Children’s Learning Styles
You might be familiar with the concept of how kids understand new information. Some children tend to absorb information better when they are able to view images, read texts, or witness a demonstration. These youngsters take pleasure in lovely pictures and appear to be most efficient when their space is tidy and welcoming.
People who excel when they receive information through sound are auditory learners. These tiny bundles of delight enjoy having stories read to them and will often request high appeal books to be repeated multiple times. They memorize things joyfully and easily. And, they want to talk things through. A lot.
Still others are tactile learners, who learn through touch. They derive pleasure from sketching while studying and typically have affinity for the visual arts.
Then there’s kinesthetic learners. These children do well when they are engaged in physical activities: walking, feeling, and accomplishing tasks. These are the busy kids. The can’t sit still kids. The oh-my-gosh-I-can’t-keep-up kids.
Kinesthetic Learning Style
Kinesthetic learners excel when there is a physical aspect to their learning process. They are most successful when there is movement and action involved in the educational experience. An interactive way of allowing these bundles of energy to investigate their environment is essential for them to thrive. These are the children that find it difficult to remain stationary and are usually regarded as “challenging” in traditional educational settings.
It is possible to spot traits from two or more teaching styles in your offspring, however most primary and younger school-aged kids tend to favor the kinesthetic learning technique. Many children face difficulty in a standard educational system. In its most basic form, this arrangement of children habitually occupying seats and being spoken to is not conducive to their learning.
Maria Montessori understood this vital need in children to physically engage with their environment and to move about the classroom:
“What the hand does, the mind remembers. Hence, it’s obvious that we should not lug the child around, but let him move around on his own, and if he desires to work with his hands, we should give him items to allow him to engage in thoughtful activities.
—Maria Montessori
The Absorbent Mind
Dr. Montessori realized that a child who is active and in motion is more likely to engage in the learning process. The Montessori Method strives to use physical activity and involvement with the surroundings to educate. This is completely different from the way of teaching in which students are required to sit and listen to a lecture that is practiced in conventional education.
Let us explore to a deeper level what kinesthetic learning is, what advantage it gives to your kid, and how the Montessori approach adopts it.
What is Kinesthetic Learning
Hearing a tale can be pleasurable for all, including little ones. Getting kids to stay focused for more than 6 hours while someone lectures about different topics is not a very stimulating experience. Think about this: when was the last time as an adult patient, you felt good about yourself after listening to a lecture for an entire day? Reflect on what going through this experience would feel like for a young kid and it is easy to understand why a standard educational system does not satisfy all people, and why so many energetic children suffer from the model.
Children who tend to learn by doing would be known as “hands-on” learners if they were adults. They have the most success if they physically interact with the topic they are studying, like handling and changing it, instead of just being told or shown what it is like. Greetings, golden beads! Kids who thrive in traditional educational environments thrive even more when they are provided with periodic respites, tactile gadgets, and practical, context-specific instances. They adore excursions, pretending to be someone else and getting physical activity.
Benefits of Kinesthetic Learning
Many children tend to be inquisitive and physically active, though some may be more so than others. This is why kinesthetic learning benefits virtually all kids.
Some of the benefits of kinesthetic learning include:
- Better information retention: kids remember more of what they’re taught
- Improved critical thinking skills: kinesthetic learning develops problem solving skills via a powerful process of individual discovery: trial-and-error experimentation.
- More engagement: movement creates energy, which improves focus.
- Increased self-confidence and autonomy: kinesthetic learning is often self-paced, so kids can practice for as much – or as little – time as needed to gain a full understanding. This promotes confidence by focusing the child on their own learning, not on anyone else’s.
How Montessori Uses Kinesthetic Learning
The Montessori Method places great importance on involving multiple senses when learning. Most of the objects employed in a Montessori classroom involve tangible, tactile activities, such as the numerical golden beads, the clothing manipulation frames within the practical life sector, and the sensorial pink tower. These items are employed to help active learning through every sense. Montessori offers something for all children due to the fact that it incorporates all educational techniques. Montessori is a teaching approach that is guided by the child and their individual needs, allowing children to reach their highest potential by directly taking into account their individual learning styles.
An Example of Kinesthetic Learning
Let’s walk through a straightforward example. Kids in a usual school may observe, listen to, and write symbols while grasping the sound of the letters. And, Montessori students get this exposure, too. Montessori students are also given sandpaper letters to assist them in their language studies. They map out the boundaries of the grit by feeling its texture. They also compose letters in sand which not only helps advance language abilities but also gets the child’s muscles ready for writing.
In brief, Montessori students are exposed to various means of learning, and then can select what method works best for them. This leads to enhanced education and contented, more assured children.
