What kind of learner is your child?

Every parent knows that no child is alike; each has his or her own unique way of doing things. We know that just because one child achieves a developmental milestone at a particular age doesn’t necessarily mean the next child will do the same. As parents we tend to put this down to personality but could this be due to the child’s learning style instead? If so, what are these learning styles and how do we know which learning style our child has? And once we know what learning style they prefer, how can we adapt activities to help them learn more effectively?

Eve Wilson, a Qualified OfSTED Inspector and former Head-teacher, is the founder of Bright Starters classes for early years language development. Eve believes that knowing which learning style suits your child and the techniques that work best for that style, can aid your child’s education immensely.

Eve states that “adapting activities to a child’s learning style, enables that child to grasp the learning activity much, much quicker because you are presenting the information in a format that child is predisposed to understand.”

Eve believes schools are now recognising learning styles more and more, especially in the light of the introduction of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). One of the learning and development themes of the EYFS is ‘Enabling Environments’ whereby practitioners have to “observe the children in order to understand and consider their current interests, development and learning”  (EYFS 2007).  In the past, according to Eve, “schools tended to be biased towards visual learners teaching many lessons by the ‘chalk and talk’ approach with the children expected to listen whilst the teacher explained/handed out facts”

You might well ask when did this all come about? Well, the concept of learning styles is not new; in fact the best known and most often-cited learning model is the visual, auditory and kinaesthetic (VAK) model developed by early years specialists and psychologists such as Montessori way back in the 1920s.

The VAK model categorises learners according to their senses, after all it is our senses that help us to receive, process and impart information. Dr Lauren Bradley, believes that, although most of us use all our senses, when it comes to learning we have an innate preference[1]. Using this model, visual learners are said to learn by seeing and observing things, preferring information given in charts, diagrams, pictures and demonstrations. Auditory learners learn through hearing, preferring discussion, songs, jokes and rhymes. Kinaesthetic learners learn by touching and doing, preferring activities which involve physical experiences –feeling, holding and ‘hands on’ techniques.

NLP (Neuro – Linguistic Programming) experts [2]even go as far as stating that you can tell a person’s learning style preference by their speech and eye movement.

Visual Learners tend to say thing such as: “I see what you mean”, “I get the picture” and “what’s your view? Visual learners tend to look upwards when thinking or answering a question.

Auditory Learners tend to say thing such as: “I hear what you’re say”, “Sounds ok to me” and “that rings a bell”. Auditory learners tend to look straight ahead when thinking or answering a question.

Kinaesthetic Learners tend to say thing such as: “I catch your drift”, “I get what you’re saying”, “It feels alright”.   Kinaesthetic learners tend to look down when thinking or answering a question.

Complete the questionnaire and see if you can identify your child’s learning style – see categories

How can I use this information to help my child?

We parents want our children to learn basic concepts such as letter sounds, shapes, days of the week, colours and basic numbers before going to school. All too often we hear parents say that, “my child just won’t sit down and concentrate” or that ‘they show no interest in reading’; often this may be because the method they are using conflicts with the child’s preferred learning style.  In fact most young children can only concentrate for a short period of time and need frequent breaks in order to learn, and this is especially true of kinaesthetic learners.

Eve has outlined activities that cover all three learning styles for you to try at home.

If your child is a visual learner use the following:

Letter shapes and sounds

• Colouring pictures
• Jigsaws both manual and onscreen
• Word matching puzzles
• Matching Stickers with words and letters
• Word Bingo
• Colourful books

Colours

• Point out in stories
• Talk about the colour of clothes as the child gets dressed
• Point out colours in the environment

Numbers

• Use the numbers in the environment, in the shops etc
• Use jigsaws of numerals
• Count and colour shapes
• Colour in numerals

If your child is an auditory learner try:

Letter shapes and sounds

• Learn letter sounds through music and rhyme
• Talk the letter shapes out –  e..g for the letter ‘C’ tell your child to pretend to drive a car round the bend etc
• Talk about stories that you have read to your child and ask them questions
• Describe the shape out loud as you are helping the child to write it – ‘Start at the top, go down to the bottom, up to the middle and round’. Encourage the child to say it with you.
• Use a song to teach the alphabet

Colours

• Say the colour out loud and associate with an object the child can hold e.g., ‘Yellow for a banana’
• Make up a silly rhyme for each colour ‘ Red in my  head’ and tap your head. Encourage the child to make these up with you – the sillier the better!
• Use colours in songs and rhymes

Numbers

• Use Nursery Rhymes – ‘1,2,3,4,5 Once I caught a fish alive’.Ten in the Bed’ Six Little Ducks’ etc. Show the numbers as you sing them and use the child’s fingers and toes to count!
• Make a line of numbers using a washing line and pegs. Say the number as the child puts them on the line
• Point out numbers in the environment – in shops etc and always say them as you point

If your child is a Kinaesthetic learner try:

Letter shapes and sounds

• Fill a tray with back paper and add salt. Shake the tray so the salt is evenly spread over the black paper and get the child to draw out the letter in the salt.  This is a very effective way of teaching letter shapes – especially as the letter is black on a white background similar to reading books.
• Make letter shapes with playdough
• Make a set of letter shapes using sandpaper so that the child can actually feel the shape.
• Print out balloon words and get the child to colour in the words
• Buy and use Letter tracks to teach letter shapes (Available from Learn4life.co.uk)
• Get the child to draw the letter in the air and then on your  back – draw it on his back.
• Walk a finger puppet around the letter shape
• Play word and letter bingo

Colours

• Associate the colour with a physical object Orange for the colour orange.
• Always use actual objects for the child to pick up and hold
• Use a different texture for each colour – e.g. make a set of cards using sandpaper for one, felt for another, etc

Numbers

• Use physical blocks or sweets for counting
• Make the numbers in salt trays and out of play dough
• Get the child to help set the table using one-to-one correspondence (1 for me, 1 for you etc)

In conclusion, your child is individual and unique! Time spent with him will reap huge rewards both now and in the future so don’t worry if this all seems confusing at first – the more you do, the more it will make sense. Above all bear in mind the following:

• The most effective learners use information from all three different inputs; therefore encourage your child to try every activity
• Children will go through phases of different learning styles – babies will progress from using their mouths to hearing and touch.
• Children are learning throughout the day not just at specific learning times so although gauging their preferred style may be helpful, use this as a guide not a rule.

And finally, the most important of all – children learn best when they are having fun and are successful. Only expect the play to last a short while and NEVER continue when the child loses interest or becomes tired. Above all, do remember that genuine praise is the best motivator of all so look for every opportunity to gives it sincerely.

Enjoy learning with your child and have fun!

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[1] Dr  Lauren Bradley, http://www.helpingchildrengrow.com/learningstyles.php

[2] O’Connor and Seymour “Introducing NLP Neuro-Linguistic Programming” Thorsons; 2Rev Ed edition (Jan 2003). NLP is a form of physiotherapy that examines how the way we think (neuro), the language we use (linguistic) and our learnt behaviour (programming)  produces the outcomes and results we experience in life.  Learning styles in NLP are referred to as ‘Representational systems’

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