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Although we already knew part of what was written and had implemented it in our lives and in the learning process (again from publications of @rkirilina’s “Glad to Learn”), we also discovered something new and intend on trying it and getting more results.
It is especially valuable that all the techniques are given in a playful format which is interesting for children.
It is a big advantage that all the techniques were created keeping in mind the individual psyche and maturity level of the children.
The information is given in a structured, albeit condensed, format. These guidelines should be enough for any parent who thinks and cares about their child to understand and apply to their own lives.
I recommend it!
Natasha Litovkina
The book Techniques for Effective Learning from A to Z is simply a treasure trove for parents who want their children to learn more easily and with interest. It contains many helpful techniques which make it much easier for children to learn. The step-by-step description of every helper explains what and how to do in the specific technique. I read the book in one go. I recommend this book to all parents. The advice in this book can help you make it easier for your child to take in information when learning, thereby helping them remember the information forever.
Svetlana Belykh
N
1 expert in teaching children effectively in school. Mom of two school-aged boys and one daughter. Renata started homeschooling her sons in 2016.
Worked her way up from teacher to principal of a public school and knows all the pitfalls of the education system.
Practitioner; all the techniques of effective learning have been tested by thousands of children.
Creator of the methods “The complex put simply” and “Techniques for effective learning”.
The students’ geography covers all of Russia, countries of the former Soviet Union, Europe, USA, and Canada.
Founder and director of “School for Smart Kids” and “School 60 minuts”
Author of the blog “Glad to Learn” http://gladtolearn.ru/blog/
How to develop a child’s mind and help them learn
Fundamentals to help you learn how children take in new information and develop new abilities and skills
If you are worried about the development of your child then remember that there are learning strategies and methods which can help them learn more easily.
I suggest a quick dive into the theory behind how the brain works and how new information, abilities, and skills are built into it.
Later we will look at the best learning strategies at every level of a child’s brain development.
First, though, here are some important facts:
Children learn by creating connections between brain cells which are called “neural pathways”.
The more often these neural pathways are used, the stronger they become. For this reason, practice helps improve skills.
Creating the circuit system of the brain
Every brain cell (neuron) looks like an ordinary tree.
When children learn information about the world, their neurons branch out and create connections between each other. The resulting neural pathways are similar to electrical wires. Each neuron can have several connections with other neurons.
These “wires” do not touch each other.
Instead, they release information in the space between neurons, known as “synapses”. The brain’s chemical elements (neurotransmitters) help the system communicate.
How neural pathways work
Each neuron pathway is like a schematic. When electricity goes through the circuit, it receives an answer.
For example, when you flip a light switch, the light turns on. Some brain circuits, like those for breathing and blood circulation, are already developed at birth. Other schematics are dependent on activity.
They need input to work, and the more input data they receive, the better they work. This input is more complex than simply flipping a switch.
This occurs for every experience and event a child goes through.
Sounds, sights, tastes, smells, as well as feelings and emotions help the brain release neurotransmitters and control these schematics.
Pruning or forgetting
Neural pathways which are frequently used become stronger. This is similar to a paved road versus an ordinary path.
Schematics which are not used become weaker and disappear over time. This process is called “pruning” or simply forgetting.
This is normal. Everyone has more schematics than they need. “Pruning” occurs gradually over one’s whole life.
Children’s minds are fairly flexible in order to constantly work to create new schematics and improve frequently used neural pathways. This process is known as “plasticity”.
Strength of plasticity
“Plasticity” is especially important for children. Their brains process information differently but do not always use the brain’s chemicals efficiently.
These differences make it more difficult to create or reinforce some neural pathways.
Teaching children the techniques of effective learning and information processing makes it possible to show children how to use their brain’s plasticity.
Children not only learn better and more easily, they also experience less difficulties and stress.
Learning through feelings
Children do not need to think about neural pathways.
This occurs naturally when they experience the world and learn about it.
The Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget created a well-known theory about how children develop skills of recognition and thought.
Initially children use their senses of sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell to start establishing connections. They taste, shake, and throw items. They also start to roll, reach for objects, and in the end, crawl and walk.
All these actions help build neural pathways which control things like movement, sight, and language development.
For example, children start mimicking sounds which grab their attention.
Later, they continue tasting and discovering the world which surrounds them. They continue to move around to places they want to see. The brain strengthens these schematics and the child continues to develop.
Learning through speech
Between the ages of two and seven, language development increases with children learning to talk and understand more words and using more complex sentences.
