Study strategies for children with learning difficulties

1. From the Psychoeducation for Teachers Series

2.  In these days when information travels faster than ever,
being updated within seconds, we expect our students to
memorize, to understand, and to apply more facts and
ideas than ever before. There are so many facts and
concepts bombarding children’s brains all the time that
teachers and parents need to focus children on how they
can hold on to the important information they need to
learn, so that they are better able to perform in the
classroom and their knowledge base grows.
 As Sousa (2001) states, learning is the process by which
we acquire knowledge, memory is the process by which
we retain it. In this presentation, we identify some
teaching tips and learning strategies that help students
organize and remember the information needed to learn
or to build knowledge, so that they can achieve
academically.

3. Kinds of Memory
 Richards (2003) distinguishes between semantic or declarative
memory and procedural memory. Semantic memory refers to
the knowledge of facts, rules, and concepts, for example,
symbols for words, rules for manipulating words, and the
meaning of words. Procedural memory refers to procedures or
steps to learn new skills, that is, how to do things. Simply put,
semantic memory defines and explains facts and ideas (i.e.
what a fact or an idea is); procedural memory explains how to
do something, for example, how to use the long division
algorithm to solve a long division problem.
 In addition, we need to distinguish between short-term memory,
for example, the recalling of a person’s name within seconds of
presentation, and long-term memory, for example, being able to
recall that same person’s name one year after. Only a few facts
and information from our short-term memory move into our
long-term memory. This is true for everybody, but seems to be
an area of major difficulty for children with learning problems.

4.  Teachers of students with special needs know very
well that most of our students are able to retrieve
facts and information from short-term memory
without difficulty, but struggle retrieving facts and
information from long-term memory. The literature
reviewed agrees that typical learners need about 40
rehearsals or practices to transfer information to
long-term memory, but children with learning
disabilities require at least 200 practices to
consolidate the exact same information in long-term
memory. Next, we give some teaching tips to help
students memorize the information, followed by
learning strategies that students can use, at school
and at home, to stimulate their memory.

5. Teaching Tips to Stimulate
Students’ Memory
 Students cannot remember what they do
not understand. A new skill or a new
concept is easier to memorize and to learn
if it fits into what children already know, so,
help children link the new information in
some way to known material. Make sure
that students understand the meaning
(relevancy) of the new information, or how
the new information fits into children’s
personal lives. In other words, make sure
that the new information makes sense and
is meaningful to students.

6.  It is the way that students rehearse the new information or skill
what helps in recalling, not just how many times they practice.
In rehearsing new concepts or skills, add both variety and
novelty. For example, memorizing a spelling word using five
different writing formats (e.g. with a colored pencil, typing, on
the chalkboard, throwing bean bags, and jumping the rope) is
more effective than simply writing down the same spelling
words twenty times in the same way. Another way to add
variety is to ask the child to write the spelling word in five
different ways, e.g. APP-le, ap-ple, A-PP-le, APPLE, and apple.
 Short memorizing rehearsals are more productive than long
ones. Make sure that each practice is no longer than 30
minutes at a time.
 With students with special needs, present smaller bits of new
information at a time and then require from students to practice
what they have learned.

7.  Memory improves when students use multiple sensory
pathways to learn the material. For example, when
students are learning visual material, they need to
elaborate verbally on what they are seeing. On the other
hand, if students are trying to consolidate verbal material,
for example, from the social studies textbook,
memorization is easier if they draw a diagram or write
smaller bits of information on index cards that they can
study visually.
 When you deliver your lessons, explicitly tell students
what is more important about the lecture, for example,
“These are the three points that you need to remember…”
In addition, you can write the main points, key phrases,
and/or key words on the chalkboard.

8.  Remember that when the learning material is both
meaningful and organized is always easier to remember.
Explicitly teach students how to use organization aids
such as timelines, outlines, bullet lists, flowcharts, cause
and effect diagrams, and/or comparing and contrasting
diagrams.
 Give students practice in highlighting, outlining, and
summarizing important information.
 Teach note-taking skills.
 Give practice in paraphrasing, and explain to students
that information is easier to remember when they
translate it into their own words.
 Make sure students understand that they can remember
definitions better if they use their own words, rather than
trying to memorize exactly what the teacher said or what
they read in the book.

9.  When students are learning definitions or new
concepts, if they write a short paragraph in their own
words is more effective than trying to recall the
information word-for-word. Students with low writing
skills can make a drawing or a sketch that illustrates
the paragraph.
 To help students understand and remember bigger
and/or more complex amounts of information,
organize the new information around concepts, for
example, Change, Democracy, or Relationships.
Concepts help students associate and link
information that otherwise they would perceive as
different and disconnected, and they help children
see the bigger picture.

