What Are Learning Styles?
Everyone is born unique and they each have their own styles of learning that can be broadly classified into visual, auditory and kinaesthetic. These learning styles present themselves strongly in younger children and thus are important for parents to learn how to deal with their children in order to accelerate their learning. It is only through mutual understanding with your child and teaching them about themselves that you can improve communications with each other and from there build a strong rapport with your child.
How to Identify Your Child’s Learning Style
First and foremost, you have to understand the different characteristics of the various learning styles that exist. When you truly understand them, the signs of the various learners will then become clear to you. An important side note is that your child may be a hybrid learner and may prefer a combination of the different learning styles so you have to be wary and adapt accordingly.
· Visual Learners – These people find the absorption of information through pictures or written directions to be the clearest. They see their ideas as images in their mind and tend to make decisions through written directions. Some of the habits that visual learners love to adopt include saying “Imagine this” or “Picture that”.
· Auditory Learners – A slightly smaller population of people are auditory learners and learn best under conditions where they are able to hear instructions or words given to them. These people tend to enjoy hearing themselves and would speak to themselves or repeat instructions to get a point across.
· Kinaesthetic Learners – The smallest group of people in the world, these individuals learn from doing and experimenting with new things through active participation. They prefer to be hands on and can be heard saying “Let me show you” often.
Adapting Learning to Suit Your Child
Now that you understand the different learning styles that your child may adopt, it is time to correct the way things are being taught to him/her. For example, visual learners learn best from seeing things so writing down new information for a child with this learning style would be ideal. Auditory learners enjoy listening to instructions while kinaesthetic learners require motions and lots of breaks to learn more efficiently.
Helping Your Child & His Teachers Understand His Learning Style
The final note to effective learning would be for your child and his educators to understand for themselves about the effective learning styles. It may be understandable that your child may not fully comprehend learning styles when they are younger, but as they grow older, it would be good to explain to them about their individual habits and get them to customise their learning on their own. You could also remind your child’s educator if they don’t already know to save them the hassle when it comes to class time.