UNDERSTANDING YOUR CHILD’S LEARNING STYLE

Everyone learns differently, and children are no exception. Recognising your child’s unique way of understanding information is the key to helping them thrive in their education. By knowing this, you’ll be able to help them study effectively and share this information with their teachers. This knowledge might also affect what extra-curricular activities you encourage them to participate in. Here an independent school in Buckinghamshire outlines how you can get to grips with your child’s unique learning style.

Auditory learners
Some individuals are drawn more to sound than other types of stimuli. Auditory learners respond best to verbal instructions and like to listen and absorb what they’re hearing. Look out for signs your child prefers hearing information aloud rather than watching or touching it, for example, they might love music and songs, or be very talkative and enjoy discussions. You can help an auditory learner by incorporating sound into homework activities, such as singing songs or making use of repetition. Your child will probably love being read to, and you can help them with their own reading by encouraging them to read out loud.

Visual learners
Visual learners process information they can see more readily than what they can touch or hear. They will often be highly observant of their surroundings and notice when their environment has changed in some way, whereas other children might not realise. If your child has a vivid imagination and likes to describe things they’ve seen in great detail, or if they love to look at images, they might be a visual learner. Help them by demonstrating ideas and concepts visually, for example, drawing diagrams or pictures to illustrate facts. They may also be drawn to screens, so harness this by finding educational games they can play on their tablet or kids TV programmes which explore a topic visually.

Kinaesthetic learners
If your child is quite physical and likes to express themselves through their body, it’s likely they’re a kinaesthetic learner. They’ll learn best by touching things and physically participating in activities. You might find that your child uses lots of hand gestures to illustrate what they’re saying. You can help a kinaesthetic learner by incorporating physical activity into learning tasks, such as dancing or singing to remember information or encouraging your child to get hands-on with creative tasks.

It’s likely your child learns through all of their senses to some extent, but one might be more dominant than the others. Recognising their individual learning style will enable you to encourage them at school and support them at home.

*Collaborative Post