Learning and Stress - How stress impacts a learning disability

Learning and Stress - How stress impacts a learning disability

 By The author of Dyslexia My Life

Stress and learning, I feel this topic is one of the key items overlooked when it comes to helping the child with dyslexia or any learning disability.   As with anybody, being under a lot of stress can decline your performance or learning.    Having a learning disability and not being able to perform like the other kids in your class will cause your stress levels to max out. Many times, the child will act out just to reduce their stress. Once the child is stressed and has the feeling of being under the gun, the learning stops.  Research suggests that stress can block chemical reactions in the brain that are necessary for learning. Stress can disrupt learning and memory development.   Also, in your brain, the blood moves from the front lobes of the brain to the back brain survival centers. During stress, the blood also leaves the digestion and goes to the arms and legs for fight or flight. This can be seen as ADD in some children.

How to reduce the stress for someone, so they can learn.

• Reduce background noise – Add white background noise to overcome it. Noise-canceling headphones.
• Reduce violent environments. Games TV and Movies can put the child in the “fight or flight” mood.
• Eat healthy – greens vegetables, if the child does not like vegetables, many good tasting drinks on the market with vegetables in them. Reduce sugar as much as you can.
• Vigorous exercise is a good stress reliever.
• Breaks, rewards. Set short time goals and rewards for working on a items that stress the child out.
• Everyone (including teachers) makes mistakes.  Teachers know the items well, teaching it for years.  Make a mistake, let them know your human also and it’s human to make a mistake.
• Art, give breaks and let them do Art or something they enjoy, this also works as a good break and reward.  Never take the break away for not doing well on something. Taking breaks away, will only break the trust you have with the child.  The child will not want to complete the task anymore if the break is taken away.
•  Be low stress yourself, kids feel they should act as you do, if your getting short or stress because a child is not learning something, they will also do the same.
• Aromatherapy

As an adult now, I know my past and I can get very stressed when key things happen.  I now start each day with some Herbal Tea, Tension Tamer or something with Chamomile in it.  I seem to get so much more done when I’m not so stressed.  Hope that helps, as “we are all in this together”.  Feel free to email me with any topics or questions you might have.

By the author of the book “Dyslexia My Life”

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