Thursday, July 24, 2014

Parenting Pointers: How We Learn

Disclosure: I received complimentary products to facilitate this post. All opinions are my own.

Have you ever watched little kids and been amazed at how quickly they learn and organize the vast amounts of new things they observe each day? For example, my two girls are bilingual, and they have no problem navigating the complexities of both German and English in age-appropriate ways.

Then we start school, and while it's easy for some people, it isn't for others. Even students with traditionally good grades struggle to remember certain things. In How We Learn: The Surprising Truth About When, Where, and Why It Happens by Benedict Carey, you can find out why that is.

The book is only available for pre-order right now (it comes out in September) but it's worth it if you want some brain-based techniques for improving learning and retention. Learning is less about strict rituals and avoiding all distractions and more about context and useful distractions.

The brain has its own rhythms and is sensitive to all sorts of inputs, including mood, environment, and context. Here are a few tips from the book about how to leverage that for success.
- Routine can actually be detrimental. Learning something in one context promotes recall in that context, but if you want to be able to recall material more fluidly, varying place and time of day for studying is helpful.
- Sleep is important. If you have to sacrifice sleep for last-minute review, you'll want to go to bed at the normal time and wake up early for retention-based tests, but stay up late for creative-thinking or motor-skills tasks.
- Working on multiple skills at the same time helps overall learning progress more quickly than focus on one skill until it's mastered.

Order the book to find out more about the research - and learn even more about how your brain works to learn!

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