I really think it's more about repetition than anything else. If a student has been "primed" for the topic at hand by some prior exposure, like overhearing thei

I really think it's more about repetition than anything else. If a student has been "primed" for the topic at hand by some prior exposure, like overhearing their parents talk about it or encountering a similar situation on a different subject and being able to draw parallels, they'll be ready for straightforward explanation and be able to internalize it. If it's their first exposure to the topic, they'll need to dance around it and see it from different points of view before things start to make sense. For example, at age 12 I read a book that made no sense to me whatsoever. I somehow finished it but didn't get much out of it. 12 years later at age 24, I read Terry Pratchett's book, the Lost Continent, and gradually realized it was the same book. In 12 years I had gained enough background understanding of concepts such as Evolution, Australia, Satire, and Wizards to get the jokes and the plot, so that time the book stuck with me. Learning style had nothing to do with it - it was me that changed.