Answers to Questions About Learning and School
Parents send their children to school and trust that the "magic" of learning happens. Parents often think they know about school because they went to school. People who have worked in school know it is quite different from what they remember from childhood.
When children have no problems in school, parents don't think to ask questions. When children have difficulties, parents often don't understand the situation and try to deal with the consequences of the problems. This page attempts to simply answer common questions that many parents have about school and how their children learn.
Questions about:
- School
- Why don't my child's teachers teach what my child needs to know?
- Who decides what my child will learn?
- What is taught in each level of school?
- What does it mean that my child's school is in crisis?
- Is this a good system of grading schools?
- What are educators doing?
- What is the difference between remediation and intervention?
- Educators
- School Safety
- Learning
- Cognitive Development
- Language
- School Readiness
- Reading
- Math
Information about:
About learning problems at school...
- What can go wrong when we learn?
Before you read any further, remember that learning problems can usually be worked with. Sometimes the problems will disappear. Other times, the problems will become less severe, as the child learns compensatory skills coping mechanisms. A learning problem does not have to prevent school success.
Problems may arise when children do not have the readiness skills necessary for school. These children typically have gaps in their skills. They may know something but cannot demonstrate or apply that knowledge. They may have partial mastery, and they hesitate or are inconsistent. They may not have any knowledge or exposure to that knowledge. A child with learning problems typically is either completely or selectively:
- Unaware of auditory and/or visual stimuli,
- Unable to discriminate similarities and differences among auditory and/or visual stimuli,
- Unable to properly and consistently sequence visual and/or auditory stimuli,
- Unable to remember visual and/or auditory stimuli for immediate, short-term (1-5 minutes) and long-term (10 minutes to days) recall.
- What causes the learning problems?
Click here to listen to recordings of Dr. Jennifer Little discussing various topics relating to education.
