How Knowing What Type Of Learner Your Child Is Can Help You

Most people are aware of the fact that there are different learning styles and that each child learns best in a certain way. While this might be helpful to know and to understand, there is not much that can be done for your child from the classroom perspective. Historically, teaching has been a didactic exercise, where you have the teacher who imparts knowledge on students with them listening and making notes. Since we have moved into the technological era, teaching has become more hands-on and visually stimulating for children with the use of videos and other multi-media tools to aid in the learning process.

While this may be the case, there is still a short-coming in the way that teaching is done in South Africa, with many learners missing out simply because the method of knowledge sharing isn't reaching them on a level that engages them enough for them to remember and understand the work. Most teachers, especially in public schools, are simply too overworked to change up the method or teaching style that they use in the classroom to suit the needs of all the learners because, let's face it, making songs to memorise facts is a tall order.

So, whether you are the parent of a child that is struggling in school, or you are a school learner who doesn't understand why sometimes you just aren't getting it, then this article might help to shed some light on what you can do to solve the "problem" you think you might have. The first thing to do is to understand what type of learner you are. Once you know this, you can target ways to improve your learning. The types of learning styles are as follows:

1. Visual Learners

Visual learners are students and people who learn best with the use of as much imagery and pictures as possible. They link the information which they learn to a visual stimulus in their minds. With the current era that we live in, there are easy ways to link information to visually stimulating or appealing things, making this a type of student that can easily be catered for in the classroom if the right amount of effort is put in.

How to help them: Give them charts, graphs and pictures when trying to show the relationship between information.

2. Auditory Learners

Auditory learners include aural type learners, as well as verbal learners. They learn best be hearing sounds. Aural learners are students that like to hear sounds and can remember information better when presented to them musically or rhythmically. These are typically people who can remember vast amounts of lyrics from many different songs. Verbal learners are students who learn best when reciting information. They prefer to hear information rather than reading it silently. These students benefit the most from the use of mnemonics. It can sometimes be difficult to stimulate these students in the classroom since making songs or coming up with mnemonics can be difficult and time-consuming.

How to help them: Allow these students to recite information back to you by asking questions and allowing the audience to answer.

3. Read-Write Learners

These are students that learn best when writing notes, or interacting with text. They learn better with this method than with visual stimulation or through auditory aid. These learners are capable of learning on their own. They like taking notes and find this helps them understand and engage with information better than other learning methods.

How to help them: Presenting these kids with annotated notes of the lecture so that they can follow, or giving them quizzes where they have to write down the information they have learnt is the best way for them to lean and how their knowledge.

4. Kinesthetic Learners

These learners are the "hands-on" learners. They learn best by doing and getting psychically involved with what they are learning. You might find that they use a lot of hand gestures when explaining things. The motions of writing things down or drawing also stimulates students who are considered kinesthetic learners.

How to help them: Having role playing exercises which gets learners to physically act out what they are doing helps them learn better.

If you are unsure what type of learner you are, there are many online quizzes that one can take in order to determine what learning style suits them best. However, knowing what type of learner you are may still not help you improve. It is up to both you and the teacher to help enhance the learning experience. Not all teachers are willing to incorporate different teaching methods in order to cater to all learning types.

This is where home-based tutoring is invaluable. At Connected Minds Tutors, we strive to meet your child's learning needs by delivering the information to them in a way that suits them best. All our teaching is tailored to the individual child in order to deliver the best service. If you are interested in helping your child improve with unique teaching, contact us at 084 628 2303 today!