Articles for children's care, learning and development.
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What kind of
learner is your child?
by Katie Sarl
Article published 12th October 2008
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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.
www. Brightstarters.co.uk
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“Adapting activities to
a child’s learning style, enables that child to grasp the learning
activity much, more quickly because you are presenting the information
in a format that child is predisposed to understand."
Quote Eve Wilson.
"In our Bright-Starter
classes we use a range of multi- sensory techniques to teach letter
sounds, shapes and words; in this way we cater for all different learning
styles – if a child doesn’t grasp the concept one way then we change our
approach and use a different technique.”
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)
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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.
Even when apparently working in groups, the pupils were not
actually co-operatively learning but were discouraged from talking and
usually told to ‘ get on with (your) work and stop chatting’.
Auditory and kinaesthetic learners, therefore particularly
struggled as not only were they discouraged from using their particular
skills, they also had requirements that were rarely met in school. This
became more marked in the older age ranges”.
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 Keller, Orton, Gillingham, Stillman and Montessori way back in the
1920s.
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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
*1 believes that, although most of
us use all our senses, when it comes to learning we have an innate
preference . Using this model, visual learners are said to learn by
seeing and observing things, preferring information given in charts,
diagrams, mind-maps, pictures, demonstrations and handouts. Often these
types of learners hate reading out loud and tend to use higher reading
strategies such as skimming and scanning. Auditory learners learn
through hearing, preferring discussion, learning through music, jokes and
rhymes. They often talk out loud to themselves and have difficulty with
reading and writing tasks. 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.
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*1 Dr Lauren Bradley, 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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Complete the following questionnaire and see if you can identify
your child’s learning style
Click to download / open the questionnaire word
.Doc
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How
can I use this information to help my child?
Like many parents, we want our children to learn basic concepts
such as some 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 – this maybe because the technique they are using
conflicts with their learning style. In Eve’s 30 years experience in education,
she has found that all young children can only concentrate on a task for
a short period of time and need frequent breaks in order to learn, especially
kinaesthetic learners.
Eve Wilson outlines the different methods used in her Bright
Starters classes to teach these skills according to the learning style:
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Visual
Learners – Letter shapes and sounds
Colouring pictures
Jigsaws both manual and onscreen
Word matching puzzles
Matching Stickers with words and letters
Word Bingo
Colourful books
Literacy programmes on television
Visual Learners
– Colours
Point out in stories
Talk about the colour of clothes as the child gets dressed
Point out colours in the environment
Visual Learners
– Numbers
Use the numbers in the environment, in the shops etc
Use the excellent TV programmes
Use jigsaws of numerals
Count and colour shapes
Colour in numerals
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Auditory Learners – 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 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 ( Bright Starters uses ‘Bright
Beats’ in its classes which are available from www.Learn4life.co.uk
Auditory
Learners – Colours
Say the colour out loud , e g Yellow for the sun then show the
picture
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
Auditory Learner
– 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
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
Use the excellent programmes now available on TV
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Kinaesthetic Learners –
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 - letter track
is where a letter is designed like a car track and the child has to
drive the car around the track in accordance with the way the letter
is written (Available from Learn4life.co.uk)
Get the child to draw the letter in the air and then on someone’s
back
Walk a finger puppet around the letter shape
Play word and letter bingo
Play a ‘Corners Game’ but use letters and words
Kinaesthetic learners
– 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)
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Points to remember:
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 give it sincerely.
Enjoy learning with your child and
have fun!
Text content and Bright Starters
logo on this page: Copyright©Brightstarters.co.uk
Xylophone images: : iStock© Edyta Linek
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