Helpful Hints for Getting Started: How Learning Works in the Brain

The following explanatory notes can help you get started with Grafari (Orthograph). Remember to adjust the content to the students‘ ages.

Our brain consists of around 150 billion individual neurons (nerve cells). These neurons can form connections between one another and exchange information. The more connections exist in the brain, the more easily we are able to learn and the better we can remember things.

Multi-sensory Learning

• Our memory is like a big network. Networked knowledge can be retrieved more easily and quickly and is stored by our brains for longer.
• When we learn new things, new connections are formed. When we repeat and consolidate things we have learned, the connections become stronger.
• Whenever we attempt to retrieve something from memory, these nerve cells are activated. Information is sought out and exchanged via the connections between the nerve cells.
• This means that when we learn, we should ideally create as many ways of accessing particular information as possible. In other words, we should try to learn via as many senses as possible.
• When we learn via multiple senses - that is, when we activate multiple neurons - more connections are formed and the network in the brain becomes stronger. Learning via multiple senses is called multi-sensory learning. This is the approach used by Grafari (Orthograph).
• In the Grafari (Orthograph) learning software, words are represented using colors, shapes, structure and sounds. The multi-sensory learning style engages multiple senses and neurons.
• In this brain, the brain is able to establish new connections and the network of neurons is strengthened. Learners are able to better perceive how certain words appear, to store this information and to retrieve it at a later point in time. As a result, they find it easier to spell the words correctly.