Friday, July 8, 2011

Learning Skills 101 - Sustained Attention

Learning skills are the underlying mental skills formally known as attention, visual/auditory processing, memory, processing, word attack and auditory analysis. Most of our children experience these skills through reading, writing, spelling, paying attention, remembering, recalling and how quick we can respond to a request.

In my past few articles I have been discussing the "attention" learning skill. My past two articles discuss two of three types of attention. Specifically, I discussed divided and selective attention. Divided Attention is the ability to pay attention to more than one thing at a time. Selective attention is the skill that enables us to literally choose what we will pay attention to. We can still take in everything in our visual span but we only "select" one thing at a time to pay attention to.

In this article, I discuss sustained attention. Sustained attention is the ability to direct attention and focus on one main thing for a period of time. The fact that you are reading this article and keeping your attention focused on these words is an example of sustained attention. For children, sustained attention can be seen when they need to stay on task for a period of time. If they are to be able to read for 20 minutes in a reading period, they need the skill to keep them on task.

Of course, the challenge is what to do when the child is not able to stay on task? Its important to recognize that the child could have weak attention skills. Sometimes, there are other variables that add to the weak attention skills. For example, weak auditory or visual processing along with memory skills could be part of the bigger problem. The best way to determine where your child skills reside is to have them assessed and then create a plan of action to strengthen them.

The good news is that the above skill is just one of many that you are able to strengthen due to the brain's ability to develop and grow. The Enhanced Learning Skills System was designed to strengthen learning skills required to learn and read easier and more efficiently.
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Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/1961916

Unleash Your Learning Skills

Each and every one of us has a little child inside us as part of our personality and in fact we have several sub-personalities. If you listen to yourself you will in time become aware of these sub-personalities.

The way we learn can often be traced back to our early years of learning. There would have been different experiences that we had and learned from. If we can use some of these experiences as a foundation to build on then we are better able to understand the new information we are receiving.

The child within you is the part of you who is curious and wants to know more and he/she also know what it wants and are ready to go for it. Be open to this part of yourself and you will be able to tune into many ideas which will come flowing through you once you learn how to tune into you child which is also the creative part of you.

In the academic world as well as the physical world most of us learn by repeating what we have just learned and go over it several times for it to stick in our mind. If you still find it hard to remember then try to tune into some of your sub-personalities and step into a superior character and imagine that you are an expert on the subject.

You will then move to a higher level and see your situation from a different angle. Imagine that other people depended on the answer you came up with because no one had the answer and you were the expert on the subject. What would your imaginary expert looks like and sound like? Try and connect with your imaginary expert and strike up a conversation with him on how to deal with your situation.

Whether you are young or older you are responsible for your own progress and development in the subject you are learning about. As a student your performance will improve if you work out the way that you learn and what motivates. It is a good idea to keep a journal for your own assessment and your progress. It will do wonders for you when you look back and see how far you have come.
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Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/4597438

Learning Skills 101 - What Are Learning Skills?

So what are learning skills anyway? Most of us were never taught about these underlying mental skills that lay the foundation for our ability to learn. We were always taught that we could learn if we set our mind to it. Between home and school we should be fine. If not, just see a tutor for a bit and you will be good to go. Unfortunately, not everyone is able to learn in this type of scenario. Why? Well, how easily and efficiently we learn is based on how strong our underlying learning skills are. This definitely turned out to be the case for my daughter and all of the students who have worked through my system.

The skills we use to learn with are technically known as working memory, attention, processing, auditory analysis (including auditory processing), visual processing, word attack and logic and reasoning. We see these skills play out everyday based on how well we can pay attention, how well we can remember, how well we can process what we hear (we hear fine - its the processing of the sounds), how well we can process what we see (letter reversals, etc.), how well we can read unknown words (beyond the words we may have memorized) and how well we can plan, organize and problem solve. For each of these learning skills there are sub-categories that exist too.

Lets explore an example of a student who has weak attention skills. In this example, we have a student is able to attend to one thing at a time only. However, the student will state that they get distracted very easily. After I work them through a series of exercises I can tell whether or not this is truly the case. 9 times out of 10 it is not the case. You see, students like this one tend to hyperfocus on their targeted input. They zone in on the teacher and everything else around them disappears. So, when an additional task is being introduced that requires processing, they are conflicted because they can only attend to one thing at a time and state they get distracted. In actuality, their "divided attention" skill is very weak along with their ability to process more than one thing at a time.

