Many people learn well through their sense of sight. They can watch someone do something and then they can duplicate the task with practice. Other people learn well through their sense of hearing, listening to instructions. Most people tend to learn best through a combination of their senses, including seeing, hearing, and doing. Doing is kin-aesthetic or our sense of feeling. Other learning moments are highly dependent on taste and smell, such as when someone is striving to be a chef. For most of us, it is the feel/do experience that helps us truly integrate new information and skills. Once we are actively engaged in what we are learning, we progress more easily.
Many years ago I worked as an adaptive physical education teacher in San Diego, California. Some of my students were “severely emotionally disturbed.” I remember an eight-year-old boy who couldn’t write her name. His master didn’t know how to help him succeed since all his previous efforts had failed. One day, I wrote the boy’s name on the ground with chalk in big, big letters. I asked him to walk over each letter, tracing them with the movement of his body. Every time he did it, I asked him to say the lyrics. After this experience she knew how to spell his name. I simply needed to integrate this information kin-aesthetically. He was relaxed and having fun. This is right brain learning.
It is natural to learn through our senses. We see, hear, smell, taste and feel. These signals are received by the body before reaching the conscious brain. Children will visually study an object with great intensity. Touching things on the cheek or on the lips. They often smell or taste things. Why do babies put everything in their mouths? It is because they are learning about the world around them through their language. They touch and feel in much larger ways because it’s natural. First they learn through their senses and then they learn to think. We are all like that. Sensory learning is primary and logical learning is secondary. When we use more of our mind’s natural abilities to learn, we have more resources to create successful results.
There are four parts to the learning process:
1. The part of the teacher is to share the information.
2. The part of the student is to concentrate on what is happening.
3. The student’s part is to receive and hopefully fully integrate the new information.
4. The student’s part is to remember the information when it is needed, such as when taking a test or when it is useful in a real life situation.
Regarding #1, the teacher’s part in sharing information, it is interesting to note that as children in kindergarten, we are joyfully led to learn new things through the engagement of our senses. We learn our alphabet through songs, we learn the months and how many days they have through a rhyme “September, April, June and November have 30 days…” We learn simple addition and subtraction by counting items such as blocks or sticks while moving them around. place to another. We actively participate through sensory awareness.
Some of these tactile learning skills remain through first and second grade, but often by third grade, most teaching shifts from right-brain to left-brain teaching. This means that it changes from primarily sensory learning to secondary logical learning. Now we are taught to memorize multiplication tables, or names or dates and mathematics is nothing more than numbers on paper. There is a better way.
Learning through right brain sensory awareness is paramount.
Learning through left brain intellectual concepts is secondary.
Studies show that when children engage in right-brain activities like music or dance, they do better with left-brain activities like math and English. When we teach children through right-brain approaches, they feel more stimulated and excited. Instead of feeling bored, they can learn in an engaging and enjoyable way.
Let’s look at #2, the student’s ability to concentrate. Lack of this ability is often labeled as ADD or ADHD. I strongly believe that it is unrealistic to expect a young child to sit in a chair for many hours every day while their brain receives information. Many children are given medication so that they can fit into this unnatural mold. Young animals are naturally active and energetic. Another common influence behind this problem is lack of sleep. When children are tired, they have to overstimulate themselves in order to stay awake.
Consider a young child who has spent most of his time at home, where the environment tends to be peaceful. Even with siblings, the amount of external stimulation is limited. Now this same child is three or four or five years old and is placed in a room with twenty or twenty-five other children. This child is inexperienced in learning to block out so much external stimulation. Even if the room is quiet, many children are very sensitive and can feel the abundance of energy in the room.
Why do we expect all children to be able to automatically concentrate in the classroom when most of them have never had the chance to learn how?
Right brain and memory strength
Using the following story, I would like to develop the idea of using sensory learning for further integration of information and to facilitate recall of information at a later time. When we use our senses, it is easier to remember information when it is needed.
