For more on learning styles, and personalities and such, see my hubby's work on the subject: |
"So often, we try to force our children to fit into a particular mold, or we're baffled by their behavior. Well, kids can be quite baffling sometimes, but when we understand the temperaments,much of the fog clears away. Understanding the temperaments will also help you guide your children into the right profession and save them untold heartache in their own life." -Donna Partow |
So, now that you've had some time to watch your child(ren), you may have some idea what their preferred learning style is. (If you are not sure, there are a couple of websites listed at the end of this article that may be helpful.) You may have noticed one child tunes out when you talk for too long on a given topic (I guess teenagers may be an exception to this?). Perhaps they are not an auditory learner. Another child may spell very well...if they are asked to spell words they have seen in print. They could well be a visual learner. Maybe your child is constantly in motion, and yet seems to take in everything. This child could be a kinesthetic learner. When I first began home schooling my son, he was about 3-1/2. Every time I would read to him, or talk (for more than a few seconds), he would be up marching around the table, or just turning in circles. I began to get very frustrated. For me to listen and comprehend, I need quiet and few distractions. How could he possibly be really listening while he was walking around? I would make him sit and listen. It didn't take too long for me to realize - he wasn't able to listen that way. Just as I need peace and quiet to listen, he needs to have part of him busy. I have had to come up with ways to respect his need to move. With some subjects this has been relatively easy. For other subjects, I'm still looking for ideas! Let's look at each of the learning styles and see if we can come up with a few ideas to get started. Visual - this one is fairly easy. A visual learner responds well to things they can see. Provide lots of books (for the child to read/look at), make or purchase posters, charts or graphs about what they are learning, watch videos. Encourage this learner to take notes and illustrate them. Educational computer games/programs will appeal to them too. Auditory - this learner remembers what they hear, and more specifically what they hear themselves say. Let them read out-loud. Read books out-loud to them, or supply them with books on cassette ( the public library has a selection). They also respond well to music. There are many cassettes available with educational material put to music (Grammar Songs, Musical Math Facts, Hooked on Phonics, Considering God's Creation, One Hundred Sheep, etc). Make a cassette yourself of whatever it is you are wanting them to learn at any given time. Videos and educational computer games/programs are another option. Tactile - this child is happy and learning when his hands are busy. Have him draw what you are reading about, or let him color a related picture. Use play dough or clay to help learn the letters of the alphabet. Let him use Lego to do math problems, or to build a structure you may be learning about. Give him modeling clay and toothpicks to learn about geometric shapes. Educational computer games/programs or board games would work well for this type of learner. There are many good quality board games available on almost every topic for most ages. Making a pocketbook or mini-book about a topic will help this learner to remember what he needs to learn. Kinesthetic - "always moving" describes this child. This child just needs to move. As long as no one else is being disturbed by their movement, let them move. One book I found particularly helpful is "Games for Reading" by Peggy Kaye (available in the public library...unless I have it out, again!). This book will give you some ideas for teaching reading (in particular, but you can adapt the ideas to other subjects) to the child who doesn't want to sit still. When I need to quiz my son on something, we head for the stairs. He goes down to the bottom, and I sit at the top. For every correct answer, he gets to move up one step. Educational board games might interest this learning style as well. Be creative. If something works, stick with it. If it doesn't, keep trying different options. There are several websites that address learning styles. Try doing a search by typing in "learning styles" and see what you find. Here are two that I found: This site has a short questionnaire (aimed at a third grade student) that you can have your child answer, then it will compile the answers, and suggest a learning style. If you aren't sure how your child learns best, this might be a good one to start with. This site gives some suggestions for teaching various subjects to the four learning styles we have discussed. -Marilyn Powell |
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The Armchair Academic Learning Styles - Part Two |
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This page was last updated on: October 8, 2001
