Identifying how your child learns best
Everyone has his or her own unique learning style. Some people learn best by seeing or reading, others by listening, and still others by doing something with their hands. You can help you child by identifying his or her primary learning style: Is your child a visual learner, an auditory learner, or a kinesthetic (hands-on) learner?
A quick look at identifying you child’s main learning style
Read the lists below and put check marks by the items that fit you child the best.
| Visual Learners: | Auditory Learners: | Kinesthetic Learners: |
|---|---|---|
| Learn by seeing or reading | Learn by listening | Learn by doing or moving |
| Do well when material is presented and tested visually, not verbally | Do well in lecture based learning environments and oral reports and tests | Do well when they can explore and create in order to learn |
| Benefit from written notes and directions, diagrams, charts, maps, and pictures | Benefit from classroom discussions, spoken directions, study groups | Benefit from hands-on activities, lab classes, props, skits, and field trips |
| Often love to draw, read, and write; are good spellers and organizers | Often love music, languages, and being on stage | Often love sports, drama, dance, martial arts, and arts and crafts |
What you will find is that although your child may have attributes in each column, there should be a predominant style that has more check marks than the others. (As a not, none of these learning styles is better or worse than the other.) However, knowing your child’s learning style helps him/her understand how he/she will learn the fastest, and can reduce frustration and anxiety if your child is being forced to perform in a learning modality he/she is not comfortable in.
Learning tips for visual learners:
- Use books, videos, computers, visual aids, and flashcards. Anything to SHOW the material to your child, versus using lectures and auditory teaching.
- Teach them to take detailed notes. Use highlighters and colored pencils to underline different areas or to organize material into categories. For example, red is for verbs, yellow for articles and blue is for nouns when learning the parts of grammar.
- Learn to make outlines, diagrams, and lists. Create a pre-typed document that allows for this type of listing skill so your child just needs to fill in the high points he/she hears.
- Use drawings and illustrations, preferably in color and the more detailed the better.
- Take a tape recorder to listen to lectures again later.
Learning tips for auditory learners:
- Teach a child to read his/her notes or to study the materials aloud.
- Memorize using word associations and verbal repetition.
- Study with other students, talk things through, have him teach a brother or a sister the material to ensure he has learned it.
- Provide oral testing as an option.
- Listen to books on tape or other audio recordings.
- Use a tape recorder to listen to lectures again later.
Learning tips for hands-on learners:
- Teach by doing experiments, looking things up on the internet, doing activities that teach the same material but where the child can interact with it by doing something.
- Take field trips, collect items, explore similar topics to help show the correlation with the new material.
- Use activity-based study tools, like role-playing or building models, designing.
- Study in small groups and take frequent breaks.
- Use memory games, computer activities and materials that can be held and manipulated or used in a shared experience.
- Study with music on in the background or allow TV with a familiar program playing as random backdrop noise.
Other Considerations:
- Children can be shown their strengths, weaknesses and special talents which will help with their self-confidence in knowing that they are not “dumb” just because they learn a bit differently than others in the classroom. Appearing dumb is a child’s number one fear in school!
- Talk with your child about problem solving and how they will accomplish this once they recognize their learning style. Should they make lists to help with decisions or talk out the possible resolutions with you or a teacher?
- The ability to set realistic goals is important. Being flexible in adjusting the goals is also important. Help your child identify a few short- or long-term goals and write down steps and a timeline to achieve the goals. Check in periodically to talk about progress or to mark off the list.
Understanding how we learn best is very important in school as well as in social situations. Discovering a child’s learning style will open up the discussion of ways to learn ideas faster and better, without the anxiety that something is wrong with the child.