Identify and Embrace Your Child’s Learning Style

How would you define your child’s learning style?

Does your young one’s understanding of a concept improve when detailed notes are presented?  Does your child excel at retaining information received audibly?  Does your son or daughter tend to move around when working on a project? 

The scenario above that resonated with you the most is likely a glimpse into how your child learns best. 

An individual’s learning style is about more than just how he or she learns academic content presented in school.  It extends to include the method that person uses to complete everyday tasks.

Generally agreed upon, there are three learning styles: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic.

Visual learners thrive by having content they can see, such as a textbook that has pictures throughout each chapter.

Auditory learners are successful when they listen to information, either spoken by themselves or by others.

Kinesthetic learners do best during hands-on activities when they can move around and interact with objects and people.

According to an article on Teach.com, each student has a “preferred learning mode.”  When a learner is presented with information through that “preferred learning mode,” his or her understanding of the concepts, level of internal drive, and amount of self-awareness will all increase.

Here are signs to help you identify your child’s learning style.  Also detailed are ways that you can encourage your child to embrace his or her ideal learning mode:

Visual learners

These students retain content best by having material they can see and reference.  Viewing content is how these individuals process information, and they often search through mental archives of images when trying to recall information.  Visual learners commonly scribe very detailed notes, highlight and color-code information, draw pictures to accompany written content, and preview information in a book by scanning over pictures, headlines, and vocabulary.

Individuals in this category often study best by reviewing notes.  A child who learns visually will benefit from study materials such as flashcards.  The steps of writing the content and then looking at the content tie in with how visual learners process information.

As a parent, you can offer to study with your child by quizzing him or her on those self-created flashcards.  You can also engage by asking your child to explain what his or her notes and the accompanying pictures mean.  This method causes your child to look at the notes while verbalizing the content, allowing him or her to absorb the material in multiple ways.

Auditory learners

People in this category are successful when they hear information.  When receiving instructions, individuals who learn in an auditory fashion might repeat the instructions aloud to ensure they correctly comprehend what is being asked of them.  This includes listening to information shared by others, saying information aloud, and recording information to play back.

It is helpful for an auditory learner to study with a partner or in a small group so that discussions can take place.  Whenever possible, resources such as audio books versus traditional books can be useful for these individuals to follow along with their ears rather than with their eyes.  To stay on theme with learning by listening, auditory students may find it useful to create rhymes and songs to memorize concepts.

To engage in your child’s studying, you can sing along with the rhymes and songs that he or she creates.  You can also read aloud a statement from your child’s notes and exclude one word, requiring your child to verbally fill in the blank.  When your child auditorily processes what you are saying and hears his or her own responses, the learner is in position to retain information.

Kinesthetic learners

These learners prosper when movement is involved in learning.  The incorporation of movement keeps the brain active so that the individual can focus on content.  Children who learn kinesthetically appreciate doing activities that are hands-on, walking around while reviewing information, and sitting in an environment that is open (such as on a couch, which allows for movement, versus a desk, which is constraining).

Activities that involve movement are effective for keeping kinesthetic learners’ attention.  These actions can include performing skits, conducting experiments, and creating something using art supplies, amongst other activities.  Study time for kinesthetic learners is effective when 20-minute portions of learning are followed by five-minute breaks to move around the room.

You can support your child’s need to learn in a kinesthetic fashion by providing objects to use during study time, such as a stress ball or a small toy that fits in one hand.  The item can fulfill the desire for movement while reviewing materials.  Another way to help is by having a study space large enough to allow your child to move around when needed.

The Center for Parenting Education has digitally published an article about parents educating themselves on the different learning styles.  In this article by Deb Cohen, Certified Parenting Educator, she explains that a child’s struggle to grasp concepts or to retain information may be due to the learning method rather than due to a lack of effort to understand.

For example, imagine that your young son is struggling to complete a math worksheet of word problems.  He sits silently and frustrated as his eyes meticulously review the paper multiple times.  You then encourage him to read the first problem aloud.  After hearing the math problem, his eyes light up and he grabs a pencil to vigorously write out the steps to answer the question.

Neither you nor your son may have realized that he is an auditory learner.  He was putting in effort by internally reading the content on the worksheet, but he did not have a moment of clarity until he heard the information.

In this next scenario, your daughter seemingly dismisses the tasks that she was instructed to complete.  You ask her to turn off the television, put away her toys, wash her hands, and come into the kitchen for dinner.  She turns off the television before heading into the kitchen.  Her toys stay on the floor and her hands remain unwashed.  When you question why she did not do the other two tasks, she apologizes and says that she forgot to do them.

The next day, you set up a board with a checklist of reminders for your daughter.  The checklist contains words and pictures of what she needs to do.  You explain to her that when she is called for dinner that she must complete each task on the list.  To your amazement, she fulfills all the tasks.  It is possible that your daughter is a visual learner.  She previously struggled to remember all the verbal requests, but seeing the tasks written out helped her achieve what was asked of her.   

Picture your young son learning how to tell time on an analog clock.  You show him numerous images of clocks depicting a variety of times, and you explain to him what each hand and each number represents.  He struggles to understand the time displayed on the clock.  Both you and your son are baffled.

You try a different approach by getting a paper plate, a fastener, a pipe cleaner, and crayons so that he can create his own analog clock.  Once he completes the clock, he moves the pipe cleaner “hands” of the clock to the numbers that depict the requested time.  It turns out that your son is a kinesthetic learner.  The action of creating a clock and then being able to move its “hands” brings the concept of telling time to life so that it makes sense to him.

Although each person tends to innately favor one learning style over another, an expert in education, Ann K. Dolin, M.Ed. presents a wider view of learning styles.  In a digital article published on Educational Connections Tutoring, Dolin explains that learners tend to reap the biggest benefits through a combination of visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learning.

By activating different senses in the learning process, it keeps the brain stimulated and provides opportunities to absorb information in a variety of activities.  Plus, even if your daughter is normally a visual learner, a particular concept may resonate with her better by incorporating auditory and kinesthetic elements.   

Regardless of your child’s learning style, the same end-result on a task can be achieved.  For example, if building a model car, one person may read the directions silently, another may read the instructions aloud, while a third person may choose to respectfully ignore the directions to build the model completely in hands-on-mode with trial and error rather than with guidance. 

Familiarizing yourself with the different learning styles has benefits for you and your child.  Your son or daughter will be set up with methods to retain information at school, while your family’s communication at home will improve.  You will provide your child with the resources needed to thrive in his or her preferred learning mode.  Educating yourself on each learning style may even lead you to discover a thing or two about how you learn best.

References:

Educational Connections Tutoring. “Why Are Learning Styles Important? How Students Learn Differently.” 2021. Retrieved 06 December 2021. https://ectutoring.com/resources/articles/learning-style-important. 

Teach.com. “Learning Styles. All Students Are Created Equally (And Differently).” 2020. Retrieved 06 December 2021. https://teach.com/what/teachers-know/learning-styles/

The Center for Parenting Education. “Learning About Learning Styles.” 2014. Retrieved 09 December 2021. https://centerforparentingeducation.org/library-of-articles/school-and-learning-issues/learning-learning-styles/