Do You Know Your Child's Learning Style?

Each of your children has their own exclusive learning style. We process information coming at us in many different ways. You can help your child learn by figuring out their learning style and determining the most effective way to “encode” that information so that they can assimilate it easier and more fully. The three major learning styles are visual, auditory and kinesthetic.

Visual learners think in images and pictures. Their mind is like a mini video camera that is always set on ‘record’—in order to remember an event they ‘play’ back the image in their head. A visual learner will frequently do well in the classroom setting because the majority of information and testing in the school system is visual.

Visual students like to read, look at pictures and observe others around them. Make sure that you include pictures, videos and computers in order to keep the visual child’s attention. Children that learn visually also love to write, draw and organize things.

Auditory learners have superior listening skills and have the capability to notice slight nuances in words, tone inflection and overall meaning. Students who frequently talk and/or sing to themselves are usually auditory learners. Auditory children love to take part in discussions but are easily distracted by outside noises, other conversations going on at the same or music. Permit your student to talk through situation in order to reach solutions and open to their need for interaction or verbal repetition.

Kinesthetic learners want to learn through experiencing and touching things. These children have to ‘do’ in order to learn and their memory is directly linked to bodily interaction. Kinesthetic children sometimes have difficulty in the classroom because most material is geared toward the auditory and visual learners. Teachers, also, do not usually appreciate the student moving around the classroom and touching things. They do excel, however, in activities such as building, sports, drama and/or dance.

For kinesthetic learners, try to include activities that permit your child to touch, explore, play, perform and create. Since these types of learners don’t typically visualize or retain information just by listening, you need to design activities that allow them to interact with the senses.

No particular learning style is better than the other and they are all legitimate, intelligent and functional ways to process information. Whereas every child usually has one main learning style, they also have a ‘mix’ of the all the styles that permits them to access information and take a look at the world around them in their own distinctive way.
 posted by Jane