Thursday, June 30, 2011

Learning styles

Learning styles, A  term that many many of us homeschooling moms know. Unless your child was one of those lucky multi learners, I am sure you have had to figure out which of these was your child's learning style.

•Auditory learners remember by talking out loud, like to have things explained orally and may have trouble with written instructions. Auditory learners may talk to themselves when learning something new.


•Visual learners easily remember visual details and prefer to see what they are learning. They prefer to write down instructions and may have trouble following lectures.

•Kinesthetic or tactile learners prefer activities that allow them to do what they are learning about. Tactile learners like to touch things in order to learn about them and like to move around when talking or listening.

For my daughter she is more of a Visual learner/ Kinesthetic or tactile learner, leaning more towards Visual since she doesn't require hands on but, she does do well with it :-)

If your child is struggling, I would suggest making sure that not only thier learning environment  meets thier  style needs but also  thier curriculum.
When I began homeschooling I bought a popular curriculum and pretty much imitated how I was taught growing up in a class room. After a year of many tears and feelings of failure ( me not her) I decided that something was not right and learned that Yes! not everyone can learn the same. Whew! what a relief.... Now I had a possible reasons why my child was struggling, and soon had my suspicion's confirmed. No my child wasn't slow or stupid, she just needed to have her learning environment tweaked to meet her needs. ~> Another reason Il ove Love Love homeschooling, if she had been in a public school, she could have been labeled slow or lazy and her needs gone un met. Thankfully I home school, so I quickly changed gears and switched to a online program that gives her that visual interaction she desperately needed!
It has been 3 yrs and she is excelling wonderfully ! So again my advice, don't assume something is wrong with your child, it could be something is wrong with how they are being taught ;-)

1 comment:

Kerry said...

My older son is an auditory learner and my younger son is a visual/kinesthetic learner like your daughter. It was always frustrating that the same curriculum NEVER worked with both kids. I always wanted to "cut corners" and share curricula, but it just wasn't happening. ;)