This is a critical time to create a rich speech environment for the child.
At this stage, the more the child is spoken to, the more words they will use and learn. Likewise, the more new skills they will try, the more neural pathways they will form.
At this point, children can be more creative in how they play with objects.
For example, you might see your child using a big stick as a horse or turning a box into a rocket ship.
Social skills develop slowly at this age, as children are not ready to understand logic, reasoning, and other people’s views.
They often experience difficulty being around unfamiliar company and can likewise openly criticize or say what they do not like or comment on the behavior of other people.
Learning through logic
From the age of seven until middle school, children begin to think more logically.
At this stage children are able to make connections between things. They become “detectives” who are capable of seeing clues and able to connect them.
Socially speaking, children develop the ability to put themselves in someone else’s shoes and understand that actions have consequences.
At this stage, adults can support children by helping them think through things like the cause or effect of any event.
Learning through reasoning
Transitioning into adolescence, children start to think more abstractly and with more complexity.
They reason along the lines of “what if” and can picture the outcome of a situation.
Children are capable of solving and understanding more complex mathematics, learning chemistry and physics, understanding storylines more deeply, and discussing literature they have read.
Children can combine different kinds of skills to do more complex things like learn to drive or learn a profession.
The system of electrical wires in the brain becomes more complex with circuits that intertwine with other circuits so that all the skills can work together.
Main conclusions
New experiences help your child form neural pathways. Exploring the world helps the brain grow. Various learning methods and other strategies of intervention can help children develop new paths and acquire more skills.
There are things at each stage of development which you can do to help your child learn.
What you can do to help your child learn
– Study the techniques of effective learning. Learn how to structure text information, create “mind maps”, use the general to specific method, look for and remove mistakes, learn connected speech, and develop both sides of the brain.
– Work on motivation, interest, attention, and discipline.
– Improve memory and revise new information according to the “forgetting curve”.
– Develop imagination, learn to encode and decode information, learn to manage a working state.
– Identify the type of learning style (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, logical) and use the dominate style when learning.
– Do not give up. Look for ways specifically suited to teaching your child until you find one!
– Reduce the time spent looking for and choosing the best strategies and implement them using the program “Genius Child. Techniques of Effective Learning”.
Auditory, Kinesthetic, Logical, and Visual
“VALK” technique. How learning styles affect learning
V – visual A – auditory L – logical K – kinesthetic
Learning through speech
Between the ages of two and seven, language development increases with children learning to talk and understand more words and using more complex sentences.
This is a critical time to create a rich speech environment for the child.
We have five sense organs. The right, creative, hemisphere of the brain is responsible for what these organs take in. We see, hear, touch, taste, and smell. A clear image which is formed immediately by several senses is remembered automatically and without effort.
If we try to remember something unemotionally, without recalling or picturing what we need to remember, or if we read a book without imagining each word, each sentence, then these processes become boring for us and require a lot of effort. When we read schoolbooks we do not get any pictures, and therefore they are difficult to read and require more work. Meanwhile, any genre of literature creates a film or pictures, and we do not think about it how fast we are reading and do not spend energy forming the images in our minds.
If we talk about how information is received, it is important to know that each person has four clearly defined basic scales of perception: hearing, tactile, visual, and logical. How developed any given one of them is tells us what type of learner the person is in general. We distinguish between for kinds of learners: visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and logical.
Learning styles
The largest group of learners is visual, ie., people who transform the majority of information into knowledge through sight.
Practically all visual learners talk using expressions like “Look”, “Let me show you”, etc. It is difficult for them to listen to directions of where to go, where left or right is, and so on. Generally speaking, they prefer to look at a map and only go once they are 100% sure of where it is.
Then there are kinesthetic learners who need to do something themselves before they can understand it. We could not teach kinesthetic learners to dance using our examples of “look”, “let me show you”, “watch how I do it”. Instead, they should repeat it themselves and master the physical movements, otherwise they will never learn it.
Logical learners understand clearly structured information and algorithms: 1,2,3,4. They only get a clear picture when they have information structured in this way. For logical thinkers, the surrounding world is clearly broken up into a hierarchy of objects.
Auditory learners are people who play with the tone, depth, and volume of their voice when they speak (all of which makes up the prosodic (intonational) side of speech). They love to listen and hear. Monotone, unemotional speech is boring and unclear for them.
Let’s look at each learning style in more detail.
We will look at a few criteria like how a person walks, they main way they take in information, what the easiest way to teach them is.
