(and why repetition has to be DESIGNED)

Today: 

I’ll explain why learning isn’t linear.
Learning spreads in a pattern that resembles an electrical wave 🌊.
If the wave can’t grow, students may look fine but freeze-up when they have to do “it” on their own.
Scroll down 👇 for 2 strategies and The Neurodivergent Toolkit that helps you meet the psychological NEEDS for ALL of the different brains in your classroom.

Last Time We Were Together: 

We talked about how novelty and interest lead to LTP💪 long term potentiation, or learning that STICKS. We also talked about how lack of experience, inattention, or disinterest lead to LTD📉 long term depression, or learning that fades.

If you haven’t read part 5, start here:
🧠 Part 5: Stress, The Brain, ADHD and Autism [HERE]

If you are new, start here:

🧠 Part 1: Mental Health is a Learning Issue [HERE]

Learning is a Wave 🌊

Picture a neuron 🧠 as a light with a dimmer switch 💡.

Every time it gets hit with glutamate 🦠it activates and that dimmer turns up slightly 🔅. 

One glutamate hit barely lights it up.
But with repeated hits, it gets brighter 🔆.
And IT GETS EASIER to turn on next time. Can’t forget that!

With each glutamate hit the neuron becomes more sensitive and more excitable in the future. 

Think of glutamate like a “love letter” for neurons- when one neuron sends it to another they start to “hit it off”, then they fall into “lust” and finally into a deep everlasting “love”. At this point the neural connection is so strong that not even Thor himself could tear them apart. 

Activation GROWS With New Connections

As a neural connection grows stronger, activation slowly spreads and excites the neurons surrounding it. Those neurons begin to connect and create pathways too!
The brain metaphorically “lights up” as these new pathways become part of the larger neural network 📡 and send new signals back and forth.

So, Lets Zoom Out 🌎 and Look At an Example

One lamp 💡 sits in a room full of other lamps 💡💡💡.

When that one lamp gets bright enough, it becomes easier for nearby lamps to turn on too, it’s like those other lamps are “feeding” off of the energy of the original lamp. Using that lamps energy to “turn on” or in the case of neurons “activate” and “connect”.

That’s how learning works.
Not one neuron “turning on”. Not one lamp flipping on and off.
But a “brightness” that spreads across the brain- activating and then connecting different areas- like an electrical wave 🌊.

Learning, like so many other things in life, is NOT linear. It’s a wave 🌊. It grows, eventually collapses, and grows again.

If You’re Using The Toolkit:

Use the Cue, Chunk, Chew Strategy, proposed by Dr. Hammond, in Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain*.

You can learn how in the Instruction Kit, located inside The Neurodivergent Toolkit [HERE]

• Cue: Start the same way each time to gets the brain’s attention and “warm it up” the neurons associated with the task. 

• Chunk: Teach in short 12-15 minute bursts instead of long stretches. 

• Chew: Build in a variety of quick practice or reflection so the same neural pathway 👣 can connect to different areas of the brain, do this before you move on.

Why This Explains So Much in Classrooms

Now think about this 🤔

Students may:

Nod the entire time

Seem completely FINE

Maybe get all the practice questions right 

…and then shut down or escalate during independent work.

Why?

Because the brain didn’t get enough quality practice.

Only a FEW neurons were activated in ONE area of the brain.
The neural wave didn’t get a chance to spread.

The signal didn’t reach the networks involved in:

planning

working memory

language production

motor output

If the brain has a superficial experience with a piece of information it doesn’t prioritize the neurons that hold the information. So those pathways and connections fade away.

Repetition That Works

The brain isn’t a sponge 🧽. It doesn’t soak up concepts and information just because it’s explained clearly, politely, or multiple times.

The brain builds understanding through neuro-transmittlers or signals 🛜 repeatedly being sent through the same connection, along the same neural pathway, and then that fuels the generation of new pathways nearby.
That’s how learning becomes faster, easier to access, and more energy efficient 🍃.

BUT! BUT! BUT!

Repetition Builds WHATEVER Gets Repeated

So if a student spends most of their day repeating stress, embarrassment, fear, confusion, anxiety… guess what gets practiced? Not the learning.

What Type of Repetition Do We Want?

Repetition is supposed to:

Strengthen the PFC thinking brain
Make recall of the learning faster
Lower cognitive demand
Make the skill accessible under real world conditions (noise, time pressure, frustration)

What Stress Does to Repetition

Under chronic stress, repetition can accidentally strengthen the wrong thing:

• avoidance becomes a pathway
• shutdown becomes a pathway
• arguing becomes a pathway
• clowning becomes a pathway
• co-dependence becomes a pathway

So yeah, your kids might be learning through repetition.
Just not what you intended.

Repeat The Experience, Not the Speech

We can use repetition to increase how many times a neuron gets activated, and we can use really creative repetition to extend the activation.

For example, if you use repetition with rhyme you activate neurons for the new information AND neurons in the rhythm and language systems. That’s a lot of different connections for that one piece of information, so the brain is more likely to remember it.

But…
The repetition has to hold the brain’s attention and interest.

If the brain isn’t interested or it doesn’t have the brain’s attention.

The neural wave for learning collapses and a new neural wave starts forming around whatever the brain is focused on instead.

So yes—we need to include repetition.
But not cheap repetition.
Sophisticated repetition.

Try this: 

Instead of just saying it over and over again:
🗣️ Say it
🙋♀️ Show it
✍️ Have them draw it
💬 Have them explain it
🪩 Have them move with it
🔁 Revisit it tomorrow

Each of these 👆activates neurons in ALL different parts of the brain.
Each activation increases connections and grows pathways connecting those different parts.

What Can Teachers Do With This 👇

Make Space For a Path

If specific neural pathways 👣 need repeated activation to strengthen, the environment has to allow for SAFE repetition of those specific pathways. Remember if the brain doesn’t feel safe the survival brain will turn on and its networks will get stronger. We don’t want the survival brain stronger than the PFC thinking brain.

That means:

Clear routines
Visible expectations

Reduced sensory chaos (or ability to block it out when needed)

Low-effort task entry (tapered effort)

We have to prioritize safety over learning.

When students don’t have to scan for threats, the brain has more energy to power the PFC thinking brain and we get LTP 💪 in the PFC 😎.

YOU ARE NOT A TRANSMITTER OF CONTENT.
YOU ARE A SCULPTOR OF EXPERIENCE.

And you are not “just managing behavior.”
You’re shaping how much executive functioning a student will have available when their 22. 

One Thing To Try Tomorrow 

1) Clear the Path by Designating Spaces + Visible Routines

Use the Classroom Environment Kit and label 3 areas tomorrow:
Whole Group / Work Time / Reset
Then post visuals for the first 2 steps of independent work at the “Work Time” zone.
Low-effort entry = less threat scanning = the wave can travel farther.

You can check out The Classroom Environment Kit inside The Neurodivergent Toolkit [HERE].

Closing thought

Learning is experience over exposure. 

Learning is constructive. Remember constructivist theory from ed psych?

Its neurons repeatedly activating,
connecting, and spreading the activation.
Which connects different areas of the brain,
adding to the various networks,
and forming the brain’s systems.

And yes, my mystical unicorns 🦄 — that is brain-based teaching.

Coming next

Next up: 

Part 7: Dopamine and Learning