I’m a Slow Learner (7 ways to get better)

In this article, we will be answering “Why am I a slow learner?” and “How can I improve?”. These questions will be discussed in detail.

Why am I a Slow Learner?

 An individual is dubbed as a slow learner due to the inability to adjust to the rigid and fast-paced style of learning. Because of this, a discrepancy develops between their true capacity and their level of success, and such children are labeled as Slow Learners.

 Some individuals are worse at learning than others because a recent study has claimed, their brain does not properly process sensory information. German researchers found that the key problem for slow learners is not that learning mechanisms are inefficient per se, but that the information to be learned is insufficiently processed by the brain.

 Genetic aspects, human brain anatomy, and, not least, attention depend on how well people learn.

Who are Slow Learners? 

 Slow learners can come from any race or educational background; they can be children or adults. While it is a daunting task for everyone concerned, there is a great deal that your slow learners will accomplish. 

 Slow learning is not a learning disorder, to put myths to rest. It is used to classify a student with the potential to gain all academic abilities at a rate below the average student’s level.

 “No student is weak or bright by birth; it’s the way we feed the knowledge and how they imbibe it which makes them so”.

To be effective, a slow learner needs additional time, further repetition, and better teachers’ resources. These students do not have learning disabilities, but recognizing and mastering concepts takes them longer.

 Many parents feel worried about the rate of learning of their child and place pressure on them. This method is incorrect. Parents and teachers ought to abstain from giving children negative reviews. These negative remarks further impact the learning process of children as they start believing in their inability to learn.

Challenges faced by Slow Learners

 Based on previously learned principles, daily classroom learning focuses on the development of new skills. A slow learner appears to be left behind while the majority of students are studying at a faster speed.

 This creates a knowledge deficit in basic concepts and skills and a diminished capacity for understanding across a wide variety of academic fields.

 A child with slow learning faces not only educational difficulties but also social and personal challenges. As a consequence of their failure to match their peers’ learning speed, they can consider themselves less than others. This will impact their trust in themselves and their self-esteem.

 They find it difficult to interact with their age group’s children and are therefore barred from extracurricular events, athletics, and other activities. As they become susceptible to anxiety and negative self-image, this exacerbates the issue.

What problems do Slow Learners face in a Work Environment?

 In a world where time is money, where you’ll have to be minutes ahead of the game to survive, the slow learners do not stand a chance in the job market.

• You have to lie

How else, in the first place, do you plan to get a job? No one wants to recruit someone after hearing the latter who can’t learn “easy” instructions and who messes up more than they achieve.

• People think you are dumb

Employed in fast-paced jobs like the food industry, upon being told just once, you must understand and know what to do. You need to be told two, three times, and even then you need a few days to process that stuff, let it sink in. People have no patience, sadly. You can’t help but look like an utter fool for your first week of work as a slow learner, and everything just happens too quickly for you to manage.

• You get yelled at

Your fellow workers will chide you for being too slow. When you try to fast, you mess it up due to being nervous.

• You can’t think logically
• You get fired a lot

Unfortunately, the world, no matter how truly amazing and intelligent you might be, has no empathy for slow learners. There are too many people who can work better than you, and your boss won’t hesitate to substitute one of them for you. So don’t get invested in any job, and always be equipped for the worst.

How can Slow Learners speed up learning?

• Keep Calm and Relax

When you’re stressed out or frustrated about something, it’s hard to learn anything much, so learning how to relax and remain calm is essential to accelerating your learning.

• Removing Distractions

When you’re accompanied by distractions, it’s also incredibly hard to learn effectively. When we are attempting to understand something new, external noises and technology overload can get in our way.

• Eat right

It may seem obvious, but a clear correlation exists between proper nutrition and the results of learning. Nutrient deficiencies will make you feel like you’re in a sluggish learning haze, which is the best and quickest recipe for slow learning. 

Fight this by eating a balanced, nutritious diet packed with lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. Memory and brain-boosting have been correlated with fatty acids, so make sure to eat fish and nuts or take an omega-3 supplement.

