Understanding Your Childs Learning Style

Every child is different from the other students in their class. Some will be good academically while others will struggle. Some will make friends easily while others can’t seem to make any friends. Parents who have children in school can help their kids through the 12 years of homework, projects and activities by understanding how they learn. There are three basic methods of learning for kids, visual, auditory and kinesthetic (through movement). Unfortunately schools provide information almost exclusively through visual sources such as pictures, words and demonstrations.

Visual Learners
A child who learns visually will usually have no problem learning in school. Information is normally presented as a picture, video, written textbook or demonstration. School tends to become progressively more visual the older kids get. Kindergarteners may still get to play with counting bears, but high school students certainly don’t. Children who learn visually, but still have trouble in school may benefit from help in specific subjects, rather than a change in how the information is presented. More practice in reading for example may be all the child needs to excel in grade school. A middle school or high school student may benefit from taking notes during class or directly from their textbook because their brain processes the information more completely when they write it and read it. Visual learners have plenty of information presented in their preferred method of learning.

Auditory Learners
These are the kids who need to hear it to understand it. They are the adults who can listen to a string of driving instructions to get from point a too point b and never miss a turn. Unfortunately past about 1st grade most information is not presented through sound. These kids may struggle some, but accommodations can be made. Here are a few ideas for  grade school students
1. Find songs about what they are learning. School House Rock is an excellence source of material. Find movies that cover the subject.
2. Have them read their work out loud so they hear the material
3. Read their textbooks onto a tape or read each lesson out loud for them

Once a student is in middle school and older accomodations become more difficult. When they are expected to take notes it can help if they are allowed to record the class so they can hear the instructions again later. When written information is required such as a research paper see if the teacher will accept a video or song instead.
Auditory learners may have more challenges than visual learners, but the technology exists to transform almost anything from the written word into sound. Be creative and work with teachers to ensure the information is presented in more than one way.

Kinesthetic Learners
Kinesthetic learners struggle the most in school. They learn best by doing, touching and interacting with the material. They may excel in science, because they actually get to do an experiment. They may struggle with reading as it is harder for them to learn. These kids will benefit from having items to manipulate when they are learning basic skills during grade school. Here are some suggestions:
1. Use magnetic letters and words to teach spelling and reading. They can place the letters and words to create sentences.
2. Use pennies to help learn basic math facts. They can manipulate the pennies to solve basic math equations.
3. Use physical objects to explain concepts in as many subjects as possible. A globe for geography, dominoes for engineering or puppets for social studies (to act out the event)
Kinesthetic learners can also benefit from physical movement that doesn’t have anything to do with the subject at hand. Have them stand when they are doing homework or take breaks and do some exercises when studying. This physical effort will help them learn and retain the information. If they are able to sit on exercise balls instead of a chair this can help too.
Understanding how your child best absorbs information make take some time and observation, but once a parent knows they can work with the school and individual teachers to ensure information is provided in a way the student will understand.

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