Board Thread:Skyrim/@comment-11344160-20140210205032

Does the game ignore your shield when leveling an armor skill?

For example, I started a guy who wears all light armor (boots, gloves, helm, chest) but I gave him an iron and then a steel shield. His light armor skill is improving as normal but his heavy armor skill never does. So i'm just curious if the skill progression is really slow since his only heavy armor item is the shield, or if the shield isn't even counted. If the latter is the case, why distinguish between light/heavy at all on shields? 