When practitioners are aware of their learners' processing disabilities, they can use this information to ensure that strategies are incorporated into the instructional model that will help compensate for the processing breakdown. For example, if practitioners know they have adults with auditory disabilities, they may provide both oral and written information. This will also help meet the needs of adults who have visual processing disabilities since they prefer to hear information, rather than see it written. Organizational processing disabilities often go hand-in-hand with either visual or auditory disabilities. By understanding how information is processed, practitioners can integrate organizational strategies into their instruction to help learners effectively retrieve information from their long-term memory.

Five processes that impact the learning process

• Input
• Attention
• Perception
• Working memory (short-term memory)
• Long-term memory

Input

One or more of our senses gathers information. It is not the role of the practitioner to teach to the preferred sense, but to provide information in a variety of modes to ensure that all learners can input the information. For example, when teaching problem-solving skills, practitioners will want learners to see the steps visually via a sequential chart, hear the steps orally, read over the sequences through an assignment and actually try out the steps by doing a case study. The first step is to use multiple channels to help learners input the information.

Attention

It is not only important that learners input, they must also attend to the information at this initial stage in order to transfer it to the next one. It is important for the practitioner to make sure the learners are paying attention to the right information. A person's level of interest and ability to relate to the information often increases one's attention. Practitioners need to highlight an interesting feature and provide examples of how this information relates to prior learning or knowledge. When learners pay attention to the information, there is a greater chance that the information will be processed further.