Every child is unique, and so is their learning process. Children observe, understand and process information in different ways. Although this is predominantly based on their genes, however other factors like home and school environments also influence their learning methods.
Whatever method or style they follow, it’s important for you to identify them to strengthen their learning experience as early as possible. Parental guidance, support and encouragement are irreplaceable when it comes to a child’s academic success; thus steering them in the right direction that they are comfortable in, becomes your responsibility as a parent.
What are the Learning Styles?
Worldwide experts have identified 3 primary learning styles – Visual (Watching), Auditory (Listening) and Kinesthetic (Doing).
If you closely observe, your child would fall in one of these categories.
Let’s make this easy for you:
- Visual (Watching) Learning: If your child is very good at recognizing faces, people and places, while showing keen interests in arts and crafts, they have a visually strong memory and learning system. On close observation you can see that they can visually grasp things much faster than other means by browsing computers, mobiles or illustrations in books or paintings.
- Auditory (Listening) Learning: If your kids have a penchant for words and prefer reading aloud than scanning through eyes, then this is his/her style. With strong verbal abilities and listening powers, Auditory Learners often indulge in discussions and conversations.
- Kinesthetic (Doing) Learning: Kinesthetic learners rely on their body language. Being very expressive, they make the most of their facial and other body gestures to convey or grasp information. If your child prefers to touch and feel things to understand better, and shows keen interest in acting, dancing or sports, they probably fall under this category.
How to ascertain which learning style best suits a child?
To make it even easier, follow this quick test to find your kid’s pattern of receiving instruction and learning.
Step 1: Choose some random words (about thirty) and list them out neatly in three sets – each of 10 words. Against each word, write down their meanings.
Step 2: On the first day, ask your child to learn the first 10 words and their meanings using only eyes, which means they should not sound the words out in the process. At the end of the day, take a test and find out how many words they can recollect and how comfortable were they while learning visually.
Step 3: Similarly ask them to learn the next set of 10 words on the second day by using ears, which requires you to speak them loud and keep repeating the words till they say done. Let them listen as much as possible and find out how much they remember at the end.
Step 4: On the final day, give them the list and ask them to learn the last set of words by enacting some gestures, using hands and body, or maybe by walking or listening to music. Do the test, and compare the results of all three days.
We are sure you would be able to find their unique style by now. Whichever learning pattern your child follows, looking, listening, or doing, it’s important that you identify it early, to be able to help build a study routine that can work on their strengths. This will subsequently help you develop other facets of their learning that they are not particularly strong at.
By using these different approaches, we hope that you will be able to instill a healthy learning pattern in your child.
