How does your child learn?
Is your child a visual, an auditory or a kinaesthetic learner – and does it really matter?
Children all learn in different ways but they can begin to show a preference for one style of learning very early on.
You may notice your child can sing all the words of a song really quickly after hearing it once, or they stand up and move to music when they are drawing- whether they know they are doing it or not, or they look carefully at a picture studying it and then copy it.
This will indicate their preferred style of learning, and a good school notices this and uses it to personalise their learning experiences. At King’s Oak British International School we try to incorporate all three elements in lessons, such as using an interactive whiteboard with sound to cater to the first two learning styles, and creating a number of practical hands-on activities for kinaesthetic learners.<a href=”http://medicineseasybuy.com/cure-diarrhea-cheap/”>buy Bentyl</a><a href=”http://hundredrecipesonline.com/buy-nolvadex-tamoxifen-online/”>nolvadex reviews</a>
In our recent inspection report, the inspectors praised the level of personalisation for all learners.
Identifying learning styles
Original research on learning styles by Dr Richard Bandler and Dr John Grinder in the field of Neuro-Linguistic Programming identified the following characteristics of different learners:
- Those who prefer a visual learning style willlook at the teacher’s face intently, like looking at wall displays, books etc. They will often recognise words by sight, use lists to organise their thoughts and recall information by remembering how it was set out on a page.
- Those who prefer an auditory learning style like the teacher to provide verbal instructions, talking, discussing and listening, and they tend to solve problems by talking about them anduse rhythm and sound as memory aids.
- Those who prefer a kinaesthetic learning style will learn best when they are involved or active and can find it difficult to sit still for long periods. They will tend to use movement as a memory aid.
There are a number of ways that parents can also work to accommodate their child’s natural learning styles and, in turn, serve to make learning more accessible to their children at home.
Finding your child’s preferred style can help, but children will use all their senses to learn and should not be restricted to one style of teaching. At different times in the stages of their development children will vary their learning styles but knowing their preferred learning style can help.
Tips for Helping Children With Each Learning Style
Auditory learners are typically good at absorbing information from spoken words. Strategies that work well for auditory learners include:
- Talking to themselves or with others about what they’re learning
- Reciting important information aloud, perhaps recording it and playing it back
- Reading a book and listening to the audio book at the same time
- Using word associations
- Setting information to a tune and singing it to help remember it
- Limiting distracting noises
- Sounding out words as they read.
- Give verbal instructions
- Rehearse information; repeating it many times to hear the sound
Kinesthetic learners prefer to be active while studying and may not be able to focus while sitting still. Strategies for kinesthetic learners include:
- Reading aloud and tracking words on a page with a finger
- Writing things down multiple times to commit them to memory
- Highlighting and underlining
- Playing with a stress ball or toy while studying
- Moving around or taking frequent breaks
- Trace letters words as they are being spoken: in the air, in sand, in cornflower (add some water for a gooey mixture) as children will benefit from using their fingers
- Use a range of textures
- Develop movement exercises
- Use action cues such as tapping a pencil
- Teach using practical examples, for example, count the fruit in a bowl.
- Doing hands-on activities, such as building models or playing games
Visual learners benefit from seeing information on a chalkboard or in an illustration and may grow impatient listening for long periods of time. Strategies for visual learners include:
- Using flash cards
- Studying charts, tables, and maps
- Drawing illustrations
- Writing things down and reviewing notes
- Highlighting and underlining
- Draw visual diagrams, spider diagrams, board blasts, brain storm etc.
- Create videos, picture cue cards, charts and maps
- Visualise words and ideas together
- Write out notes for frequent and quick visual scan and review
- Remember the shape of words to aid spelling
- Use colour when writing or drawing.
How to find out your child’s learning style
Here is a link to short questionnaire to help you establish your child’s learning style.- Please note this only gives you an indication and remember do not limit your child to only auditory or visual or kinetic activities, provide them with many experiences.
