The Neuroscience of Learning
🧠 The Neuroscience of Learning
Learning occurs throughout the brain but is most closely associated with the cerebral cortex, which is responsible for thinking, planning, and problem-solving. Within the cortex, the prefrontal cortex plays a major role in higher-order learning such as reasoning, self-regulation, and decision-making.
However, learning is not limited to this area. It also involves other regions such as:
the hippocampus (memory formation),
the amygdala (emotional learning),
the basal ganglia (habits and skills), and
the cerebellum (motor learning and coordination).
Early Brain Development
In early childhood, the limbic system — the emotional centre of the brain — is more dominant in guiding behaviour and responses. The prefrontal cortex develops gradually and continues maturing well into the mid-twenties.
This means that before roughly age 8–10, children rely more on emotional processing and reactive responses, and they benefit most from learning that is relationship-based, experiential, and emotionally engaging.
As the prefrontal cortex develops, children gain greater capacity for reasoning, impulse control, and reflective learning. This shift from limbic to cortical dominance explains why young children often need adults to help regulate their emotions and make sense of experiences before they can learn from them.
How Learning Happens in the Brain
When we learn, networks of neurons communicate through electrical and chemical signals. The phrase “neurons that fire together, wire together” describes a key principle of neuroplasticity — the brain’s ability to strengthen connections between neurons that are repeatedly activated together.
Each time we practise a skill, recall information, or experience an emotion in a certain context, the involved neural pathways become more efficient. Over time, pathways that are frequently activated are strengthened, while those that are rarely used are pruned away.
This process explains why repetition is so powerful in shaping both positive learning and habits — beneficial or otherwise. Repeated experiences reinforce neural pathways, making certain thoughts, reactions, and behaviours easier to access.
How We Learn Through Repetition
Humans learn through repetition in several key ways:
1️⃣ Observation – watching others and imitating what we see (as described in Bandura’s social learning theory).
2️⃣ Direct experience – learning by doing and experiencing outcomes firsthand.
3️⃣ Social feedback – being guided, reinforced, or persuaded by trusted others.
Children absorb an enormous amount of learning through modelling — observing how adults regulate emotions, solve problems, and interact with others.
Research consistently shows that children learn far more from what they observe and experience than from what they are told. This is why most effective parenting and teaching approaches emphasise modelling desired behaviours, not just providing verbal instruction.
How I Apply This in Practice
In my clinical practice, I integrate the neuroscience of learning into both child-focused therapy and parent coaching.
With children, I use emotionally safe, play-based, and experiential learning to help strengthen regulation, attention, and problem-solving pathways. Through modelling, co-regulation, and guided repetition, I support children to practise and embed new skills such as identifying emotions, using safe hands, or seeking help when overwhelmed.
With parents, I teach how to become their child’s external prefrontal cortex — modelling calm, predictability, and empathy until their child’s brain develops the ability to do so independently. Together, we create consistent routines, emotionally safe environments, and explicit instruction that focus on what the child should do rather than what not to do.
By combining these approaches, learning becomes more than a behavioural change — it becomes a neurological transformation. Every repetition, every co-regulated moment, and every consistent response strengthens the child’s brain toward greater emotional safety, flexibility, and resilience.
