How the Special Needs Brain Learns

1
How the Special Needs Brain Learns

• David Sousa
• By
• Dr. Paul A. Rodríguez 11
• Introduction,
• Chapters 1 2

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Who are the special needs students?

• Those diagnosed and classified with having
  specific learning problems, including speech,
  reading, writing, math, emotional behavioral
  disorders
• Those enrolled in supplemental instruction
  programs for basic skills, such as Title 1
• Those not classified but still struggling with
  problems affecting their learning

3
Who is not covered in Sousas book?

• Those students with learning problems resulting
  primarily from hearing, visual, or physical
  handicaps

4
Focus of Sousas book

• Brain research how it can help teachers reach
  special needs learners
• Common difficulties disorders that teachers are
  likely to encounter
• Practical applications/strategies
• Not to be used for diagnoses!

5
Something to Think About

• As we gain a greater understanding of the human
  brain, we may discover that some students
  designated as learning disabled may merely be
  schooling disabled. Sometimes, these students
  are struggling to learn in an environment that is
  designed inadvertently to frustrate their
  efforts

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Something to Think About (cont.)

• Just changing our instructional approach may be
  enough to move these students to the ranks of
  successful learners. (Sousa, p. 4)

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The Brain and Learning (chapter 1)
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Exterior Parts of the Brain(pp. 5-8)

• Four lobes in each hemisphere each lobe tends
  to specialize for certain functions
• Motor cortex and somatosensory cortex
• Cerebellum

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Interior Parts of the Brain(pp. 8-12)

• Brainstem
• Limbic area thalamus, hypothalamus, hippocampus,
  amygdala
• Cerebrum
• Brain cells related parts neurons, glial
  cells, dendrites, axon, myelin, sheath, synapse,
  synaptic vesicles, neurotransmitters

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Mirror Neurons (p. 12)

• Clusters of neurons in the premotor cortex fire
  just before person carries out a planned movement
• Also fire when see someone else perform the
  movement (reach for ball or cup)
• Scientists believe mirror neurons help us decode
  the intentions predict the behavior of others

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Mirror Neurons (cont.)

• Structures in the limbic area that activate
  during ones own pain also activate during
  empathy
• See look of disgust, pain, happiness, etc. on
  someone elses face triggers that feeling in us

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Mirror Neurons (cont.)

• Mirror neurons might explain young childrens
  mimicry, yawning when someone else does, etc.
• New idea People with autism may have a deficit
  in their mirror-neuron system, which would
  explain why they have difficulty inferring the
  intentions and emotions of others

13
Learning and Retention

• Learning is the process by which we acquire new
  knowledge skills
• Memory is the process by which we retain
  knowledge skills for the future
• Retention is the process by which long-term
  memory preserves learning so that the memory can
  be located, identified, retrieved accurately in
  the future

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Retention (cont.)

• Retention requires building conceptual frameworks
  that have personal meaning to the student
• This relevancy is especially important for
  students with special needs, as they may have
  trouble focusing for very long

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Rehearsal(pp. 14-15)

• Time is needed for initial and secondary
  rehearsal for information to first enter
  working memory and for the brain to make sense of
  that information add details
• Rote rehearsal remember store (often seen as
  boring to students with learning disabilities)
• Elaborative rehearsal associate new learning
  with prior learning

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Rehearsal (cont.)

• Students with learning disabilities often find
  rote rehearsal boring
• They need more time guidance through
  elaborative rehearsal seeing relationships,
  finding meaning/relevance

17
Something to Remember

• Rehearsal only contributes to, but does not
  guarantee, information transfer into long-term
  storage. However, there is almost no long-term
  retention without rehearsal. (p. 15)

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Learning Motor Skills(pp. 15-16)

• Too much conscious attention focused on learning
  a new motor skill can reduce the quality of the
  output
• Attention awareness are necessary for learning
  a new skill, though
• Deep sleep time help skill become more
  automatic (requiring less direct thinking)
• Continued practice helps

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Learning Difficulties Motor Skills

