Now that the dust is beginning to settle with the kids going back to school, here’s something to keep in mind while checking out their progress over the coming weeks.
What is your child’s learning style? Even if they’ve adjusted well to the new routines, and they make good grades/perform well, is the delivery of their education tailored to their learning style, and is there anything you can do to help at home?
There are two primary methods of communication that children respond well to:
1. Verbal Communication – Your verbal learner will have a special affinity with communication in all its forms. Reading, phonics, language…all grasped with greater ease by verbal learners. If your verbal learner takes more time to understand math concepts, have them write out or explain something to you in their own words, working it through till it makes sense and is phrased in terms they commonly use and understand. Grasping and recalling something that is couched in familiar language patterns is much easier than working through a concept that has an unfamiliar turn of phrase or layout.
2. Visual Communication – Your visual learner will love the arts, responding well to visual stimuli and direction. Although verbal, visual learners may have a little more trouble when it comes to reading or spelling, and can take advantage of their learning style by applying pictures to words they are trying to learn. Have them draw or imagine a word as a picture (for example, write the word ‘dog’ using the d, o, and g for the head body and tail, and then add legs and ears to complete your dog picture), or draw an outline of something and incorporate the letters of the word within it, curling them to fill the space. Your visual learner will recall the image they created with greater ease than attempting to remember the letters themselves without artistic embellishment.
Which one best suits your child, and are your teachers/caregivers making the most of it? Taking the time to present a difficult concept in one of these two ways will help your child work through it, and gift them with a better understanding of the subject. Even if your child does well is school, learning can be made simpler by utilizing your child’s learning style.