ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the key concepts of learning, what exactly learning means and how can an understanding of the learner's relationship with wellbeing benefit the learner and their mental health. We are reminded in this chapter how successful learning depends upon the needs of the learner-client – it's as simple as that! Ask the learner-client what is best for them and try to meet their needs. Where we can help is in listening to learners and helping them hear their own voices. We can as learner-wellbeing champions help every learner-client we meet realise themselves. The chapter also introduces the ideas of key educationalists such as Piaget, Fritz Perls, Carl Rogers, Benjamin Bloom, Abraham Maslow, B.F. Skinner, Freud and Socrates who contributed significantly to helping us understand learning styles, effective learning and wellbeing for all learners. We look at the necessary applied skills for twenty-first-century living, working and learning with a focus on physical, psychological and emotional barriers to learning. Symptoms of anxiety in children are discussed as are types of difference or difficulty linked with creativity which include attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and schizophrenia. Creativity and its relationship with mental health remains an area of dispute with educationalists and psychologists. The one thing we can be sure of is at the heart of this chapter and that is that all learners learn, just not in the same way. We ask and answer the question as to what works for the learner to be effective as a learner and support them in achieving their sense of mental health wellbeing.
