Stress stops us learning new skills. When we are stressed our brain is in a state of fight or flight and the last thing we are interested in is learning new information. “It is like trying to teach a soldier to knit when they are in a war zone. They are just concerned about staying alive” Aspergerexperts.com. (Take a look at “Effects of adverse experiences for brain structure and function” for more details or “Learning and the Brain Pocket book” Eleanor Dommett, Ian Devonshire and Richard Churches)
Our children often stress about learning at school and those with learning difficulties have branded themselves as stupid, which in our experience is far from the truth. Some children develop such a low self-esteem, they get bullied and may even contemplate suicide. We can’t let this downward spiral continue with out children.
We know exactly how to help them reduce their stress – teach them in a way that works for them and they can engage with.
At Empowering Learning, we value the exceptional skills children have and teach them new skills to overcome the obstacles. In our experience 95% of the children who are struggling with literacy, numeracy, concentration, comprehension, and much more, have exceptional skills for mental imagery and they just don’t know how best to use these skills for academic work. We teach this in minutes and everyone can do it.
When primary school teachers learn about the role of mental imagery in learning anything, they can teach in a way that keeps the student calm and focused.
Quote from Learning and the Brain, page 50 “At high levels of sustained arousal, seen with stress, hormones are released that can cause the dendrites of your hippocampal neurons to wither, making it impossible to form the new connections you need to learn”
Olivehickmott 