A student with the above weakness will show easy distraction but will also have great difficulty with remembering information coming from different inputs at the same time, especially is one is auditory. This student is able to take notes and process the input in the brain. However, if the teacher begins "discussing" the topic of the notes on the board, the student is lost. Similarly, if the teacher started to talk first, the student would be able to process this input but once the teachers asks the student to start writing notes along with the teacher speaking, the student would be unsuccessful. They are unable to share processing within the brain.

The good news is that the above weak skill is just one of many that you are able to strengthen due to the brain's ability to develop and grow. A student doesn't need to struggle with this weak skill set any longer. The Enhanced Learning Skills System was designed to strengthen learning skills required to learn and read easier and more efficiently. Call me today for an assessment and let's begin working together to help your child learn with ease.
http://business-square.com/courses/breakthrough-learning-skills/
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/1961762

How to Your Improve Learning Skills

The ability to learn is one of the most important procedures of every living thing in the whole world. The world will be so dull if no one knows how to learn something new everyday of their lives. Learning is a process wherein an individual acquires new sets of skills, knowledge, values, and all types of information.

Human beings and animals have the abilities to learn in different ways. As human, we learn a lot of things through education, training, seminars, advises, and the best of all, experience. I guess you already know that experience is the best teacher. Obviously, we got to go through a series of challenges and adventures in life to know the right thing to do. Mistakes do make us better sometimes.

There are also lots of ways on how to assess the learning ability of a person. Teachers often prepare quizzes, examinations, and activities to assess the intelligence of their students. There are also programs offered by the government that improve and evaluate the learning of every person.

Every person has their own learning skills. Some might have stronger ability to learn fast than others for some factors. These factors will involve genetic traits, personality, and the upbringing of a family. Genes do not lie. People who are born from intelligent parents can inherit the learning capacity of their parents. People who have good family upbringing under a good environment have more advantage to learn more than a broken family (not all though).

If there are lots of reasons that can affect the learning skills of a person, there are also many ways of how to improve it. One thing to make your cognitive ability improve is to get along with your creativity. Once a person keeps his mind busy, there is a huge tendency that he will learn more. You can use scrapbook supply to express your creativity and eventually improve your ability to learn. With scrapbook supply, you can create reminders of your lesson. You can post quotations on your wall to inspire you all the time. Use markers to highlight words or topics in your books and notes. Cut out card stock and make it as a book mark. Design the card stock using distress reinkers, glitters, and coloring pens to make it look good.

Improve your mental ability with your creativity. Improved and better learning will lead you to success and best things in life.
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Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6142610

Listening is a Learned Skill

People need to feel that they are, indeed, an important factor in this place called the world. Yes, you will hear people; say "No, I do not need recognition". Let us just say that those who protest too much are often the ones that need the recognition the most.
During a recent visit, I had the opportunity to be with a Mary who was an introvert. Spending a great deal of quiet time by herself is common. Yet, when she arrived on my doorstep the flood gates opened. Subject after subject surfaced all about her. Soon I found myself having a hard time keeping the focus on what she was saying.
I started questioning my own ability to listen. What was the issue?
As I went to bed that night I figured it out. I had done an outstanding job of listening to her, and I realized that she had not asked me one thing about me or my life. We were not having a conversation we were having somewhat a counseling session with me being the unsuspecting counselor.
With that being said, what could I have done differently? My view, very little. Mary has always done a great deal of talking about herself. Yet, often she teases me that I am a diva who loves attention. It is the perfect example of holding up a mirror and look at what you are hearing and saying. Does it reflect something that you should be working on in your life?
As she packed, she thanked me for being such a good listener. No question there was time that I was a Mary, one who did all the talking and listened very little. Through the years, I have learned that when I listen that is when I learn. If you do all the talking, you are only repeating things you already know. You know everything you know. When you listen you grow.
Mary felt significant because someone listened to her. Listening providing a vehicle to help make that happen. As for me, I am smiling for I was observant. I figured out what the issue was and choose to continue to be a good listener. The choice was mine. So glad I learned the skill of listening.
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Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/4530870