- Watch how your child expresses themselves. For instance, visual learners express themselves and reveal their emotions through facial expression or may seem to be watching the face of other people. Auditory learners on the other hand express themselves best through words. They are always talking. They like to read aloud. Kinesthetic learners expresses themselves through body language, they imitate others easily especially, dance steps, hand gestures and walking styles. They love to get their hand dirty and like to touch everything.
- Consider your child’s interests. A child’s primary learning style reflects in their interests. For instance, auditory learning shows interest in music, they are also easily distracted by noise or what they hear, visual learning loves watching movies, TV or photographs. A child who loves to run, swim, love outdoors, can sit for long to read are mostly kinesthetic learners.
- See how your child solves problems. Visual learners solve problems by noticing something wrong or out of place. They do well at matching and sorting games. They tend to be neat and tidy. Auditory learners tend to talk through and discuss possible solutions to problems while physical learners solve problems with their hand. They count with their fingers, they love doing school project that involves building or making of things.
- Talk to teachers and people who interacts with your child regularly. Your child’s teacher, or home lesson teacher, or even your child’s pediatrician can tell you one or two things about your child. No matter how close and observant you are as parents, sometimes other people will pick out tendencies and indications that you miss.
- Ask your child to take multiple learning style quizzes.
Unless there is a concern about a potential learning disability or other issue, a child’s learning style is not something that typically needs to be professionally diagnosed.
After recognizing their learning style, what next… Act upon your finding by;
- Always match your child’s learning style with your teaching style. Whether you homeschool your child or just provide help with homework its helpful to match your teaching style to your child’s learning style. For instance, teach auditory learner mathematics by giving verbal instructions on how to solve it. To a logical learner, ask questions and think through solving the math problem. To a kinesthetic learner, give them props (counting coins, abacus, flash cards etc.) to help solve mathematics.
- Find programs that cater to your child’s strengths. When choosing an educational program for your child, find one that complements their learning style. For visual learners, visual and performing art program will do. Music classes will help an auditory learning and enrolling your child with a kinesthetic learning style in a Montessori school or program will help a lot.
- Teach your child to study based on their learning style. This is an important key in having a child understand topics, subjects or concepts better. Have an auditory learner memorize facts or even record lectures so they can study by listening to the recordings. Pictures, drawings, videos will help a visual learner. Have a social and verbal learners discuss study topics with you or with siblings. Create a quiet and conducive reading room for a solitary learner and always encourage a kinesthetic learner to take breaks when studying as they need more time to process information and release repressed energy.
- Don’t completely limit your child to a single learning style. Some children may have a combination of learning styles, so don’t expect them to completely identify with a single style. Also, a well-rounded individual needs to be able to acquire and utilize information in a wide range of ways, including through listening, looking and doing.
At Bloomrite Learning Support, our focus is to help children learn better. We also specialize on helping children with learning difficulties. You can contact us on Whatsapp via +234-806-369-3181, follow us on instagram (bloomrite_ls) or join our Facebook page (Bloomrite LS). We will be glad to help.