Learning Strategies and Information Processing Development free essay sample

Teachers working with these students must implement strategies when presenting new information to their students, determining what helpful strategies should be utilized to help their students attend, recognize and remember this information. A main goal is that learning disabled students will be able to independently utilize these strategies in the future with minimal assistance from others. Learning strategies are â€Å"techniques, principles, or rules that facilitate the acquisition, manipulation, integration, storage, and retrieval of information across situations and settings† (Alley amp;Deshler, 1979, p. 13). Teachers implement strategies while instructing students to help students attend. Teachers also teach students strategies that will help them recall information (e. g. mnemonic devices) Learning disabled students have difficulty staying on task, organizing information and materials, memorizing important information, and writings tasks. Learning disabled students often exhibit low self-esteem and the necessary confidence to attempt new learning strategies. These students also seem to create a self-fulfilling prophecy in predicting and believing they will fail at a task because they have in the past. We will write a custom essay sample on Learning Strategies and Information Processing Development or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page As a result, the student doesn’t attempt task or attempts task without truly trying and fails. As students learning strategies improve, confidence levels will grow. LEARNING STRATEGIES AND INFORMATION PROCESSING DEVELOPMENT Pg. 3 Educators can utilize different learning strategies to improve a student’s performance and gain learning skills for life as well as confidence. One of the difficult tasks a special education teacher faces is determining which strategy is most effective and how to implement that strategy. A teacher should consider a student’s disability and be familiar with the learning challenges that are associated with that particular disability. There are strategies that help instructional information be received by a student and information processing strategies that help students recall information. Many learning disabled students struggle with attending and recalling important information. This affects their ability to focus, gather important information and store that information for future use. â€Å"Each time a student’s attention is not engaged and maintained, an opportunity to learn is lost. When many such opportunities are lost, wide gaps in knowledge and skills are to be expected. These gaps, in turn, make new knowledge less† (Smith). Attention difficulties often impact a student’s ability to process information in short term and long term memory systems. When a student is not following a teacher’s instruction, the ability to note important facts and later recall them is greatly impacted. A teacher needs to be on able to identify students that appear distracted or are unable to recall recently presented information. After identification, teachers should implement learning strategies that will teach students the tools to help them recognize important information and move that information into their LEARNING STRATEGIES AND INFORMATION PROCESSING DEVELOPMENT Pg. 4 memory system for future use. The end goal is for the student to utilize these strategies with minimal assistance in their daily life functions. Humans possess three types of memory systems: Short term memory, long term memory and working memory. All of these systems all work together and interpret information based on relevancy. Our memory systems also have different developmental stages. A person usually retains information in short term memory for approximately 25 seconds or less. The process of our short term memory moving over newly presented data to long term memory is called a working memory. This process for many learning disabled students can be very difficult as many different processes are involved that include: perception, language, thought, past knowledge. These processing skills become strong as we become adults. Helpful learning strategies include: modeling, self-questions techniques, self-monitoring to attention and verbal self-instruction. (Smith, 2003) Memory is crucial to all learning as it allows you store and retrieve the information that has been learned. â€Å"Learning depends on memory, because the knowledge stored in your memory provides the framework to which you link new knowledge, by association. And the more extensive your framework of existing knowledge, the more easily you can link new knowledge to it† (thebrain. mcgill. ca/flash/). One key strategy to help attention and memory is to make the information presented meaningful. When students engage in activities that where information that is more meaningful, information becomes easier to comprehend. Teachers should take into LEARNING STRATEGIES AND INFORMATION PROCESSING DEVELOPMENT Pg. 5 consideration the student’s age, disability and any other important factors. Teachers can utilize mnemonic devices and graphic organizers to help students improve memory skills of important concepts. Inquiry based learning and discussions help students stay actively involved while the teacher is presenting key information. From an early age of development, toddlers