Learning difficulty

Learning in psychology is defined as a relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs as a result of acquired experience. As we learn, we modify the way we perceive our environment and also the way we interpret the stimuli that enter our mind, therefore, we modify the way we behave.

John B. Watson (founding psychologist of Behaviorism ) was the first to carry out an analysis about how learning can modify the behavior of individuals, and he concluded that all human behavior is the result of a learning process .

Psychology of Learning

Learning psychology is the branch of psychology that specializes in a wide variety of topics related to the way people learn and interact with their environment.

Psychologists specialized in this branch often study in minute detail the behaviors exhibited by subjects, while controlling for other possible variables. Learning psychology observes and investigates the effect that the environment has on the individual , how he learns new behaviors and what motivates him to change his behavior.

Learning difficulty

When we speak of learning disability we refer to a heterogeneous group of disorders due to an identifiable and inferred dysfunction of the nervous system .

The learning disorder manifests as a delay in the acquisition of early development and as a difficulty in one or more of the following areas:

• Attention
• Reasoning
• Memory
• Communication
• Reading
• Writing
• Orthography
• Affective maturity
• Social competence

They are intrinsic to the individual and affect the behavior of anyone with normal or higher intelligence , since it is not a problem related to intelligence, although it can be affected by the difficulty.

Learning involves progressive changes in behavior due to changes in the nervous system. Said modifications are possible thanks to its plasticity and retentivity . Plasticity implies more or less permanent modifications while retentivity is the ability to change and at the same time retain. This type of structural and functional modifications more or less permanent occur thanks to environmental stimulation and maturation, as this generates a better adaptation to the environment.

When there is a damaged function, another part of the brain takes over the function, that is why in childhood we speak of developmental disorders and not losses.

The learning difficulty supposes a disturbance of the development of the nervous system and since the environmental stimuli do not affect the histological and biochemical modifications that make possible the change in the child’s responses, no matter how well stimulated the child receives, if he has a difficulty learning process will not be able to develop the learning process normally.

It is important to realize that learning disabilities can affect an individual’s life beyond academics and can affect relationships with family, friends, and in the workplace. For this reason, great care must be taken when  diagnosing a learning difficulty since it is an alteration or delay in the acquisition of new functions and behaviors based on appropriate stimuli, experiences and teachings.