If you have ever heard someone say that they can’t learn something unless they see it in front of them, you were hearing about their learning style. Learning style is simply whatever way a person learns new things easiest. There are three major types of learning styles: Visual, Auditory, and Tactile/Kinesthetic. By being aware of these different styles and, more importantly, which style benefits your child the most you can do more to help your child learn more and do better in school.

Visual – Learn Through Seeing Individuals who learn best from physically seeing new material are said to have a visual learning style. If you’ve noticed your child follows written direction (such as a recipe with the steps drawn out as pictures) better than instructions only said aloud, you may be dealing with a visual learning style.

It is thought that visual learners “think in pictures” and get the most benefit from visual displays such as charts, graphs, and maps. In a classroom setting it is important for visual learners to be able to see the teacher so a seat in the front of the room should be a priority. These children should be encourages to write notes on or even draw pictures of new concepts as they are learning them.

At home, you can encourage scrapbooking or journal writing as a way for your child to remember new experiences and activities. Pictures, labels and charts can help your child learn how to do chores or play new sports so be creative when teaching your visual learner something new.

Auditory – Learn Through Hearing Another learning style that does well in the school environment is the auditory learner. Auditory learners use their sense of hearing to absorb and understand new information. If you find that your child enjoys hearing stories and playing musical games like “The Hokey Pokey” and does well with these activities without a lot of visual cues, he or she may be an auditory learner. It is more difficult to determine this type of learning style so don’t worry if you can tell.

Auditory learners benefit from lectures and discussion in school and are frequently the student who asks a lot of questions and voices opinions more often than most. Not only do these learners gain meaning from the words they hear, they are also good at interpreting the tone, pitch, speed and other nuances of the speaker’s voice to get even more understanding of what is being said. During study time, auditory learning ban benefit from reading their text aloud and using a tape recorder to recall what was said in class.

Tactile/Kinesthetic – Learn Through Touching and Doing Probably the least talked about learning style, tactile/kinesthetic learners gain the most comprehension from touching, moving and doing things related to a new concept. What is commonly known as a “hands-on” approach is the perfect way for tactile/kinesthetic learners to learn something new.

If you find your child loves exploring new places, touching everything around them and using their hands and feet to discover and experience the world around them, these are all signs of a tactile/kinesthetic learner. Most young children could be considered tactile/kinesthetic learners simply because this is the most common and easiest way for children under seven or eight to learn. This is one of the reasons you won’t hear much discussion of learning styles being used until fifth or sixth grade at least. Once you notice your child favoring a particular style, discuss it with your child’s teacher and ask for ideas.

Also important to note is the fact that young children usually learn best from a combination of learning styles. In fact with this age group the more senses used to learn new concepts the better. A true learning style doesn’t usually start to emerge until age ten or eleven and sometimes even later. Learning styles can be a tool to help your child do their best but should not be used to limit them to any type of experiences.

Learning Styles take your test: http://www.ldpride.net/learningstyles.MI.htm#Multiple%20Intelligences%20Explained.

For more information on learning styles and your child’s education, please visit http://www.essential-ed.com.

Kindergarten teachers know, they know which children will be easy to teach and which children will be difficult to teach because they will struggle to learn. It has nothing to do with how intelligent a child is, or whether they know how to write their names. If a child’s appears ready to learn, eager to try new things, willing to be taught, chances are that he or she will have a good year, a year in which they learn all they capable of learning.

How do teachers know this?

Almost as soon as a child enters a classroom the teacher is noticing how he or she reacts to the new environment. Is the child curious? Does he look round the room to see what it contains? Is she confident enough to leave her mother’s side? Does he try to get on with the other children in the room or does he ignore them and do what he wants to do? Does she know how to sit in a group, or is she not ready to be part of the class? Is he tired and grumpy, or rested and happy to be there?

These are the signs a teacher looks for. These are the signs that let the teacher know whether the child is ready to learn.

When a child is ready to learn the teacher can start teaching the things he or she needs to learn. Things like reading and writing, counting, colors, days of the week and months of the year. All the basic things children need to start to understand. But if a child is not ready to learn the teacher has to spend time helping the child be ready. She has to help him or her learn how to listen, sit in a group, share, take turns and respond to questions. This is can be hard work, especially when the teacher has many children in the class. Most teachers are very good at doing this, but it takes time away from teaching other things, it slows down a child’s learning.

It is important for children to be ready to learn so that they can benefit from what the teacher offers.

Parents help children get ready to learn, they make the difference between children who can and cannot benefit from all the teacher offers. They influence their child’s readiness to learn.

Parents influence their children’s learning in three ways. I call them the ’3M’s┑.

The first ‘M’ is Modeling.

You are being watched!

Children love you and want to be like you. They watch you do and try to do what you do. What they see you doing has much more influence on their actions than what you tell them to do. You must have heard the saying, “Do what I say, not what I do”? You have probably used it yourself on many occasions. I am sure it was invented by a parent who became exasperated when a child copied the actions of the parent rather than doing the right thing!

The school in which I used to teach was on a busy city road, trucks, buses and cars would hurtle along it and some would even run the lights. It was a very dangerous road and we made sure that all the children knew how to cross it safely. Despite all our careful teaching and warnings of danger, some children would run across the road dodging traffic.

Why did they do this? Because that is what their parents did. Some parents, in a hurry to get home after picking up their child from school, would rush across the road ignoring basic rules of safely. If parents could do this the children felt that they could do it too. What the parent did was much more influential than all the words of warning, the ‘Do as I say’ that had come from the teachers.