are able to recognize basic objects and people. Being able to identify a picture and form recognition is not as difficult of a task as recalling facts and information from that picture. Recalling facts and data involves using language and sequencing processing skills. Many students with learning disabilities struggle to sequence events and processes. We may see a preschool student have difficulty related the necessary steps involved in making a sandwich or a middle school student struggle with relating what he did this past weekend. These skills can be strengthened through activities that involve rehearsal and practice using verbal and picture cues/prompts. Identify key facts and understanding numerical order (i. e. First I†¦ then †¦. next ) can help these students organize their thoughts and ideas. This skill can also help students identify key facts, sequence stories in correct chronological order. Information processing development can also be affected by visual-perceptual skills, motor skills and language skills. Teachers need to be familiar with each of these processes in order to understand how they each can affect the learning process and implement strategies for learning success. Teachers can help students from an early age understand and discriminate different lines and shapes as well as directional cues left and right and other line directional. LEARNING STRATEGIES AND INFORMATION PROCESSING DEVELOPMENT Pg. â€Å"Knowledge of the order of visual-perceptual development tells us that we should help students discriminate verticals, perpendiculars, up-down, and asymmetrical figures before left-right reversal figures, diagonals, or symmetrical figures (Smith, 2004). Many preschool students are identified with delayed fine motor skills during preschool when they have difficulty coloring, writing, using scissors. Young children with fine motor delays may avoid structured tabl e activities in preschool and kindergarten. Young students may also struggle with fine motor tasks like stringing beads, buttoning, and playing with blocks (http://preschooler. hebump. com). Many students that struggle with fine motor tasks often have difficulties with using scissors and paper pencil tasks. Note taking in class can be very difficult and cause great frustration. As a result, these students may become frustrated and unable to keep up with lectures and note taking. These students will often avoid writing assignments by avoidance tactics and not completing tasks. Teachers can use different strategies to help these students (e. g. provide printed notes, verbal/oral tests and homework). Occupational therapist can often help these students with accommodations (e. . computer software, keyboard/computer). Many students with fine motor delays as children often continue to have difficulties as adults. Language processing delays can have a significant impact on a studentâ€℠¢s ability to receive information and successfully process information. These delays affect many different areas that include: auditory processing skills, expressive and receptive language skills, pragmatic skills and problem solving skills. â€Å"Because words are symbols for concepts, any trouble processing these symbols affects a person’s thinking, comprehension, speaking, and social interactions. LEARNING STRATEGIES AND INFORMATION PROCESSING DEVELOPMENT Pg. 7 Delays in this area tend to persist, so that language cannot be used effectively to facilitate learning† (Smith, 2004) Many learning disabled students also exhibit expressive and receptive language delays. These delays may affect a student’s ability to participate in the classroom. A student with language processing delays may have difficulties that may include: processing basic information, following directions, sequencing events, syntax and semantic difficulties. Special education teachers can provide helpful skills and strategies that can help their students be successful in the classroom and in their communities. These strategies allow students with disabilities and delays to recognize important, retain and recall this information. It is also important for educators to understand the stages of development in the areas of visual-perceptual skills, motor skills and language skills. Through understanding these stages of development, teachers will be able to provide support for students with disabilities and delays. LEARNING STRATEGIES AND INFORMATION PROCESSING Pg. 8 References Alley, G. R. , amp; Deshler, D. D. (1979). Teaching the learning disabled adolescent: Strategies and methods. Denver, CO Canadian Institute of Health Research, Memory and Learning, Retrieved from http://thebrain. mcgill. ca/flash/d/d_07/d_07_p/d_07_p_tra/d_07_p_tra. html Christensen, J. , Delayed Fine Motor Skills in Children, Retrieved from http://preschooler. thebump. com/delayed-fine-motor-skills-children-3721. tml Smith, C. R. (2004). Learning disabilities: The interaction of students and their environments. (5th Ed. ). Syracuse University. Boston: Pearson Education Inc. Sturmonski, N. (1997). Interventions for learning disabled. National Information Center for Children and Youth with Disabilities , V. 25, Retrieved from http://nichcy. org/wp-content/uploads/docs/nd25. pdf University of Washington, Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology, The Faculty Room, Retrieved from http://www. washington. e du/doit/Faculty/Strategies/Disability/LD/