Understanding Your Child’s Learning Style

*Collaborative post.

By understanding the way in which your child learns and processes information, you will be able to bring out their greatest strengths and adapt your teaching methods. To help you to recognise your child’s unique way of learning, based on the three main learning styles, a prep school in Putney has provided the following guidance.

What are the three main learning styles?

As mentioned above, there are three different learning styles that stand out to educational professionals, each relating to different senses that your child prefers to use the most when learning. Read through the three styles below and see if any match your child’s preferred learning method.

Visual learners

As the name suggests, visual learners use their eyes to absorb information. For instance, they enjoy using diagrams, graphs and pictures to represent or process the subject at hand. What’s more, they are usually good at remembering things they have seen or read about.

If your child is a visual learner, it’s a good idea to have lots of colourful pens and paper available for their studying. When explaining things to them, use visual pointers rather than sticking to verbal instructions. 

Kinaesthetic learners

Kinaesthetic learners are better at processing details with hands-on activities. Essentially, they want to touch and feel things whilst they are learning, and they may lack the ability to sit still for hours on end. If your child is a kinaesthetic learner, you might notice them moving around a lot whilst listening or speaking and they may use hand gestures when they’re explaining things.

Drama, Art and PE are usually preferred by kinaesthetic learners, because they involve movement and physical activities. 

Auditory learners

Again, this one is fairly self-explanatory. An auditory learner is better at processing information by listening. You might notice them reading aloud as a method for absorbing details and they may be drawn to audiobooks and podcasts, rather than reading a book. 

If your child is an auditory learner, you should explain things to them verbally rather than write things down for them. They will probably enjoy group discussions, so dinnertime is a good opportunity to chat to them about what they’re learning in school to reinforce the information.