Difficulty learning new things after brain injury. Finding it hard to take in new skills and information. Having difficulty remembering how to do tasks that are new. It is often related to difficulties with memory.
Things that have already been learned may be maintained, but it can be hard work to learn something new, particularly if you have difficulties with remembering.
How We Learn New Things
Along with memory, both attention and concentration are important for learning.
Have you heard the saying “it went in one ear and out the other”? Well that is pretty much what happens if we don’t focus on information that comes into the brain.
It doesn’t stick. It needs Concentration to make it stick.
“Pay attention I am only going to say this once”. Ever had that, or similar comments from your teacher, parent, boss? Well remembering also needs us to pay attention to the information we need to learn.
Learning new things needs Attention.
So Attention and Concentration as part of the memory process is also important to learning new stuff. If you concentrate and pay attention enough your brain is told to store that bit of information for later.
This means that difficulties with attention and concentration, as well as memory loss can contribute to difficulty learning new things.
To make use of that stored away information, your brain uses the same pattern of cells and pathways it used to store the information in the beginning. “Use it or lose it”.
The more frequently you use the piece of information, generally the easier recall it. As well as repetition, remembering can happen more easily if it’s related to something you already know. It can also happen more easily if it is related to an emotional response. This bit of information can be useful when designing strategies for remembering and learning.
If any part of this process is interrupted, such as damage to brain cells, it might be difficult to remember and learn some things.
For a simple explanation HERE and below is a simple video explaining the basics of learning using a well acted sea snail as an example!
What Happens When You Have Difficulty Learning New Things After Brain Injury
Here are a few things you might notice when there is a difficulty with new learning after brain injury:
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- Not being able to keep up with your colleagues and peers as you once were able to. Children and young people studying can find it hard to learn and remember their schoolwork.
- Being less able to do what once was possible, or achieve what you know you could have. Finding you cannot learn how to use a new phone, even though you know it would once have been simple for you to do.
- Having difficulty taking what is learned from one situation and applying it to another (this is termed ‘generalising‘). You have learned how to cook a simple meal in a rehabilitation centre but at home you find you cannot do the same tasks.
- Finding you have difficulty learning from the experiences you have, or from other people. Mistakes you make, and consequences of actions you have taken do not seem to help when the situation arises again.
- Being misunderstood because you can do some tasks but not other (often seemingly simpler) tasks.
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A chart from the Department of Education Oregon USA, contains a comparison of the difficulties between a person with brain injury, ADHD, and learning disability. This might be useful to give an overview of what the differences can be. This is a question I have frequently been asked over the years.
Caution – I find the language in the chart a bit blunt, and impersonal at times but the information may assist you so I include it HERE.
Tips and Suggestions For Helping to Learn New Things After Brain Injury
Here are a range of tips and strategies to choose from that might be helpful or can be built on to suit an individual situation:
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- Find ways to practice what needs to be learned – lots of revision, taking notes, rehearsing, write out summaries, practicing the tasks.
- Link new information or learning to things that are familiar; or has been learned before
- Do not give all information at once. Break information down into chunks that the person can manage.
- Find out how the person best learned in the past and build strategies using that style of learning. Did they prefer to read, to learn by doing, or to listen?
- Build on successes. Give encouragement. Work on the positives.
- Develop structures and routines that can be done in any setting or situation and suit individual needs and preferences. A picture chart of key information, helpful phone apps, a notepad carried at all times.
- Try to give the information, (skill or knowledge) in the style and chunks that works best for the person.
- Concentrate on one task at a time.
- Wherever possible undertake new learning in a place where ‘old learning’ has happened to encourage overlap and familiarity – at home or familiar community place.
- Wherever possible teach the skill in the place it will be used.
- When a new skill or task is learned, demonstrate and practice the same task in different situations.
- Practice skills and information with a range of people assisting or instructing – family members, friends, support people.
- Remember learning works best when the person is motivated to learn the information, when it is meaningful for them.
- When giving information suggest the person repeat what they have just learned or been told.
- Provide repetition of new material and give information in a number of different ways
- Give practical examples to help the person learn and understand.
- Because the ability to learn new things is closely linked to being able to remember, strategies for memory may also be helpful.
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