 The learning styles that you hear most about in homeschool circles are kinesthetic, auditory and visual. Kinesthetic indicates they learn by doing. It is geared toward those kids who have a hard time sitting still. Most children, by virtue of their development, learn best this way. As they grown-up, they may or may not develop into auditory or visual learners. Unit studies are a good approach with these learners, as the units usually have lots of activities that go along with what is being taught.
Auditory learners study best by hearing. These kids do well with programs where there is a lot of reading out loud, explanation, etc.
Visual learners learn best by seeing. These are often the ones with the "photographic" memory. They read something in a book and can remember which page it was on, and where on that page it was. I have heard that these are the kids who do well with textbooks and worksheets, but have not had any personal experience with this kind of learner yet.
It is suggestible watching your child for a while to determine his/her learning style. Most little children are kinesthetic, because developmentally they are not mature enough to be anything else. Kids’ attention spans aren't long enough and their visual and perceptual skills are not developed enough. When they mature, their learning style will become more evident.
Three main categories of learning styles: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. Remember, when analyzing your children that they will probably exhibit a few characteristics common to all of the learning styles, but will usually fall into one category overall. It was found that the easiest way to determine which learning styles are predominant in children is to answer some key questions.
Browse through few of those questions and the typical response from each of the three learning styles.
1. What kind of explanations can help the child learn new ideas, concepts, or skills?
- Visual - learn by seeing or watching demonstrations
- Auditory - learns through verbal instructions from others or self
- Kinesthetic - learns by doing; direct involvement
2. How does the child read and spell?
- Visual - recognizes words by sight
- Auditory - reads aloud; sounds out words; spells words the way they sound
- Kinesthetic - fidgets when reading; often a poor speller
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