Good Sensory Learning Blog

Recent research suggests that working memory is one of the best indicators of academic success, so strengthening this cognitive skill can offer great benefits to struggling students with memory deficits.  What is Working Memory? Working memory is a short-term, cognitive function with limited capacity that gathers sensory input and memories to complete a mental activity. When sensory information passes through the short term memory and reaches our conscious awareness, working memory processes the information through internal thoughts, visualizations (visual and spatial), and one's inner voice (verbal working memory). It acts like a mental workspace that allows one to manage attention, manipulate information and access prior knowledge for long term memory. ...

Higher order thinking or higher-order thinking skills (HOTS), is based on the theory that some more advanced forms of learning require advanced or complex cognitive processing. Bloom's taxonomy, for instance, suggests the HOTS levels include analysis (breaking apart and organizing information), evaluation (examining the outcome), and synthesis (pulling information together).  The teaching of these skills demands different and more advanced instructional methods than concrete levels of learning such as rote memorization and repetition. How Can We Teach Higher Order Thinking Skills? Instead of parroting facts back to a teacher, HOTS asks students to: understand concepts making sense of implied meanings from lessons or content cues...

Finding the best professional to help with a struggling student can be a challenging chore. There are a Number of Professionals that Can Help: Educational Therapist: An educational therapist offers remedial treatment for struggling students and those with any type of disability that impacts learning. In addition, many offer help to students with social and emotional challenges involving their learning difficulties. Support is often individualized for each learner.  Most educational therapists have degrees in both psychology and education.  Learning Specialist: A learning specialist is a private coach that offers compensatory learning strategies and metacognitive approaches to learning for all students from those with disabilities to those that are gifted. Some also offer a multisensory remedial...