Nurturing the differnt learning styles
Current teaching methods focus on helping kids learn in a variety of ways that accommodate different learning styles and expose kids to the other modes of learning that will be useful to them in acquiring some skills and disciplines. When you talk to your child's teacher, inquire how he accommodates the different learning styles when preparing lessonsin each of the major strands of the curriculum -- the language arts,mathematics, the sciences, the social studies, and the arts:
•slides, films, written work, and demonstrations for the visual learners.
•tapes, verbal instruction, periods of quiet time for the auditory learners.
•experiments, opportunities to build or to move around the whole classroom and school for the kinesthetic learners.
Educators in the primary grades usually create rich learning environments that respond to the different intelligences and learning styles of all students. By grades four or five, when the curriculum is more demanding of nine- to eleven-year-olds, teachers may tend not to balance their style of presentation and involvement of the students. Their classes may become weighted toward learning by reading and writing.
If you're concerned that your child isn't learning as well as she might, discuss with her classroom teacher what you know of your child's learning strengths to see how together you might meet your child's needs. Parents can help their child become more adept at incorporating all learning styles and techniques.
To improve visual learning skills:
•practise with flash cards and fill-in-the-blank worksheets.
•ask your child to choose a passage from a favourite book to copy out in his best handwriting.
•send notes in his lunch box and ask him for a written reply.
To exercise auditory skills:
•ask your child to describe the plot development of a TV show.
•read stories and poems aloud to one another.
•have her describe a piece of art, a map, or a design aloud as she
looks at it.
To practise the kinesthetic style of learning
(by doing activities together, with your verbal explanations and instructions.)
•cooking or baking from simple recipes.
•washing the car.
•cleaning the bathroom.
•sorting the laundry.
•spelling words in sand.
•working out math problems using coins, toothpicks, beads, buttons.
Excerpted from Raising great Kids: Ages 6 to 12 by Christine Langlois. Copyright 1999 by Telemedia Communications Inc. Excerpted, with permission by Ballantine Books. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
