Experiential Learning

Learning based on experiences rather than lectures or reading. Experiential learning, also referred to as hands on learning, can be especially helpful to students with learning; can be especially helpful to students with learning disability since it allow them to learn without being hindered by difficulties in reading or writing. An experiential approach to education and learning is based on the belief that students are more motivated and will remember concepts better when they have a direct physical experience.

Experiential learning also may have a strong basis in the nature of memory, especially for individuals with learning disabilities or attention deficit disorders. For many students, learning techniques that incorporate sight and touch are much easier for them to remember and retrieve. Evidence suggests that many individuals with learning disabilities or ADHD have a hard time remembering concepts, rules and verbal information, while finding it much easier to remember events, people, places and experience.

To some degree, experiential learning activities may provide a means of bridging these two basic forms of memory, and for enabling individuals to use strengths in one area to compensate for weakness I the other.