EDUCATION
HOW DO YOU LEARN?
Knowing your child’s individual learning style is key Arnold Kaloki, BrightTeach
Learning Styles As we get ready for the new school year to start up again, we want to help equip you to help you and your child to get the most out of this year of their education! And we believe that can start with knowing your child’s learning style, so that teachers and parents alike can support and IF YOU THINK YOUR encourage children in ways unique to them. Keep CHILD MIGHT BE reading to discover the main learning styles.
A VISUAL LEARNER,
THERE ARE SOME Auditory Auditory learners do best when they can listen GREAT WAYS TO HELP to what is being taught, as well as being able THEM FOCUS AND to engage in discussions to process ideas and ACHIEVE THEIR BEST! information. Reading books and looking at diagrams might be a struggle if they haven’t got someone alongside them to explain and process with. Auditory learners thrive on absorbing information, and being able to discuss it. Engage your child by asking them to explain what they’re doing in class, and allow them time to tell you. To help them process information, try allowing them to talk through it, and record what they’re saying, then write it down. If they You can see more about BrightTeach struggle to focus on homework at home, try playing some music online: www.brightteach.com (classical is often a good study genre) and see if that helps them keep focused. them to visualise the numbers. If they struggle to focus at home, it may help to find them a space where they can be alone, or even Kinesthetic/Tactile see if it helps to set books or folders up around their work space, Kinesthetic learners want to move! They learn best by so that they wont be distracted by what other people are doing. experiencing and doing. These learners thrive by having real objects in front of them to ground the theoretical information. Literary Unfortunately, many standard practices in education are not built The great thing about literary learners is that they are naturally for kinesthetic/tactile learners. wired to absorb information in the way that schools often If you’ve got a kinesthetic/tactile learner – try to get them present it, through reading and writing. Literary learners eat up moving! If they’re learning about a book, or a poem, get them to the written word, so thrive on school work that requires research act it out so that they are in the story. When doing maths, you can and written reports. use beads or even ripped up bits of paper to move around when Even though most school systems do operate in a way working through equations. When some work needs to be written that caters to literary learners already, there are still ways to or read, it may even help to give them a spinny chair or exercise best support them in their learning. Just because a child learns ball to sit on, this way they can move about – it may seem best through reading, doesn’t mean they will be a fast reader, distracting for you, but may be just what they need to focus. so making sure that your child has time to absorb information is very important. Your literary learner may struggle to process Visual information verbally, but give them a pen and paper and they Visual learners love to observe things. They absorb information may be able to get their thoughts out and make sense of best through seeing it illustrated or presented in an interesting things more easily. way. These learners benefit from examples they can watch, and videos that engage them. Visual learners may be the doodlers What type of learner are you? of the class, and may excel in presenting information in an There is no wrong type of learner. The way your child is wired is interesting and creative way. wonderful and unique, and is what may contribute to their greatest If you think your child might be a visual learner, there are strengths! We hope that knowing what kind of learner your some great ways to help them focus and achieve their best! When child is will help you to support them in their future educational learning a story, let them draw it out – or if they’re working with endeavours, and to eliminate challenges they may have faced. certain maths like fractions, maybe drawing a pie chart could help 8
NETWORKS
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