Information Processing and Learning Disabilities Essay

The body gathers randomness with five senses of sight, smell, hearing, taste sensation and touch. However, in ordain to single-valued function the data or instruction that has been gathered by these senses one must constantly put the senses into constant use. later the body has collected training through the five senses it is taken to the brain, which in turn recognizes it, interprets it, understands it, responds to it and entrepots it. This is a continuous member which kindle be tell even a thousand times in all precondition day. Newell (1990) t to each oneing movementing is responsible for the coordination and performance of the tasks that we carry out in any given day, from taking a shower to study in school or participating in a sport. Discussion inside the field of cognitive psychology, training processing is the thinking and reasoning rough mental processes, envisioning them, in the same way as a computer softw argon runs on a computer machine.According to Ul ric Neisser, who too goes as the father of the term cognitive psychology human beings idler be compared to dynamic discipline processing constitutions with mental operations that are identical to those of computer machines and that can be described in computational terms. Neisser, 1967 The legal opinion is the software while the brain is the hardware.The human mind processes entropy through the application of logical rules and strategies, that like a computer, the human mind has got a limited capacity for the amount and even the nature of reading it can process, and that just as the computer can be make to process more nurture through the change or cash in ones chips of its hardware and software, learners can become great thinkers if changes can be make in their brains through the use of authentic rules and strategies of learning. Hetherington & Parke, 199According to Atkinson and Shriffin in their gift theory model, the human memory processes and stores data in three st ages. Information is refined in a serial and discontinuous manner as it transits from one stage to the other. Atkinson & Shriffin, 1968 Craik and Lockhart in their levels-of-processing theory posit that learners make use of various levels of elaboration as they process information. This is getd through a eon of levels beginning from perception, through forethought, to labeling, and lastly meaning. Craik & Lockhart, 1972 A nonher theory posits that information is processed simultaneously by several different parts of memory system as opposed to sequential processing. Goleman, 1995Lastly, Rumelhart and McClelland in their connectionic model propose that information is stored in multiple locations in the form of network connections in the brain. It is grounded on the wisdom that the more connected an idea is the more the chances of it to be remembered. Rumelhart & McClelland, 1986 scientific American, 1999 In a learning situation, the measure of receiving and organizing information, remembering it, and eliciting it testament ostensibly differ from one learner to the other. There will always be discrepancies in reading, writing, comprehension, and reasoning among the learners. Those learners who screws difficulties in organizing, remembering, and expressing information will definitely have intercourse difficulties in reading, writing, comprehension, and reasoning.Such learners are considered as having learning disabilities they tend to envision difficulties in the acquisition and use of listening, speaking, reading, writing, reasoning or mathematical abilities. They expression difficulties in learning revolutionary skills, they have poor memory, and they tend to blear basic words, experience difficulties in connecting garners and sounds, among other difficulties. Lerner (2000) Since the process of information gathering occurs through the application of logical rules and strategies learners without disabilities are bound to organize, remember, and expr ess information with great ease than those with disabilities. Learners with disabilities will experience difficulties in fashioning use of various levels of elaboration as Craik and Lockhart reasons. They will experience snags in transferring information from one stage to another.In a nutshell the process of information processing is complex and therefore it requires proper learning strategies to make it a success. It requires the best learning strategies that are tied to the needs and interests of students and that are ground on varied types of learning styles to enhance utmost learning. Ekwensi et al, 2006 For instance, before the process of learning begins, a instructor should always choose at gaining the learners attention by using cues to signal when you are ready to begin and conserve moving around the class while using voice variations.of all time remember to bring to the mind of the learners prior learned field that is germane(predicate) to present content. This can be done through a instruct discussion or a brief question and answer posing aimed at forming a link with the present lesson content. This should be followed by a brief discussion of the main points of what is about to be learned. Learners may excessively be provided with handouts to get a deeper glimpse of the content. The reading/learning process should now progress from what is already known to what is not known, from simple to complex. Bransford et al, 2000 The instructor should present the content in chunks while giving the learners opportunities to connect new information to information already known. In order to enhance maximum retaining of the learned content the teacher should as well as show the learners coding tips, e. g. , through the use of acronyms, simple songs, construction of silly sentences using the first letter of each word in the list and mental imagery techniques such as the keyword system.The teacher should also provide repetitive teaching and learning by stating important points many times using different methods this jocks to go on Short Term Memory (STM). Miller (1956) Include item on each days lesson from previous lesson or even periodically revue previously learned skills for building Long Term Memory (LTM). The teacher should also provide enough opportunities for learning and over-learning of important concepts and skills methods such as daily drills may be applied for arithmetic facts. Huitt (2003) The teacher should aim at building both STM and LTM. The STM will help to increase the amount of time the learners pay attention to external foreplay and form some meaning out of it. According to Miller (1956) individuals can process up to 7 plus or negative units at any given time, therefore the teacher should aim at component part the learners to identify the most important information to learn at any given time. This can be reachd through proper organization and repetition.To achieve organization the concept of chunking can be applied whereby information will be presented in bits representing units that can be easily remembered. To achieve repetition, the teacher should try to making the learners repeat what they have learned, especially later on some time few minutes (when forgetting begins). The process of learning should also be made sequential, relevant, and transitional. On the other hand, the LTM helps in the recalling of information learned long time ago particularly when such information is arranged and organized using the declarative, procedural, and imagery structures.The declarative memory will help in storing information about things that are talking toed about in classroom Stillings et al, 1987 the procedural memory will store information that touches on ways of doing things practically while the imagery memory will store information inform of images. This program helps to build higher-order-thinking and self esteem. In order to build LTM the teacher should apply the Direct Instruct ion method of teaching that provides constant interaction between the students and the teacher.Nonetheless, teachers should make sure that they teach small amount of material in sequential steps, they should make it thinkable for the learners to use as many of their senses as it is practically possible and that the content material should seek to build on, and enhance the learners prior knowledge. The teacher should also make the instructional language more simple but not the content by reinforcing on the main ideas through paraphrasing, repeating, and the use of impact learning aids such as charts, maps, and pictures.If possible, the use of technology should be encouraged as learners have been noted to feel free and profitable particularly when they are working independently in front of a computer, rather than in crowded classrooms. Singleton, & Terrill, 1995/96 Conclusions In order to address information processing problems among learners with disabilities, a teacher should und erstand the common difficulties that they face so as to be able to employ the appropriate learning strategies.Learners with disabilities they experience the inability to manage their time well, they have spelling problems, they cannot follow if the teacher speaks too fast, they are slow readers, they have difficulties in recalling mathematical symbols, and sometimes they may portray impulsive behavior. This calls for a lot of patience on the part of the teacher when dealing with them. To achieve this, the teacher should watch, listen and talk to the learners to establish their strengths and weaknesses, and to use interest-arousing foreplay in the instructional process because learners are more likely to be attentive when the teacher uses a stimulus