Every child has their unique way of learning through play. Parents, together with the school, are here to foster their children’s love for learning and curiosity.
Understanding how your child learns can make them love to learn, encourage them to be curious and giving them a better education experience.
There are many different ways of learning and the education experts summarized these into 3 categories – Auditory, Kinesthetic and Visual.
When you know the best way your child learns, you are able to help them learn effectively. A huge part of figuring out this process is for you, as parents, to be aware of your own learning style. This is because we mostly tend to educate and teach our children with our preferred style.
Read on to find out what type of learner both you and your child are. Before you determine the style for children, do remember that everyone has a dominant style of learning and we apply a little bit of all the styles to learn about the world around us.
The 3 main learning styles
Auditory or language learners
This group of children learns by listening to the details mentioned to them as well as talking about what interests them. They are more likely to:
- Remember information by talking about it aloud
- Ask questions by speaking up and seeking for a spoken answer
- Face difficulties understanding written instructions
- Talk to themselves while they learn something new
- Enjoy interactive and spoken discussions over playing alone
Special Note: Auditory learners might appear not to be paying attention when you talk to them, but their actual listening skills are more developed than their visual skills.
Visual learners
As the name suggests, this group of children learns by observing. It is also believed to be the most dominant learning style and many traditional classrooms are designed to aid the visual learners. To make sense of their learning, they need to be able to observe, visualise and illustrate what they have learned. Visual learning characteristics include:
- Recalling visual details
- Prefers to view their learning points (charts/graphs/images e.g.)
- Having paper and pencils whenever they need
- Doodling while they listen
- Likes to write down instructions or watching demonstrations
Special Note: Verbally telling this group of learners about a concept doesn’t make sense to them at all. They need to visualise it happening.
Kinesthetic/tactile learners
This group of learners loved to be actively involved in the learning process. They absorb the most knowledge through hands-on activities and their movements. Other kinesthetic characteristics include:
- Wanting to act on the concepts being taught
- Likes to move around while they listen or speak
- Usually “talk” with their hands
- Often touching things to learn about them
- Remembering the past activities or events by recalling who did what (actions) rather than who said what (spoken).
Special Note: This category of learners is often misdiagnosed as ADHD or disruptive children because the common visual or auditory learning styles do not work for them.
Are there other unique styles?
Other than the above three main categories discussed, child psychology experts also mention about logical or analytical learners. These two groups of learners learn through exploring patterns and understanding how things relate. Other signs include:
- Curious about how things work
- Capable of accurate logical thinking at a very young age
- Knows how to ask questions to understand how things interrelates
- Shows an early aptitude at solving mathematical problems
- Ability to comprehend strategy games at a young age
After understanding the various learning styles, find out the best way your child learns today.
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