Modeling is the most important way you influence your child’s behavior. You can’t stop being a model for your child, you are being a model to your child whenever you are together. Just think, whatever you say and do when your child can see or hear you is influencing your child’s behavior, is influencing how well your child learns.

The example above shows how poor behavior on your part creates your poor behavior in your child. But the opposite is just as true. When your child sees you behaving in ways that demonstrate good behavior your child will try to behave well too.

So, before you try to tell your child how to behave, check on what you do. Are you sending the right message?

The second ‘M’ is for Mentoring.

By Mentoring I mean sharing your knowledge and experiences with your child. Every parent has a wealth of information that they can share with tier child, information that will help them develop new skills and understand their place in the world. By sharing this information, by mentoring your child and helping them learn from you, you are giving your child a wonderful start to their learning and their life.

When I was a student I had very little money, just like every other student. I wanted to travel to Spain for the summer but I did not have the cash for the bus and the ferry. (There was no way I was going to have enough money to fly to Spain). Fortunately my mother had taught me how to knit and to crochet. She has shared her skills with me and mentored me as I struggled to learn how to make the yarn do what I wanted it to do. Now, when I needed extra money, I was able to use this skill. I knitted skirts, the kind of skirts that I liked to wear, and sold them to a local store. I did not make a fortune but I did make enough money to buy a bus fare to Spain. And I had a wonderful summer!

If my mother had not shared her skills with me I would have been unable to earn the money I needed.

My father also taught me how to change the tire on a motor bike but I never did that for cash!

You have gathered a wealth of skills and experiences in your lifetime, skills and knowledge that can benefit your child. Share your knowledge, you have much to help your child learn, help your child’s life be as rich as your own.

The third ‘M’ is for Mediate.

To mediate means to act as the bridge between two things, the way for two things to come together. You need to mediate between your child and the world around him. You need to be the bridge that allows your child to make sense of the world.

Children know very little. They have had few life experiences and the world can seem like scary place. You need to help them understand what they are seeing and hearing. You need to help them make sense of their world. If you don’t do it someone else will and you might not like what they say and do.

The best way to act as a mediator is to listen to, and try to answer, your child’s questions. All children have questions. Only when a child knows that he will never get answers does he stop asking questions. Don’t let your child be like this. Don’t miss the wonderful opportunities you have to help your child understand his world.

No parent has a ready answer to every question their child asks them. And your child does not expect you to know everything. If you do not have an answer tell your child, and then tell him how you can try to find the answer. You both might learn something!

Remember the 3′M’s – Model, Mentor, Mediate.

Try to be a good model, so that your child will be good.
Take time to mentor your child, so that she benefits from your wealth of knowledge.
Be a bridge, a mediator, and help your child understand the world.

Then celebrate your success!

Dr Patricia Porter provides parents with information and advice on helping children reach their full learning potential. Take the first steps to your child’s success absolutely free by downloading the free report ’5 Mistakes Parents Make when Helping Children Learn… and How to Avoid Them!’ at http://leading2learning.com

Child learning disability

Learning disability most of the times is ignored or misinterpreted when it comes to children. Any learning disorder gives room to myths and assumptions. If your child is not performing well in his/her studies the first thing that crosses your mind will be that your child has low IQ or he is simply dumb and lazy to learn. Many a times, you over estimate the problem by drawing your own conclusions. The ideal thing to do is such a case is to consult a psychiatrist or a child psychologist who will be able to diagnose the problem with a scientific approach and draw an accurate conclusion.

Identify the problem/symptoms

As a parent or a teacher you are the most closely associated person with the child and will be in a better position to recognise the problem faced by the child.  Generally, the child learning disability includes symptoms of poor concentration, auditory and visual perception is hampered, motor skills are affected and they face consistent difficulty in writing, reading and communication. But these learning disorders should not be ruled as low IQ level and humiliate or tag the child as an imbecile, which can worsen the condition drastically.

Common learning disorders

Dyslexia is most common type of child learning disability, which is condition when the child faces problems in interpreting language and also faces problems in reading, writing, remembering spellings and his/ her communication skills are poor.

Auditory and Visual processing disorders include disability of the childrens’ sensory perception that make it difficult for them to see, hear and comprehend information correctly. Dysgraphia is a writing disorder that poses problems in spellings, handwriting and organisation of information. Children, who find it difficult to calculate simple math problems, fail to understand time and fear maths can be facing Dyscalculia. Dyspraxia is another learning disability that causes problems in motor skills such as manual dexterity, sense of balance, eye-hand co-ordination. Other forms of child learning disability are Autism and ADHD or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder that can be caused due anxiety, stress or emotional trauma can trigger learning disorder.

Treatment

Once the problem is identified without any further delay the disorder needs to be addressed. It is always a better to start the treatment earlier to get positive results. And as a parent or a teacher it is your responsibility not to punish, abuse or underestimate the child when they display any of the above symptoms. Your love and encouragement can do wonders in enhancing the learning process. Neuroplasticity is the natural process of the brain to revive the cell formation and build new network connection with various learning experiences.

Motivate your children to play brain training games to keep them mentally active and sharp. The brain games for children can show great level of progression in various fields of learning. You can combat these learning disorders at an early stage with the help of the online brain games, which will enable efficient and successful results in learning. For example, Bird watching game on lumosity.com improves your visual accuracy and memory to a great extent.

This article was written by Dr.Craig Robin, a Scientist from Harvard University who has dedicated his life to the research and development of scientific brain games. Thousands of people have already joined his program and have enjoyed a better mental health.

To play his free brain games visit: http://MemoryGames.biz