So, now that you've had some time to watch your child(ren), you may have some idea what their preferred learning style is. (If you are not sure, there are a couple of websites listed at the end of this article that may be helpful.) You may have noticed one child tunes out when you talk for too long on a given topic (I guess teenagers may be an exception to this?). Perhaps they are not an auditory learner. Another child may spell very well...if they are asked to spell words they have seen in print. They could well be a visual learner. Maybe your child is constantly in motion, and yet seems to take in everything. This child could be a kinesthetic learner. When I first began home schooling my son, he was about 3-1/2. Every time I would read to him, or talk (for more than a few seconds), he would be up marching around the table, or just turning in circles. I began to get very frustrated. For me to listen and comprehend, I need quiet and few distractions. How could he possibly be really listening while he was walking around? I would make him sit and listen. It didn't take too long for me to realize - he wasn't able to listen that way. Just as I need peace and quiet to listen, he needs to have part of him busy. I have had to come up with ways to respect his need to move. With some subjects this has been relatively easy. For other subjects, I'm still looking for ideas! Let's look at each of the learning styles and see if we can come up with a few ideas to get started. Visual - this one is fairly easy. A visual learner responds well to things they can see. Provide lots of books (for the child to read/look at), make or purchase posters, charts or graphs about what they are learning, watch videos. Encourage this learner to take notes and illustrate them. Educational computer games/programs will appeal to them too. Auditory - this learner remembers what they hear, and more specifically what they hear themselves say. Let them read out-loud. Read books out-loud to them, or supply them with books on cassette ( the public library has a selection). They also respond well to music. There are many cassettes available with educational material put to music (Grammar Songs, Musical Math Facts, Hooked on Phonics, Considering God's Creation, One Hundred Sheep, etc). Make a cassette yourself of whatever it is you are wanting them to learn at any given time. Videos and educational computer games/programs are another option. Tactile - this child is happy and learning when his hands are busy. Have him draw what you are reading about, or let him color a related picture. Use play dough or clay to help learn the letters of the alphabet. Let him use Lego to do math problems, or to build a structure you may be learning about. Give him modeling clay and toothpicks to learn about geometric shapes. Educational computer games/programs or board games would work well for this type of learner. There are many good quality board games available on almost every topic for most ages. Making a pocketbook or mini-book about a topic will help this learner to remember what he needs to learn. Kinesthetic - "always moving" describes this child. This child just needs to move. As long as no one else is being disturbed by their movement, let them move. One book I found particularly helpful is "Games for Reading" by Peggy Kaye (available in the public library...unless I have it out, again!). This book will give you some ideas for teaching reading (in particular, but you can adapt the ideas to other subjects) to the child who doesn't want to sit still. When I need to quiz my son on something, we head for the stairs. He goes down to the bottom, and I sit at the top. For every correct answer, he gets to move up one step. Educational board games might interest this learning style as well. Be creative. If something works, stick with it. If it doesn't, keep trying different options. There are several websites that address learning styles. Try doing a search by typing in "learning styles" and see what you find. Here are two that I found: This site has a short questionnaire (aimed at a third grade student) that you can have your child answer, then it will compile the answers, and suggest a learning style. If you aren't sure how your child learns best, this might be a good one to start with. This site gives some suggestions for teaching various subjects to the four learning styles we have discussed. -Marilyn Powell |
"The main point is to avoid teaching new material in your child's weakest learning style." -Ricki Linksman Solving Your Child's Reading Problems |
"So often, we try to force our children to fit into a particular mold, or we're baffled by their behavior. Well, kids can be quite baffling sometimes, but when we understand the temperaments,much of the fog clears away. Understanding the temperaments will also help you guide your children into the right profession and save them untold heartache in their own life." -Donna Partow |
"We must not be too quick in assuming that the child's misbehavior or annoying habits are symptoms of a learning disorder. Sometimes we parents focus on how we would like our children to act more than what we want our children to accomplish. But if we focus more on outcomes and less on methods, we may find our children succeeding in ways that have never occurred to us. As you define what you are trying to get the child to do or learn - the desired result - and not on the process by which he learns, you may dis- cover some very rea- sonable alternatives to traditional approaches." -Cynthia Tobias The Way They Learn |
For more on learning styles, and personalities and such, see my hubby's work on the subject: |