These workshops help children better understand how their mind works, develop the skills needed for learning and gradually acquire strategies that make them more independent. They draw in particular on cognitive science, cognitive psychology, metacognition and orthopedagogy.
The aim is not to drill children on school content, but to work on the processes used to learn: paying attention, memorising, holding back an impulsive answer, planning, getting organised, understanding an instruction, reasoning, changing strategy or persevering through a difficulty. Particular attention is paid to executive functions, which are essential to learning and independence.
Functions worked on
- Inhibition: waiting before acting, listening to an instruction to the end, resisting an automatic response.
- Working memory: keeping information in mind and manipulating it to complete a task.
- Cognitive flexibility: changing strategy, rule or point of view when needed.
- Planning and organisation: anticipating the steps needed to reach a goal.
- Activation: getting started on a task without always relying on an adult, and sticking with it.
- And also: attention, memorisation, perception, spatial and temporal awareness, language, comprehension, reasoning.
Metacognition at the centre
The orthopedagogue gradually helps children become aware of what happens in their head when they learn: What am I being asked? What do I need to remember? How will I go about it? Is my strategy working? Could I do it differently? Putting this into words lets them build a real toolbox of strategies to reuse in class.
A typical session
- 1
Opening ritual — 5 min
Welcoming the group and presenting the goal: ‘Today we are going to train our brain not to answer too fast.’
- 2
Warm-up — 5 to 10 min
A short playful activity: Simon says, mirror game, rhythms to copy, reversed instructions…
- 3
Main activity — 15 to 25 min
Situations targeting the function of the day, where children try, make mistakes, adjust and try again. A mistake is information.
- 4
Metacognitive time — 5 to 10 min
What was hard? What helped you? Which trick could you reuse at school?
- 5
Winding down — 5 min
A simple self-assessment (‘I did it on my own’, ‘with help’, ‘it’s still hard’); effort and strategy are valued as much as success.
Nursery school progression
- Session 1 — I discover my learning brain
- Session 2 — I direct my attention
- Session 3 — I stop before acting
- Session 4 — I keep information in my head
- Session 5 — I learn to memorise better
- Session 6 — I can change the rule
- Session 7 — I think before I start
- Session 8 — I understand and follow an instruction
- Session 9 — I look for a solution
- Session 10 — I discover my strategies for learning
In nursery school, activities are short, ritualised, concrete and playful: games, movement, hands-on work, pictures, stories, nursery rhymes, building, rule games.
Primary school progression
- Session 1 — How does my brain work when I learn?
- Session 2 — Steering your attention
- Session 3 — Putting the brakes on
- Session 4 — Developing your working memory
- Session 5 — Learning to memorise effectively
- Session 6 — Becoming flexible
- Session 7 — Planning and getting organised
- Session 8 — Understanding an instruction and solving a problem
- Session 9 — Persevering and dealing with mistakes
- Session 10 — Building my learner’s toolbox
In primary school, activities become gradually more complex: cognitive games, challenges, riddles, strategy games, memorisation tasks, problem solving, situations close to schoolwork.
Assessment
Assessment is formative and qualitative. An individual observation grid, filled in at the start, middle and end of the cycle, tracks each child’s progress (from ‘not yet’ to ‘does it independently’). An end-of-cycle summary covers their strengths, the functions to reinforce, the strategies that work for them and ideas for what comes next.