How do I learn what my kids learning styles are?

Question

How do I learn what my kids learning styles are?

Answer 1

Just observe them closely.  A great book on this topic is The Way They Learn by Cynthia Tobias.

Answer 2

As two other posters have already mentioned, The Way They Learn by Cynthia Ulrich Tobias is probably the best lay persons book.

ISBN 1-56179-414-7

Published by Tyndale House.

Answer 3

You are getting some good resonses here, but don't forget that your kids will have a blending of learning styles. Recognizing the styles of your children are often accomplished by leaning traits that each type tend to show and see if your child has many of those traits. As important as it is to know what your child's learning strength is, it is important to know what style is the weakest as well. Typically, there will be one that is almost a handicap and trying to learn in that style is an exercise in frustration. Nothing will stick in that style. Content has to be translated by the child's brain into a style that is stronger for successful retention and that is a distraction and energy-drainer.

I will through in a few more anecdotals that may help you recognize something familiar that you see in your own child.

My oldest son, now in college, has an idedic auditory memory. He will give you an entire movie's worth of lines without error, with original accent, and inflection. He has a natural love of word/sound play such as mix-matching up first letters among a set of words (hilarious). He talked with very sophisticated structure and grammar from a very young age. So much so that people took notice and made comments. He could carry quite a conversation with any adult. When we would do read alouds he would beg for more. It was not uncommon for us to have four hours of a read aloud with bedtimes having the tradition of good children's dramatized history and character stories every night. Teching him phonics was effortless. I just had to tell him omce what the sound was and he would have it. He was reading by age 4. When he needed to memorize things, I would hear him talk aloud, turning harder things into a sing-songy ryhthm to lock it in. He was my study buddy style child. He did and enjoyed it best when we had discussion about what he was learning. He processed a lot of his understanding live, while in discussion.

My daughter is very strong visual and I am visual-spatial. Both of us lean toward the artistic side (I am a professional illustrator/portraitis). Whereas my son does best with long discussions, my daughter's ears get tired in five minutes or less. The sponge gets soaked and will hold no more. She will even get irritable if exposed to too much content via an auditory channel. With her, I present material in a different manner: I am concise verbally, I provide or ask her to produce summary charts, concept maps (very effective for visual and visual-spatial learners!), timelines, even comics (history is fun this way). From babyhood, she was my quiet watcher. She would learn from watching others do things, then when she thought no one was looking she would give it a try. You could tell she picked up a lot from observing because her strategies seemed already planned in advance how to learn something. Both of us have a hard time remembering what we have been told; though I am far worse. If I don't write it down, I will forget it. Phonics was a nightmare for her. It was easier for her to memorize the look of a whole word than to remember the sounds. She would instantly memorize the begining and ending look of a word but not the middle. When she would see another word with the same begining and ending she would get confused. We learned to have her notice the middle more and, yes, we still plugged along with phonics for years so that eventually she would be using sight and phonetic decoding skills.

My youngest two are both kinesthetic. One is a quiet kinesthetic and one is an extroverted kinesthetic. Both were slow to talk but walked early (9 mos vs 12 mos for the other two)) and moved from walking to climbing in less than three days. Baby-proof latching systems were puzzles to be mastered with these two and they kept worrying the latches until they had them figured out. My youngest's favorite toy for a whole year from the time he could walk was any sort of mop or broom. I had a very clean floor thanks to him. Many kinestheic kids are interested and active in sports. My two are not though. They seem to turn their kinsthetic attention on understanding how something works. My oldest, spends hours of free time researching the construction of things (guns, guitars, instrument panels, planes, etc) and creating 3-D computer designs of them. My queit kinesthetic didn't find learning to read as effortles as my auditory learner, but he didn't struggle as much as my visual learner did. My youngest, the extroverted kinesthetic, is in the process of learning to read right now. He is having a very hard time remembering phonograms and sight words. He has more wiggle, attention-span is shorter, and is not as eager to please as the older ones were, so we work in multiple short bursts with manipulatives-based activities.

Answer 4

Cynthia Tobias has a couple wonderful books about learning styles.  Check your library for them!  

I learned a lot about myself and my husband as well while reading through those books.

Answer 5

The books that have been recommended are great - I also recommend them.

Past that, just watch your kids.  Watch what sort of activities they gravitate to, as that will tell you a lot about their learning style.  Kids are naturally drawn to learning - they love to discover what's around them.  Unfortunately, much of the time it seems that their learning style is directly related to the PS2 or Wii :-)

Does your child love to read, and enjoy artwork or colorful things?  They're probably a visual learner - they take information in and retain it best through their eyes.

Do they stay away from books, but love anything on a CD or read aloud?  They're probably auditory - they learn and retain information best through their ears.  (These are also kids that will tend to talk to themselves, as this helps them figure things out and review, or make those lovely "zip! zap! blam!" noises while doing their work - somehow it helps them focus.)

Or do they always seem to be up and around, like you'd have to duct tape them to their seats to get them to stay there for 5 minutes?  Or do they learn best from actually building something, or taking it apart and putting it back together?  Nope, this isn't ADD...it's a kinesthetic learner.  (These are the kids that are zombied out on Ritalin in many schools, as they are the least likely to fit into the expectations of a classroom.)

There are also tactile learners - these are kids that really need to touch something in order to learn - a koosh ball, textured fabric, whatever.  For some reason, it satisfies something in their brain that allows them to calm down and focus.

My son is an auditory-kinesthetic learner, which had his 1st grade teacher ready to recommend him for ADD testing on his second day of school.  (Nice.)  He has an almost photographic memory (audiographic?  not sure what that would be?) for anything he hears, and he is always tapping something, moving around, tossing a ball, etc.  During read alouds, the only way I can get him to sit still is to feed him, lol!  This used to drive me absolutely nuts, but then I realized that if I don't allow him to do that, he puts so much energy into sitting still - it's that difficult for him - that he doesn't hear a word I say.  My goal is for him to truly learn, so we've set up a system that works for us.  As long as he walks around the room quietly and doesn't do things that visually distract me (I'm a very visual learner), we're good.  

(This has calmed down since he was younger - he's 10 now - but these are things that he still does, often without realizing it.  It's just how he naturally learns.  However, that doesn't fit well into a classroom structure, which is part of the reason that we homeschool.)

Hope that helps!

Answer 6

Do lots of reading about learning styles.  There are quite a few books out there that deal with the issue, because for some children, identifying their learning style will make all the difference in the world in how they learn.

I found several books in the library, but one I have used in the past is Lisa Rivero's book, "Creative Homeschooling" has a great section on it.  Rivero also has a brand new, unbiased, non-religious homeschooling book out this month that I've heard is also a really good resource for new homeschoolers.

Good luck!

:o)

Answer 7

I bought my kids jumpstart learning games for the computer they are $20.00  each and are great learning games, and the kids love playing them.  These games will tell you their learning style. And then they can play the game with their learning style.  There are 7 learning styles they provide, These games are a great addition to homeschooling or school.

Answer 8

Honestly you will have to watch them.  What are some things they like to do?  For instance my youngest son is more active and learns better with hands on things and active things.  Where as my older son is more a visual learner.  Remember too that some children learn in a variety of ways.  Just observe your children and you will catch on how they learn new concepts.

Answer 9

Be creative and try different approaches.  And remember, what works for one kid might not work for another.