We all learn in different ways, some learn by listening some learn by what they see while others by the activities they do. So knowing your child's learning style will help any parent to be able to help the child learn better.
Learning doesn't have to be difficult and knowing a child's learning style is a good way to help the child learn. It's good to note that learning style applies to everyone but in my post today my focus is on children.
There are three major types of learning styles namely:
- Audio learners
- Video or visual learners
- Kinaesthetic learners
AUDIO LEARNERS: As the name implies, this category of children learn by audio means, they learn perfectly by listening to stories and being taught by talking, sounds and the like.
VIDEO LEARNERS: These categories of children learn majorly by what they see, these set of kids learn from cartoons, movies, and displays of things and the like.
KINAESTHETIC LEARNERS: This category of children, learns by what they do, the activities they do make learning to stick to them. Examples like puzzles, hands-on learning and the like.
It's important to note that a child can learn from one or two types of learning styles but there is a dominance of one. For example 80℅ audio-learning styles and 20℅ video learning styles. This means this child learns mainly by audio learning but still learns by video learning as well.
There is a general assumption that we all human beings learn from what we see, and that what we see tends to stick to the brain faster. That is not the absolute truth and if you go this way to teach a child, you might be frustrated if the child learns with hands-on activities.
Let me use my kids as an example, my first daughter learns majorly with visuals while my second daughter is a Kinaesthetic learner. When my first daughter was learning how to drive a bicycle, it was difficult for her to move the Pedder by the way her dad was teaching her but immediately she started watching cartoons on how to move a bicycle, she started moving it like a pro while my second daughter that learns with hands-on activity, learnt to drive the bicycle the same day she sat on the bicycle.
I would like to use swimming also as an example to elaborate on the different learning styles. A Kinaesthetic learner only needs a swimming instructor to learn how to swim while a visual learner will need more than a swimming instructor to learn how to swim, this category of learners will need to watch videos on how to swim as well.
In the case of my children, I will be making a great mistake if I expect them to learn in the same, manner. My first daughter learnt her alphabet easily by watching cartoons while with my second daughter, I have to go the extra mile to make sure the alphabet letters are available for her to see, touch and observe so she can learn easily.
Knowing a child's learning style is the first thing that should be observed as this will make learning easy for that child. It's like having communication barriers. If I am speaking a language you don't understand it will be difficult to communicate to me, that also applies for a child if his/her learning style is not understood.
That child that you think it's struggling to learn maybe all you need to do is to discover the child's learning style. There are different ways to discover a child's learning style, I will be sharing about that in another post.
Let me know in the comment section if you will like me to write on how to know your child's learning style.