Children's Learning Styles
(http://www.fortnet.org/ParentToParent/PFellers/par_indx.html) |
Understanding
my son's learning style has helped me understand him better and assisted me in
reinforcing skills he needs to succeed in school.
June
Griswold, a classroom teacher for 16 years, shared her research into the ways
children learn with me. She believes that identifying learning styles and
adapting lessons can motivate students and eliminate unfair labeling --
learning differences do not necessarily translate into learning disabilities.
June
recommends two books as references -- "Awakening Your Child's Natural Genius"
and "In Their Own Way", both by Thomas Armstrong. She groups learning styles
into four, major categories -- spatial visual, kinetic or movement,
language-oriented, and logical/analytical. Children can use a mixture of
learning styles or be dominant in one. A child with diverse learning styles is
usually a more flexible learner.
See
if you can recognize your own child's style(s) from the following descriptions.
Then adapt summer forays into learning, accommodating individual style. Share
helpful information with your child's teacher when school starts. Remember all
children work well with hands-on activities and manipulative.
SPATIAL
VISUAL LEARNER -- Needs and likes to visualize things; learns through images;
enjoys art and drawing; reads maps, charts and diagrams well; fascinated with
machines and inventions; plays with legos; likes mazes and puzzles. Often
accused of being a daydreamer in class. MOTIVATING TIPS -- Use board games and
memory devices to create visual patterns. In reading suggest visual clues.
Offer picture books of all types; when reading chapter books together,
encourage visualization of story and scenes at intervals. Promote writing via
colored pens, computer or drawing.
KINETIC
LEARNER -- Processes knowledge through physical sensations; highly active, not
able to sit still long; communicates with body language and gestures. Shows you
rather than tells you; needs to touch and feel world; good at mimicking others;
likes scary amusement rides; naturally athletic and enjoys sports. Often
labeled with attention deficient disorder. MOTIVATING TIPS -- Physical action
is the key ingredient to stimulating this student. While reading, let child
chew gum, walk around, rock or ride stationary bicycle. Use numerous hands-on
activities and experiments, art projects, nature walks or acting out stories.
LANGUAGE-ORIENTED
LEARNER -- Thinks in words, verbalizes concepts; spins tales and jokes; spells
words accurately and easily. Can be a good reader or prefer the spoken word
more; has excellent memory for names, dates and trivia; likes word games;
enjoys using tape recorders and often musically talented. MOTIVATING TIPS --
Encourage creation of own word problems. Have child dictate a story to you and
watch while you write it or type it out on a word processor -- then child can
share it with you. Read aloud together and tape session for later playback.
Consider purchasing some book/tape selections.
LOGICAL LEARNER -- Thinks conceptually, likes to explore patterns and relationships; enjoys puzzles and seeing how things work; constantly questions and wonders; capable of highly abstract forms of logical thinking at early age; computes math problems quickly in head; enjoys strategy games, computers and experiments with purpose; creates own designs to build with blocks/legos. MOTIVATING TIPS -- Do science experiments together and have child record results; use computer learning games and word puzzles. Offer context clues as a reading aid. Introduce non-fiction and rhyming books. When reading fiction, discuss relation of story to real-life situations and people. |