• Low motor ability does not necessarily mean low
  perceptual or intellectual ability
• Sometimes can be related developmental dyslexia
• ADD may not be able to focus long enough to
  learn new motor skills get person to focus
  externally

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Todays Brains

• Differences in environment of past present
  see pp. 16-18
• Brain seeks novelty if classroom is too
  predictable in its stimuli, then the brain will
  look inward for novel sensations
• Even using technology in the classroom may not be
  novel enough depends on how it is used

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Something to Think About

• What some teachers see as a learning disability
  may jus be alienation from school due to lack of
  engagement, relevance, novelty (Sousa, p. 18)
• We must adjust our schools even more to keep up
  with the changing brains

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When Learning Difficulties Arise(Sousa chapter 2)
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Prenatal Development(p. 19)

• Defective apoptosis (purposeful destruction of
  extra neurons) may prune more than it should,
  such as photographic memory
• Maternal drug alcohol use can interfere with
  growing brain cells fetal addiction mental
  defects

24
Infancy(p. 19)

• 20 hours of sleep each day energy for rapid
  brain development neuron connections
• A richer environment more connections made
  faster learning with more meaning

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Approaching Puberty(pp. 19-20)

• Neuron connection pace slows
• Useful connections become permanent
• Non-useful connections are eliminated (apoptosis)
• All decisions based on experience
• These processes continue throughout life, but are
  most intense during ages 3-12

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Possible Causes of Learning Disabilities (pp.
20-27)

• Genetics
• Maternal use of tobacco, alcohol, other drugs
• Problems during pregnancy or delivery
• Toxins in the childs environment
• Stress in the childs environment

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Possible Causes of Learning Disabilities (cont.)

• Gender differences (p. 25)
• More boys than girls
• Foreign body response?
• Testosterone?
• Genetic mutations on the X chromosome?

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Most Effective Forms of Instruction(p. 25)

• Combine direct instruction with teaching students
  learning strategies (memorization study skills)
• Use of technology
• Control of task difficulty small group work

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Misconceptions about Learning Disabilities

• Look at chart on p. 26
• Which misconceptions do you have?
• Which misconceptions do you hear most often from
  others?

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Gifted Students with Learning Disabilities (p. 27)

• Twice-exceptional
• 2-5 of student population
• Tend to fall through the cracks
• Often labeled lazy see Levine

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Responsiveness to Intervention(pp. 27-31)

• Many variations, but all follow basics
• Use data
• Multi-tiered interventions

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Helping Students Become Strategic Learners (pp.
31-35)

• Cognitive metacognitive strategies (p. 34)
• Students with learning disabilities may have
  problems with learning due to being overwhelmed,
  disorganized, frustrated, unable to follow
  directions, etc.
• They may have perception or processing problems
• Lack of prior success lack of confidence
• They may not see connection with information

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Helping Students Become Strategic Learners (cont.)

• Therefore, students with learning disabilities
  need to learn strategies for how to learn
• Some of these strategies include note taking,
  outlining, asking questions, rereading, asking
  others to edit work, making up mnemonic devices
• See even more strategies on p. 33

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Something to Remember

• Learning and retention are more likely to occur
  when students can observe, engage in, discuss,
  reflect upon, and practice new learning. (Sousa,
  p. 34)

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Importance of Self-Esteem(pp. 35-36)

• Students with learning disabilities often have
  negative feelings about learning
• They feel that they cannot learn, because they
  could not in the past
• School-based interventions to raise self-esteem
  do show success
• Word of caution Not all of our perceptions about
  self-esteem appear to be correct (bullies, drug
  users, etc.)

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Strategies to Consider

• Break into 5 groups
• Each group (or individual) will take one of the
  Strategies to Consider (pp. 37-47) summarize
  the ideas as quickly as possible
• You will have 5 minutes to do that, then 1 minute
  to present your summary

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Final Discussion

• What are the main ideas that you will take away
  from Sousas introduction and chapters 1 2 that
  we just went over?
• How will you apply those ideas in your classroom
  beginning immediately?