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There are three main learning styles and knowing which category your child falls into will put you in a position to support their academic development. The first step is to understand the characteristics of each style, as explored below by a girls’ independent school in Surrey, and then determine which one is most dominant in your child. As a result, you should be able to identify the most appropriate learning tools and activities that will help your child reach their full potential.
So, the three main styles are auditory, kinaesthetic and visual; they relate to the senses children prefer to use when absorbing information. Teachers usually try to incorporate techniques that appeal to all styles, so that no pupil is neglected.
Auditory learners prefer to have things explained to them verbally, rather than by reading information in a textbook. They would rather listen to an audiobook than read and tend to remember details better if they say them out loud. They also like music. If you think your child might be an auditory learner, it would be a good idea to encourage family discussions about their learning material, rather than encouraging them to study from their schoolbooks.
Visual learners are the opposite; they prefer to read and learn better from diagrams, colours and other visual cues. They like to be able to see what they are learning about, as opposed to hearing about it. Parents of visual learners should provide their child with lots of coloured pens and paper so that they can write things down and draw whilst studying. They might also benefit from trips to museums and art galleries, to bring their learning to life before their eyes.
Finally, the third key learning style is kinaesthetic learning. These types of learners prefer hands-on activities because they like to be able to touch and feel things. They might prefer subjects like drama, science, art and sport, which involve lots of movement. A kinaesthetic learner might also use lots of hand gestures when explaining something. Encourage your kinaesthetic learner to engage in lots of practical activities, like cooking and playing outdoors, as opposed to nestling into a novel.
Sometimes, children will cross over into more than one learning style, but there is a usually a dominant approach to absorbing information. The more you understand how your child learns, the more you will be able to help them. It might also help you to determine your own learning style, as this will determine what type of teacher you are.
