Understanding Your Child’s Learning Style

All children learn in different ways and identify how your own child learns will make it easier for you to help them. There are three common learning styles and each child has a dominant learning style or technique. By understanding the characteristics of each style, parents can identify the best learning activities and tools to aid their child’s development. To help you pinpoint your child’s unique learning style and help them reach their full potential, an independent day and boarding school in Kent have provided the following information and advice.

Senses

First of all, it’s important to understand that each learning style relates to the senses that children use when they are learning. For example, seeing, feeling and listening. Teachers try and incorporate these learning styles into their lesson plans using a variety of practical techniques, in addition to interactive whiteboards and roleplay activities.

Visual learner

Visual learners are all about pictures, colours, diagrams and instructional videos. In some cases, they have a ‘photographic memory’ which means they are especially good at recalling what they have seen in great detail.

When teaching visual learners, it is a wise to have pens and paper available, as they like to doodle, jot things down and draw diagrams whilst listening. If possible, it’s also beneficial to visit galleries and museums with your child to enhance their visual learning experience.

Kinaesthetic learner

Kinaesthetic learners are better at processing information through hands-on tasks rather than note taking. They like to touch and feel things whilst they are learning and tend to like learning through movement. With that in mind, you might notice that this type of leaner moves around whilst talking things through and often uses hand gestures when they’re explaining something.
Generally speaking, kinaesthetic learners prefer subjects such as Science, Art and PE, where there is a lot of physical activity to ensure they remain engaged. They’re less inclined to enjoy sitting still and listening to lectures during class.

Auditory learner

The third learning style is auditory. Auditory absorb information best when it is explained to them verbally, as opposed to reading it in a book. They like to listen and then soak up the details. This type of learner is also more likely to remember important facts and figures by repeating things out loud. You might notice that an auditory learner will easily remember a verbal instruction, but they will likely need additional time to process information during a reading exercise.