How People Learn: Helping children and adults understand the brain

Whether you’re a parent, grandparent, teacher, therapist or other significant caregiver, I’ve written this book for you and the children you care for. My goal is to help children understand how people learn, enabling you all to view learning and studying in a whole new way. Many of the concerns related to a child’s academic results, cognitive skills and wellbeing in school will fade away once complex brain processes are better understood and managed. After reading this book together, both children and adults will have the confidence and information required to discuss topics like What happens when you learn?, Why does your brain ignore boring things?, How can we organise learning for better thinking?, and How can we stop the process of forgetting? I hope you enjoy the book!
– Olimpia Mesa
Through neuroscience stories, Olimpia Mesa, an expert learning designer and mother, unravels how a human brain learns and what to do about it to help your children become smarter, better and happier learners. The book draws on ideas from brain science without being academic about it. It is written in a way that will engage and interest children between the ages of 6 and 12, inviting them on a journey that they will find constantly fascinating.
Olimpia Mesa is a leading expert and consultant on brain-based learning design. She is the president of Instructional Design Ltd., a company behind hundreds of successful corporate and educational programs. In addition to consulting with Fortune 500 organisations on learning projects, Olimpia is the founder of Book to Courses™ Online School whose main goal is to teach authors how to transform a nonfictional book into online academies or apps.
“Well done on an excellent guide to help children use their brains more effectively and also giving parents and teachers a way of working and supporting children’s learning. I loved the lay-out and the visuals. I thought the series of exercises and challenges were very age appropriate and accessible. The way it ends with the brain-challenges is great and gives children and real programme to follow and challenging questions at every stage.Well done on a very clever and thought provoking piece of work!”
-Dr. Martin Fitzgerald, Lecturer in Education and Human Development, LIT, Ireland
“This book is an important reminder of the basics of human behavior and learning while educating children for a better world. It succeeds in capturing many important aspects of developing brains in processing information and everyday experiences from the very early years of childhood. The parents are supposed to act as mentors all along. In fact without the support of adults the great potential laid out in the book is not completely met. I highly recommend this book for all families who aspire to inspire children to learn to learn and to maintain and develop their inborn skills to be curious and creative.”
-Jukka Kangaslahti, PhD in educational Sciences, Senior Advisor at European Parliament, Finland
“Children will discover activities that challenge them to go outside the book and actually build the concepts they are reading about. Learning challenges will allow them to take the lessons from the book back into their homes and classrooms and notice how their life changes as they experience learning differently. Thus the book itself comes alive and becomes a gateway - bridging new insights with practical application, all in a fun, engaging way.”-Alis Anagnostakis, Executive Coach (PCC), Australia
"We all learn every day, but how learning happens is often a mystery. The book takes us on an adventure to uncover the secrets of learning. In a manner that is accessible to both children and adults alike, it invites us to explore the magnificent human brain and how to ensure it works effectively…What I like most of all is the accessibility to complex information - a simplicity that is very powerful.”-Davin Willows, Director of Admissions and Advancement, ISB, Belgium