10. Learning Strategies to
Stimulate Memory
 Rehearse the information, that is, repeat it, say it, see it, and do
it again.
 Associate the information by linking it, by finding a similar theme
and/or by finding what is similar between the items. While you
are trying to remember, create associations, e.g. if you are
learning about a historical figure, think about what the name
sounds like, or what the name and other facts about the figure
make you think of.
 Create associated pairs, that is, associate items that you
commonly see together in the environment, like fish and ocean.
 Think of something that connects with the new information, and
link the new concept, topic or theme to what you already know.
 Think of examples of what you are trying to remember. The
more connections you make, the more details you add to the
concept or topic, and the more examples you can think of, the
better your chances of memorizing and learning the information.

11.  Group the information, placing similar items together, for
example, from a grocery list with 23 items, you can create the
fruits group, the vegetables group, and the meats group. You
need to know how many items you need to remember (23) and
how many groups of items are in the list (3). It is harder to
remember 23 items from the longer list, but the same items are
easier to recall if you put them in three groups, e.g. eight meats,
six vegetables, and nine fruits.
 Reduce the information you need to remember by organizing it
into a few categories. In the previous example, the three
categories are fruits, vegetables, and meat.
 Think about how you can create categories where you can put
the items or concepts together, for example, bodies of water,
things that fly, or amphibians. To help you create categories,
think how the items go together, e.g. how they sound alike, look
alike, and/or what they do or their function.

12.  Reduce the information into smaller chunks. Similar to
grouping, the purpose here is to handle smaller bits of
information at a time. For example, recalling a number
series like, 482691653387 is easier when you split it into
chunks like 4826 9165 and 3387.
 Relate the items from part to whole, e.g. a fingernail is
part of a finger.
 Relate information from whole to part, e.g. from the
human body (whole) to the body parts.
 Use color code to differentiate the categories.
 Use the loci technique, making the information local to
what you already know.
 Recall something from your past or from your
environment that reminds you of the new idea or concept
e.g. that looks like, sounds like, or can be an example of.
You can say, “This is like…” or “This reminds me of…”

13.  Think of ways that you can use the new idea or new
concept in your day-to-day experiences.
 Use concept imaging, that is, visualize (see) the concept
in your mind, like a mental movie, and exaggerate it.
When we visualize, we create a mental image of what we
hear, turning the information into stories in our head, like a
videotape. To recall the information, simply “replay the
videotape.”
 Use visual linking, for example, to recall 4138, picture
yourself knocking on the doors of the fourth, first, third,
and eighth buildings on your neighborhood.
 Whisper under your breath the information that you are
trying to remember.
 Use verbal rehearsal (talking aloud) to help you
remember the steps as you do them.
 Number the steps, e.g. first, second, third, and last step.

14.  State the idea or concept in your own words as if you were
explaining it to your best friend.
 Change the information to a different format, that is, from words
to pictures or from images to words. For example, if you are
reading a paragraph, make a drawing or flowchart that
illustrates the concept. If you are studying a diagram, write a
paragraph describing the diagram or orally tell what the diagram
is.
 Write it down; the simple act of writing something is a memory
aid. You do not need to write everything that your teacher says,
just write the key phrases or key words of what you hear.
 Most of the time, making a sketch and/or drawing symbols help
in recalling, for example, if the story character, Delia, is tearful
because her puppy was lost, you can draw a sad face with tears
and a little puppy next to the face. An arrow that goes from the
puppy to the sad face can connect the two drawings, to explain
why Delia is sad. The arrow is a cause and effect symbol.

15.  Prioritize the information you need to remember, from more
important to less important. You can create a list with bullets or
checkmarks.
 Use distributed practice to help you transfer new information
from your short-term memory to your long-term memory. This is
simply rehearsing the same information occasionally. For
example, if the teacher tells you that you are going to need the
information for the test at the end of the month, don’t wait until
the last minute, instead, practice looking for it in your memory
once a week or every few days. Rehearse the information in
your mind more frequently, that way, when you need it for the
test, you will be able to retrieve it from your memory easier.
 To remember what you read, stop at the end of each paragraph
or page and think about what you just read. In your own words,
tell what the paragraph is. You can use two or three sentences
from the paragraph to summarize it aloud.

16. References
 Richards, R. (2003). The Source for
Learning and Memory. East Moline, IL:
LinguiSystems.
 Sousa, D. A. (2001). How the Special
Needs Brain Learns. Thousand Oaks,
CA: Corwin Press.

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