Help your child to Succeed!

Know their learning style

Angela Morales
ECE, BA

Every child is their own world

You probably have noticed that each of your children react to similar situations in very different ways. Even though you have taught them the same values and customs, your children interpret the world their way. His or her learning style reflects the way in which he/she responds to the environment and to social, emotional and physical stimuli to understand new information.

Therefore, it is very useful that you recognize which is the predominant learning style in you and in each of your children. In this way, you can help them succeed in their projects, in their education, improve communication, reduce frustration and achieve more positive interactions with them.

“Each child comes into this world with their own qualities and gifts. It is our job as parents to recognize the individuality of each of our children and honour it by accepting them as they are.” –Anonymous

A learning style can be described as the way we process information. It focuses on our strengths and not our weaknesses. There is no right or wrong learning style. Just like us, children show a preference for one or a combination of the basic styles of learning: visual, auditory or kinaesthetic.

 

By using this information you will be able to recognize the areas in which your children need help and which style they need to strengthen for their benefit. As you can see, both children and adults use different learning styles depending on the situation. If your child has difficulty in some area or at school, perhaps you’ll need to use a different style than the one being used by his or her teachers. Another thing to consider is the environment in which we learn the best. Not all of us learn in a quiet room with good lighting and in a chair with a vertical backrest. Perhaps the best environment for one of your children is in the midst of noise, with music, laying down, with low lighting, the TV on or in a messy space. Spend time rehearsing the different styles of learning of your children to improve their productivity, reduce their frustration and reinforce their sense of accomplishment.

“If a child cannot learn the way we teach, perhaps we should teach how they learn.”
–Rita Dunn

There are children who excel in mathematics, or in music, or sports, while others stand out for their generosity and others for their patience. Either way, the important thing is that parents discover, respect and nurture the virtues and strengths of their children. Not all of us have the same abilities or enhanced intelligence, so we should ask ourselves how we can highlight and focus our efforts and those of our children in achieving those goals that we naturally have more accessible to us. Howard Gardner (psychologist, researcher and professor at Harvard University) revolutionized education worldwide with his theory of Multiple Intelligences. For Gardner, there is no single intelligence, but eight intelligences that are present in everyone, each to a greater or lesser degree. What this means is that every person has all the intelligences, but in each of us, one or some predominate over the others, thus creating as many intelligence profiles as there are people in the world.

“Each person has a unique combination of intelligence. Stimulating each student in a personalized way is the fundamental challenge of education.”
–Howard Gardner

The eight types of intelligence according to Howard Gardner:

Every child has a different set of abilities. As parents, it’s imperative to understand how your children learn, to understand their predominant intelligences, to be able to guide and teach in a more effective and meaningful way, to help them succeed!