Teaching Young Adults to "Use Their Brains"

Teaching Young Adults to "Use Their Brains"

In the past decade, scanning and imaging technology has allowed researchers to directly observe brain activity, leading to enormous advances in our understanding of cognition.  In addition to yielding insights into how the brain works, these advances also allow health practitioners to assess an individual’s cognitive activity, processing patterns, and deficits.

This information, in turn, allows educators to more precisely identify issues that might impact learning and inform classroom and life-skills instruction.  We can now directly observe and distinguish cognitive patterns associated with, for instance, ADHD, processing issues, trauma, and even transitory emotional states–all of which can have a profound impact on a young adult’s performance in various settings and may require different approaches.

Because of this ability to more directly observe neurological activity, educators can now implement customized, brain-based instructional strategies with a high level of confidence.  Advances in brain research have also helped dispel certain misperceptions about student performance.  We are now less likely to attribute classroom underperformance to laziness or a lack of motivation when, in fact, a neurologically based learning difference is the culprit.

This means that educators more likely to replace blaming labels with a practical understanding of an individual student’s learning differences. For young adults, this is empowering information, allowing them to formulate strategies to optimize their own performance in the classroom, workplace, and independent living situations.

Following are some specific tactics young adults can be taught in order to maximize their ability to learn, perform, and become more independent.  These tactics are validated by recent advances in brain research:

Seek Structure and Routine: High stress environments degrade cognitive function. Young people–especially those with emotional or neurological issues–should actively seek safe, structured, and predictable life routines to optimize performance in all arenas.

Small Setting: Small, intimate learning and working environments optimize learning by introducing a relational component.  Not only does a relational setting increase a student’s sense of safety (see above) but it also improves cognitive engagement, multi-modal stimulation, and motivation.  For these reasons, environments that favor teamwork and collaboration can greatly improve learning.

Low Stimulus Environment: Reducing anxiety improves cognitive receptivity and processing.  Young adults do well to seek a low stimulus environment (removing all unnecessary stimuli) to reduce distraction and anxiety, and improve learning. 

Experience: Experiences engage all of a young person’s learning modalities—sight, sound, touch, social interaction.  When a work or academic task is proving difficult to master, young people can advocate for themselves by seeking opportunities for guided observation and practice. “Show me,” or “coach me while I try it,” are two useful phrases young people should learn to use when reading or listening just aren’t enough.

Break it Down: Brain research shows that breaking large tasks into their composite parts can help reduce anxiety and improve learning.  Teaching young people to do this for themselves equips them with a critical lifelong-learning skill.

Practice Organizational Skills: Many young adults have simply never been taught how to keep a budget or use a binder, a file folder, or a calendar.  Explicit and concrete organizational skills are a critical–and often overlooked–lifelong skill.