Whether to start from the specific or the general probably depends on the student-- I have a general memory (sorry for lack of details) from someone who couldn't learn a programming thing until they had a explanation of what it was supposed to do.

I'm not sure if this is the same thing, but I couldn't do word problems until realized that I was supposed to translate the words into equations and then crank it through mechanically. I thought I was supposed to read the problem and then perceive the answer directly. (It's quite possible they told me to do translation, but I wasn't paying attention.)