Learning Styles Q & A

Yes. Many children have more than one learning style especially when it comes to different subjects. For example, your child may be a kinesthetic learner for math but a visual learner for reading. As you lean about the different learning styles yourself, you will easily be able to spot these differences.

What are the differences in the three learning styles?

When learning a new math concept, for example, a visual learner will grasp the material more quickly by reading about it in a book or watching his or her teacher solve a problem on the blackboard. An auditory learner will understand the concept if he or she can listen to the teacher explain it and then answer questions. A physical learner may need to use blocks, an abacus, or other counting materials (also known as manipulatives) to practice the new concept.

How can I help my child improve in school by honing in on his learning style?

If you understand that your child is a visual learner most of the time; that is he or she is most comfortable using sight to explore the world, you can play to his strength, and incorporate other learning styles — physical and auditory — when appropriate. It isn’t unusual to interchange learning styles for different subjects. An auditory learner can easily use kinesthetic strategies to comprehend new math concepts.

Why should I try to encourage my child to focus on one learning style rather than getting her to use different ones at different times?

Studies have shown that accommodating a child's learning style can significantly increase his performance at school. In 1992, the U.S. Department of Education found that teaching to a child's learning style was one of the few strategies that improved the scores of special-education students on national tests. Identifying your child’s learning style(s) and helping him or her within that context may be the single most significant factor in your child’s academic achievement.

How can I tell my child’s learning style?

Learning styles are pretty easy to spot. All you have to do is watch your child’s behavior when given a new piece of information.

Visual

Would you give your right arm to get your child to listen to you? Are your walls a mural comprised of every crayon your child has held? You have a visual learner. You may not be able to get him or her to follow two step oral directions but your child can probably comprehend complex instructions when they are written on the blackboard or listed. Diagrams and graphs are a breeze. Your child can retell complex stories just by looking at one or two pictures from a book. Why is your child seemingly brilliant on paper and a space case when listening? Visual learners rely primarily on their sense of sight to take in information, understand it, and remember it. As long as they can "see" it, they can comprehend it.

Technically there are two kinds of visual learners: picture learners and print learners. Most children are a mixture of both, although some are one or the other (Willis and Hodson, 1999). Picture learners think in images; if you ask one what sound “oy” makes, he or she will likely think of a picture of a boy or a toy to remember the sounds the letters make. These kids like to draw – but you knew that by looking at your walls, right? Print learners think in language symbols (or letters and numbers and words). This child would think of the actual letters “oy” to remember the sound they make together. He or she quickly learns to read and is a good speller pretty much right off the bat. They're also the ones who like to write.

Auditory

Is your child a talker? Is total silence the kiss of death to your child’s concentration? Auditory learners understand new ideas and concepts best when they hear and talk about the information. If you observe a group of kids, they're the ones who learn a tune in a snap just from hearing someone sing it, or who can follow directions to the letter after being told only once or twice what to do. Other auditory learners concentrate better at a task when they have music or some noise in the background, or retain new information more accurately when they talk it out. If you ask an auditory learner what sound “oy” makes he or she will recall the sound first and as many words with that sound almost automatically.

Kinesthetic

Does your child need to touch EVERYTHING? Physical learners (also known as "tactual-kinesthetic" learners — "tactual" for touch, "kinesthetic" for movement) use their hands or bodies to absorb new information. In some ways, everyone is a physical learner. If you peek into a classroom, you will see the physical learner tapping a pencil, finger, and foot or twirling hair to help him or her concentrate. These are the kids that can’t sit still and they are in the top percentile for being diagnosed with ADD. Before you run to the doctor because your child can’t sit still, carefully observe your child over a period of time. Is the movement productive? Does your child absorb or block information when moving? If your child prefers to feel things in his or her hands or performs steady movement when trying to concentrate, he or she is engaging in productive learning. These are the kids who enjoy hands-on activities, such as cutting construction paper, sorting objects with their hands and building elaborate projects. When you ask a physical learner what sound “oy” makes, he or she will think of the physical cues that the teacher or they used when learning it, such as tapping, physically picking the letters out of the alphabet or holding “o” and “y” blocks.