• Sleep

Having plenty of sleep is another good way to improve your learning. When we’re asleep, our minds sort through our daytime experiences. Some synaptic connections weaken while others during sleep are reinforced. This just means that to reinforce memory, the brain needs deep sleep, which means you have to sleep to remember.

• Play to your strengths

Take an evaluation of yourself and think about things that you learn easily and things that make you a slow learner. Then, to your benefit, use this self-assessment, and play to your strengths.

• Practice makes Perfect

Planning frequent exposure to whatever it is you are trying to learn is another trick to speed up slow learning. It’s not going to do the trick to just check your notes once. There’s something that helps make learning more efficient, called spaced repetition. Spaced repetition is more common when you study complex concepts and less often when content is simpler. Spaced repetition is a validated way to help you store fresh data as long-term memories, so it becomes second nature.

• Mnemonic devices

By making memory decoding simpler, mnemonic devices help accelerate learning.

• Try different learning styles

Find your preferred learning style and use it to your benefit. But to accelerate your learning, combine the learning styles, and try to match the learning style with whatever you’re trying to learn.

• Monitor and Modify

• Know your learning blocks

• It’s okay to make mistakes

Learning also demands that we make mistakes. We won’t take the chances required to learn new stuff if we’re too concerned about being right or being ideal. When mistakes happen, instead of making them lead to shame and humiliation, it is important to be able to speak about them honestly and learn from them.

How can we help Slow Learners?

• Praise and compensation

For slow learners, incentive works wonders. It is necessary to recognize even the smallest victory and give incentives for each milestone to help them continue learning.

• Set reasonable expectations and smaller goals

As a parent and an educator, understanding what is feasible for the child and setting goals accordingly is important.

• Be supportive

Slow learners should learn from their mistakes. Until they excel, they should be allowed to explore and learn at their own pace. Parents and teachers should be vocally supportive and teach them through oral tasks that are in line with their abilities.

• Encourage peer tutoring

For slow learners, this is one of the most successful methods. Slow learners should be motivated by parents and teachers to learn in groups. The more a child communicates with someone of his or her age, the more he or she may feel secure.

• Encourage multiple intelligence

It is important to help them if the child shows interest in some co-curricular activity. This boosts their confidence and they begin to feel socially accepted.

 If you’re a slow thinker, you know it’s difficult to look at these swift thinkers and remember that they can get far quicker than you anywhere. But think about what a hiker, as opposed to a race car driver, feels. The driver of the race car goes very quickly and gets to the finish line. It’s all a blur.

 The hiker can reach out and touch the leaves on the trees. The little rabbit tracks are visible to them. They can smell the air and hear the birds. Very different perspectives, and much richer and deeper in certain ways. So, sometimes it can benefit you if you’re a slow thinker.

Often you will see things that are overlooked by those fast thinkers only because you are looking deeper.

Conclusion

 In this article, we answered “Why am I a slow learner?” and “How can I improve?”. These questions were discussed in detail.

FAQ: I’m a Slow Learner

Citation

• Pti. (2013, February 14). Scientists discover why some people are slow learners. Retrieved November 05, 2020, from https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/scientists-discover-why-some-people-are-slow-learners/articleshow/18499602.cms?from=mdr
• Desk, I. (2020, July 20). Who are slow learners? Here’s how we can help them. Retrieved November 05, 2020, from https://www.indiatoday.in/education-today/featurephilia/story/what-is-slow-learning-6-tips-to-help-slow-learners-1702528-2020-07-20
• Five Problems Every Slow Learner Experiences On The Job. (2015, May 26). Retrieved November 05, 2020, from https://thoughtcatalog.com/julie-federov/2015/05/five-problems-every-slow-learner-experiences-on-the-job/
• Oakley, B. (2019, February 08). Learning Speeds and Styles: Is Your Mind a Hiker or a Race Car Driver? Retrieved November 05, 2020, from https://bigthink.com/videos/barbara-oakley-why-slow-learners-are-usually-deep-thinkers
• Drinko, C. (2020, August 27). 12 Ways for Slow Learners to Speed Up Learning. Retrieved November 5, 2020, from https://www.lifehack.org/885116/slow-learner
• https://unsplash.com/photos/ORDz1m1-q0I