Once I conducted a workshop for adults on learning, I gave them a brainstorming activity to start the session. I asked them to write their names, and then used their opposite hands to write again. After all people finished writing, I asked, “Did you feel uncomfortable with your opposite hands when you write? Did it take a little extra time and effort? Did anybody do a better job? ”

Three things came up in the conclusion after a few minutes of discussion:

1. Everybody was able to write with their opposite hands. Yes, they did finish the job.

2. They found that it took a little extra time and effort. Some might have taken even longer time.

3. Nobody was satisfied with the job done. Even some said, “The name written by my opposite hand looked ugly.”

When it comes to writing, many people feel comfortable with using their right hands, while others prefer left hands.

The same things are true when we try to learn something that requires us to process information through different senses. Different people have different distinct ways of acquiring information. Some people are spatial/visual learners who learn by seeing. Some are tactile/kinetic learners who learn by doing and/or touching. Others are auditory learners who learn by listening and talking. The rest may be logical learners who learn by thinking. There are no right or wrong, bad or good learning ways. It’s just about preferences with which people are born. Of course, visual learners can also learn by talking and listening to other people. But they are very good at visualizing pictures and images. Thus using their sights or visualization to learn, they will learn easily and effectively. It’s also true to other kinds of learners.

As parents, if we can identify our children’s learning ways and reinforce them to use it effectively, not only they would feel comfortable and happy, but also they would excel at learning in many areas of life. Do you know what kind of learning styles your child has? I have posted four articles to walk you through how to identify your child’s learning ways and provide you with some important parenting tips:

• Is Your Child A Spatial/Visual Learner?
• Is Your Child A Tactile/Kinetic Learner?
• Is Your Child An Auditory Learner?
• Is Your Child A Logical Learner?

Normally the first person to discover a child’s learning style would be his/her parents, caregivers or teachers. Children themselves would not know unless their parents tell them. There are many benefits of letting children know of their learning styles, such as being confident in learning, feeling good about themselves. Another long-term benefit is to help children well prepare for their future career life.

I know many high schoolers don’t know what to do in their future career or even don’t take a bit of time to think about it. Maybe they just don’t know how. Identifying learning styles will shed light on guiding them to choose a career or a further study that are suitable for them. Here are some career pursuits for each kind of learners listed below in order to give you an idea:

• Spatial/Visual learners: design, visual art, architecture, photography, video or film
• Auditory/verbal learners: conducting, composing or playing music, sound engineering, politics, journalism, writing, public speaking
• Tactile/kinetic learners: sports, athletics, dancing, physical work, mechanical, physical work
• Logical learners: mathematics, accounting, sciences, computer programming, law

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This entry was posted on Sunday, January 22nd, 2006 at 11:28 pm and is filed under How-to Tips, Learning. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.