Now you may think, does it matter what type of learner my child is? But knowing that one small thing can become a complete game-changer. And as I said before, in my first blog post, we have to know what our child already knows.
And in this instance, we need to know which learning do they prefer?
Multiple Intelligences
Do you know there are different types of intelligence?
Physiologist Howard Gardner says there are different types of intelligences and we should not just measure intelligence with just an IQ test as some may argue, it doesn't accurately measure the type of intelligence a learner has.
Gardner believed we all have multiple intelligence's:
Verbal/Linguistic
Your child might be very advanced in their verbal skills and respond well with verbal communication from others. You can identify this intelligence if they are good at picking up languages, love reading, they have excellent memory skills for names/places, and tell a really good story.
Therefore, articulation and great storytelling skills can be a sign that your child is a verbal wizard!
Math/Logical
Is your child a logical thinker and have well thought out or abstract reasoning skills. Then you might have someone that has high math or logical intelligence.
Spatial
Is your child quite creative with their hands? Like building things out of lego? Or drawing impressive shapes. If this is your child, they usually work well if they see a visual picture to help them with their learning and understanding.
Musical
Your child might be very sensitive to sound and have a strong are very good with rhythm. Thie type of learner usually appreciates music and sees it as an art form.
Bodily/Kinaesthetic
Your child might be a little bit of a mover and are great with physical movement. Kinaesthetic learners are very well coordinated and they learn greatly when they can see live practical, demonstrations that require the manipulation of certain objects.
Interpersonal
Your child might have interpersonal intelligence if they are great empathy for others and can form solid relationships.
This type of learner is usually a great communicator and is great at working in a group or a team-building setting.
Intrapersonal
You can tell that your child has interpersonal intelligence if they are very self-aware. They may be very in touch with their feelings, self-reflective, and are very aware of their strengths and how to use them.
Naturalist
You might have a child that loves the outdoors either going for a walk in the park, a forest, and being around everything associated with nature E.g plants, wildlife, insects, etc.
Visual
This is similar to Spatial Intelligence as your child would work better when they can see pictures but this is more to do with how they may interpret a picture. For example, when we see a picture the majority might see a few very obvious objects. But the visually intelligent learner would be able to notice the most discreet object that most people would overlook. This type of learning has great observational skills and have great attention to detail.
Why is it important?
This is crucial for you and your child to know what type of learner they are because this will save a lot of time of frustration in trying to conform to a certain method that is not very well suited to your child's ability.
This also builds confidence in your child to be able to become more aware of their learning pattern so they can tell others especially your teacher/tutor the type of resources or activities that help them to learn.
For example, one of my students must be a visual learner because she said flashcards help her to remember key information/terminology in certain subjects.
A closer look at Auditory, Kinaesthetic, and Visual Learners
To know what type of learner is your child you have to observe which activities and resources your child is more engaged with.
Auditory learners love:
Instructions read out loud
Reading out loud -they are usually the child that would read out loud, even on their own and it is a great opportunity to read a book together
Hearing music and being able to recite or memorise lyrics very quickly.
Spelling tests
Record them reading out loud. E.g reciting a play or finding comprehension questions to a specific extract.
Kinaesthetic learners love:
Hold things to understand an instruction or new concepts
Breaking things apart and putting them together E.g Lego, building blocks, painting
Practical demonstrations that they can model examples E.g cooking, woodwork, math puzzles.
Rhythmic movement E.g dancing, clapping hands, clicking fingers.
Visual learners love:
Lots of books including pictures and texts
Bright coloured graphs, diagrams, and pictograms
Retelling the smallest details in stories
Identifying the smallest details in pictures E.g Artwork
A quiet space where they can visually focus E.g a reading corner or a study area.
Top Activities that can help your child at home
So to conclude: Here are the top activities you can use with your child at home depending on their learning style:
Auditory
Learning a musical instrument
Reading out loud
Audible books and podcasts
Studying with relaxing music in the background
Verbal / Linguistic
Essays and written reports
Individual centered explanations
Reading selections
Book based grammar and language function explanations
Gap-fill exercises
Visual / Spatial
Mind maps
Using photos, paintings, etc. to encourage discourse
Creating personal roadmaps / other visual aids to use during discourse
Graphs used to initiate explanations of statistics
Videos
Creating multimedia projects
Highlighting texts in different colours to indicate tense, or function
Games such as Pictionary
Body / Kinaesthetic
Typing
Movement games (especially popular in children's English classes)
Role plays/drama
Pantomime vocabulary activities
Facial expression games
Access to athletic facilities, explanation of sporting rules
Interpersonal
Small group work
Team competitions
Role plays using dialogues
Peer teaching
Logical / Mathematical
Grammar categorising activities
Grammar rules study and inductive explanations
Error recognition
Correcting work based on teacher indications
Develop mind-maps and other vocabulary charts
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Intrapersonal
Writing in logs and diaries
Estimating learning strengths, weaknesses, progress over time
Understanding learner objectives
Speaking about one's personal history with confidence
Meditation/Yoga
Naturalistic
Exploring outdoors
Shopping and other field trips
Collecting plants to learn appropriate vocabulary
Get Your Child To Take A Learning Style Quiz!
If you want to find out what type of learner your child is please click on the link below and take this very simple 5 min quiz.
And maybe, you would like to do it yourself!
