Childrens Learning Styles
Did you know that children as well as adults have their own learning style? You may have heard the term Children’s Learning Styles before but weren’t exactly sure what was meant by the phrase. This post will cover the different learning styles and why determining learning styles are important to understand. Recognizing your child’s learning style will make teaching your child to read a much easier process.
3 Basic Learning Styles
There are 3 Basics Learning Styles: Auditory, Visual and Kinesthetic-Tactile. In order to learn we use our senses to be able to process information. For the most part each of us have one dominate type of learning style although there are those who may tend to overlap with the other learning styles.
I will explain each of the learning styles so that you may fully understand the impact that these have on how your child learns. You may even discover something about yourself which in turn will help you find the means to better assist your children in their learning process.
1. Auditory Learning Style – Those who have a predominant auditory learning style learn best by verbal instruction. Information is gathered, processed and understood by hearing what is being told or asked.
2. Visual Learning Style – Visual learners do best with images and written information. They must see the instructions or what is being asked to fully take in and absorb the information.
3. Kinesthetic-Tactile Learning Style – Those who are Kinesthetic-Tactile Learners learn best through a hands-on approach. They take in information by moving, doing and touching.
Now that you have an overall explanation of the 3 learning styles let me illustrate a point about the way we take in information. Think about yourself for a moment. When someone wants you to call them how do you get the phone number you need? Do you ask them to tell you the number so that you can remember it? This would be what an auditory learner would do. If they wrote the number down for you and you saw it written on the paper and remembered it later then you would be a visual learner. A kinesthetic-tactile learner would need to write down the number themselves in order to remember the number. Which category do you fall under?
Children are really no different than you when it comes to their learning styles. They also have a dominate way of processing information. They may have the same governing learning style as you or they may not. This is where some parents become frustrated when trying to help their children learn. Knowing the way your child and yourself learns best will help ease the tension.
An informal way of finding out which learning style is more prevalent in your child is by observation and participation. Here is an example of what I mean. Give your child a simple task to complete. Make it something that will spark the child’s interest.
The Task: Juice box and snack
Try each of these approaches:
1. Tell the child to bring you the juice box and snack that you have put on the kitchen counter. If they child completes the task without hesitation, it is a good chance that the child is an auditory learner. If this doesn’t work move to step 2.
2. From another room show the child where the juice box and snack are and ask the child to bring it to you. If the child acknowledges your instruction and follows through it could well be that the child is a visual learner.
3. With your hands point out the size of the juice box and snack that are on the counter and ask the child to bring you each. A kinesthetic-tactile learner would watch your hand movements and react by retrieving the items as you asked.
Having the knowledge of your children’s learning styles will help you in determining how best to deal with their learning process. Understanding learning styles is important for both parents and their children. A multi-sensory approach to learning is one way parents can assist their children to becoming better readers and life-long learners. That is a goal that all parents want for their children.
