What are Your Children Learning Styles?

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Children learning styles and preferences vary. Children learn best when information is presented to them according to their preferences.

Following are the different children learning styles:

Visual learners - learn best from seeing information

Auditory learners - learn best from hearing

Kinesthetic learners - learn best from doing things i.e. "hands on"

Though most children will fit into either one of the category but there are some who is a combination of two styles. In general, visual and/or kinesthetic learning are more common.

So, how do you discover your child learning preference style?

You can do a daily observation and note down some of the signs in how your kid react to information presented to him. Some times it may take a while for us to be familiar to the consistent signs from our children.

It took me a long time and upon many observations for me to finally realize my son is a strong visual learner. I am glad to make this discovery as it really makes it easy for me to tune in to his preference. He is happy and gain more confidence when he is able to comprehend what I was teaching him.

You can also refer to learning style inventory for a checklist to help you out.

Overcoming Learning Weaknesses

Though discover the preferred way our children learn helps to tailor teaching method accordingly but understanding the weakness is equally important.

Children with auditory weakness tend to have difficulty following verbal instruction. I discovered my son was slow in understanding instruction and it was a struggle reading to him. Instead of listening attentively to the story, he would always interrupt me with questions on the pictures in the book.

As I begin to understand his weakness, I show him the steps taken to do a task instead of simply giving instruction. Story is told by focusing on the pictures rather than reading from the word. Child with this weakness prefers visual schedule such as pictures or cues instead of verbal instruction.

For children with visual weakness, signs include appearing to be disorganized or disoriented. It is suggested that such children to be guided using charts, diagrams or graphs.

For children who either feel bothered by certain texture of things or try their best to touch everything they can get hold may have kinesthetic weakness. Very often such kids are likely to benefit from language-based instruction.

What can parents do with children learning styles and preferences?

As a parent, in understanding children learning styles, we can:

- Set the right expectation with the child.

- Teach child coping skills.

- Help child gain confidence using appropriate styles and environment to improve child accomplishment. I personally feel helping the child to gain confidence is very important as it set the fundamental interest in learning. I had this personal experience with my son.

- Select school which has staff that understand learning styles and adopt such practice can affect child's behavior positively.

- Schedule appropriate curriculum accordingly. If you have a young kid and would like to plan your child activities accordingly, The Complete Daily Curriculum for Early Childhood by Pam Schiller is highly recommended.

A parent knows her child best. Understand a child learning strengths and weaknesses can make all the difference to parents and children.

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