where the hider is.

At about three to four children also start to tell lies. They realize they can make someone believe something that isn’t true.

Understanding symbols

Martin’s earlier research with fellow psychologist Josef Perner suggests that four-year-olds don’t just start to understand how others’ minds work. Figuring this out is part of the development of an understanding of “representation”—that symbols, like thoughts, words, or pictures, can be used to stand for something else.

Children start to think about how words relate to objects. This means, for instance, knowing that “animal” can refer to something you already have a name for, such as “rabbit”. This might help children learn the new word.

Their ability to use a understand the components of pictures also improves around this age. Very young children use a lot of trial and error to complete a jigsaw, picking up random pieces to see if they fit. By the time they are about four years old, they start to use the picture as a guide, trying to connect lines and match bits of colour, while checking the guide picture on the box lid.

Developmental experiments

Another ability children develop at around four is using scale models. A classic set of developmental experiments involved a model of a regular household room. The real room had typical furniture—sofa, table, cupboard and so on—and the model had miniature versions laid out in the same way.

Children were shown where something was hidden in the model and told to find an object hidden in “the same place” in the room. Children of around four can find the object using the identical layouts. If shown a sticker under a particular chair in the model room, for example, they can go straight to the “same” chair in the other room. This is the fundamental understanding required to read maps.

Adults see scale models and maps as representations. Maps represent a town or a country. A scale model of, say, the Eiffel Tower represents the real thing. At first, Martin suspected children’s ability to use scale models is more evidence of understanding representation at this age.

He was wrong. Instead, the researchers found that this ability is based on a development in children’s spatial abilities that also occurs at about four. This is the ability to think about spaces and where objects are within them. Spatial abilities help with maths skills, and good spatial ability is linked to an interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Their experiment was simple. They compared the model room task with a test of understanding how representation works. The two abilities develop around the same age, but they found they were not related. Children who could do one task couldn’t necessarily do the other.

They also had a test of purely spatial ability. Children who passed the model room task also passed the spatial task. So it looks like the model room task relied on children‘s spatial thinking.

They don’t yet know why two important but apparently unrelated abilities arise at the same time. Perhaps it’s related to changes in the growing brain at this interesting age.

Provided by The Conversation.

Image supplied by Freepik.