COGNITION AND LEARNING FOR CHILDREN 

Most children will enjoy learning new skills and new ways of thinking and the learning process will be an enjoyable one for them. There will be some children with neuro-developmental or medical disorders for whom learning could prove more difficult and it will be important that the pre-school is able to support these children. There are support mechanisms and organisations within both Education and Health services, and where a child has significant difficulties, there is often a multi-agency team, providing support.

The biggest group of children identified as having special educational needs are those who, for a variety of reasons, learn at a slower rate than the average child. Two major issues with these children are likely to be lack of concentration and poor short-term memory. (At the end of this section are some activity ideas to help develop these areas.) There is often on overlap here, with difficulties like dyslexia or autistic spectrum disorder playing a part. Look out for a child who :

• Score poorly on baseline assessments compared with children of the same age.
• Has difficulty in acquiring skills- particularly in communication and interaction, literacy and numeracy.
• Has difficulty in coping with imaginative play
• Makes little or no progress in spite of positive intervention by staff in the setting.

Development delay- slowness in reaching the traditional 'milestones' - may indicate learning difficulties, but may also be the result of poor stimulation and lack of learning opportunities. A rich early years experience can often 'kick start' developmental progress and enable a child to catch up with his peers. ^_^

Oleh : Teacher Nur Azila Ismail

          "Pendidikan anak-anak keutamaan kami"

          "Melahirkan muslim cilik profesional"