“You are riding a bicycle and you see a shiny piece of quartz crystal on the ground. You stop and pick it up. You hold it up to the sunlight and you can see a small rainbow in the background. Now you come to a large fountain with something unusual at the top. Water flows down into 3 pools. There are pennies and coins in each pool. Make a wish and throw your piece of quartz crystal into the water. It sparkles in the water.”
sensory integration
* You are riding a bike – Picture this in your mind. feel it. What kind of bike is it? What color is your bike?
* You see the shiny quartz crystal – What shape, size, etc.
* You hold it up to the sunlight – Feel the sun shining on your face.
*You see a little rainbow inside – Describe it to me. (Look at it.)
* You come to a fountain with something unusual on it. What’s on top? Describe it to me. (Look at it)
* Water flows down into 3 pools of water filled with pennies and coins (Watch it. See the coins sparkling under the water. Feel the water splashing on your face.)
* Imagine making a wish and throwing your crystal into the water where the sunlight shines.
I tell this story two or three times while asking the child to participate through their imagination. Then I ask the child to tell me the story. Most children find this easy to do and tend to be quite accurate in remembering key items. This is regardless of how much time passes. Even weeks later, they can still retell the story with relative ease.
I have used the following ideas to help children learn to concentrate more effectively:
Laser beam
First, we talk about laser beams. A laser bean takes randomly flowing scattered electrons and moves them in one direction. Instead of being scattered, the electrons form a line of energy, a laser that is powerful enough to burn a hole or gentle enough to perform delicate eye surgery. What started out as scattered chaos becomes focused and purposeful.
Then we talk about how the mind is like that. It can be scattered or it can be like a laser beam. When it’s like a laser beam, it has a lot of power. I further mention that when they are listening to their teacher or concentrating on school work, that is the best time for their mind to be like a laser beam. Then we can perform the following activity:
laser beam activity
Sit directly across from the child you are helping, face to face when possible. Tell him to be like a laser beam. All they can do is focus on you and your voice. No matter what else is going on around them, they are more focused on you and what they are learning. Now retell the story.
Next we add some external stimulation. I have another person stand behind the sitting child. This person’s job is to be a distraction. They can talk, jump, clap, etc. They continue to do this while you retell the story. You can give the suggestion: “No matter how much is going on around you, you focus more like a laser beam. You focus like a laser beam and nothing bothers or disturbs you.” This continues several times, each time increasing the level of distractions. Lastly, ask the child to tell you the story to see how well they were able to focus on you, regardless of the distractions. This process can be repeated with other stories and great results can be found when we use the information that the child needs to learn for school. We can take your most challenging subject area and turn it into a successful and enjoyable experience.
The following is a real life example to show how this same sensory learning can work in more advanced learning situations for adults.
I worked with a client who was fifty years old when she decided to start a new career. She wanted to be an accountant. She felt overwhelmed by the amount of information she needed to learn and she was very worried about passing the exam. Now, nothing can be further from creative influences than accounting and numbers, but we were able to use right brain strengths in the learning process of her.
In your imagination we create a neighborhood. In the first house lived a single mother with two children. We post the necessary tax information on the door and around the house. We thread it into the life of this single mother. The next store was a man who worked at home. Again, we imagine this man, what he did for a living, and what tax benefits he got for working at home. For example, “You are allowed to pay off ‘x’ percentage of his utilities” became an image of his lights throughout the house, each displaying the number representing the percentage allowed for tax benefits. Soon we had a whole neighborhood complete with clues to most of the information needed.
I’m happy to say that this customer passed their test the first time! She felt calm and capable at all times. The information she needed was easy to remember, and instead of being stressed, she had a good time.
These few examples demonstrate ways to bring right brain sensory processing into learning. Here are some basic thoughts to keep in mind as you go:
* Make the images as real as possible – feel like it’s really happening.
* The sillier the image, the easier it will be to remember the information. (Think the Geico gecko.)
* Connect one idea with another so that they form an argument.
* Make up a song or rhythm to remember the information.
*Relax and enjoy the process!
When we use more of our mind to learn, learning is fun and easy. Relaxation and enjoyment allow us to integrate and access new information much more easily. Imagine how different our education system would be if we decided to embrace this natural way of learning! Are you ready to experience what your brain can do for you?