These activities which involve several senses help a child to be completely immersed in the thing they’re studying. Explain it to them as though you were describing a picture of an orange. If your child has an orange, allow them to take it apart and consume it so that they can fully comprehend how it looks and how delicious it is.
Sensory and movement-based education provide information in a fun, interesting and significantly more meaningful way than typical education styles and can be seen in almost every facet of Montessori learning.
Manipulatives in Kinesthetic Learning
The Pink Tower is a great illustration of a tangible Montessori tool. By building the tower of blocks in multiple layers, your youngster will be refining their fine and gross physical abilities, as well as developing their understanding of how objects fit together. They practice building towers out of blocks, attempting different methods to find the most effective way to create the structure. In doing this they learn patience and gain confidence through trial and error. No electronic display or printed material is involved – the pieces are made of solid wood and require manual movement.
What are the different types of learners?
For a prolonged period, individuals have been divided into particular types of instruction.
The main categories our experts mentioned were:
- Visual learners
- Auditory (or aural) learners
- Kinesthetic (or hands-on) learners
- Reading and writing learners
Visual learners
People who learn best through sight are most likely to comprehend information when they can create mental images of how different concepts fit together. Visual learners respond positively to maps, charts, diagrams, and even essays. When teachers draw pictures or sketch their lessons on a whiteboard, students who learn best through visuals may be able to remember the information better.
Haynes believes that images are very essential for all learners when studying topics such as geometry. I propose that it’s a better visual technique, but it’s principally a tactic to dodge blunders. I advise my pupils to always draw out the shapes if they are not already provided, complete the missing parts, etc.
Auditory learners
Auditory learners are all ears. The majority of people are more apt to understand information if it is relayed to them verbally rather than visually or within writing. Auditory learners may speak and read slowly. They have a tendency to think in straight lines and may articulate what they hear verbally. When it comes to acquiring knowledge, somebody who learns best by listening may recollect information most efficiently if they discuss it with another person, due to it being easier to remember a discussion than an image of words on a page.
Kinesthetic learners
Kinesthetic learners are the most hands-on learning type. They are most productive in terms of knowledge acquisition when they are actively engaged and may become restless if expected to remain seated for lengthy durations. Kinesthetic students flourish when they can participate in activities or work out issues utilizing tactile methods. Occasionally, engaging in physical activities (throwing a ball, knitting a product) can help them remember things more effectively. They tend to remember what they do best.
Reading & writing learners
Individuals that are proficient in reading and writing feel very comfortable when it comes to the written word. People like to get information by reading material and can use summarizing and restating to better understand it. The usual way of learning with college textbooks and annotations is effective for students who are strong with reading and writing.
Getting the most out of different types of learning
It isn’t possible to always have control over how subject matter is taught in college. By considering your prior successes in learning, you are able to evaluate the type of program that is best for you and make an informed decision.
Elizabeth Malson, President of the Amslee Institute, has suggested that individuals who have a preference for learning through reading will gain advantages through taking online classes which include study guides and textbooks. Visual learners tend to thrive in lectures and demonstrations that are both in-person and on-demand. Understanding how you best engage with materials can assist you in selecting a post-secondary program that aligns with your needs.
However, our specialists advise against attempting to design your whole academic experience to conform to a single style of learning.
As Haynes clarified, topics such as grammar can be risky if students rely solely on auditory learning. Grammar in common usage is not always correct. If students rely on their hearing to spot grammar mistakes, it is probable that they will answer incorrectly on an examination. In this situation, it is necessary to abandon their own approach and concentrate on mastering the rules that are being assessed.
Rather than restricting yourself to one approach to learning, consider the various strategies that you could employ in your educational pursuits. Suggested studying methods for those who favor observing, listening, physical action, and reading/writing can all be very beneficial for the suitable material.
- Study for tests with flashcards.
- Make lists or flowcharts.
- Join a study group to discuss ideas with other students.
- Record lectures to listen to later.
- Make a song to memorize something.
- Print out presentation slides to review.
- Rewrite ideas in your own words.
- Translate visual information into statements.
- Read printed information out loud to yourself.
- Walk around while reviewing your notes.
- Trace words with your fingers as you study.
- Verbally review material with someone while bouncing a basketball.
Try out any of the techniques that you like and you may transform your approach to studying. Haynes remarks that it is not uncommon for people to have developed some less-than-ideal practices that have adequately sufficed in the past. “Even if they aren’t the best. Search for ways to better yourself and utilize strategies from all styles pertinent to the class, theme, and matter, etcetera.
Malson elucidates that being aware of your preferred form of study can also affect the decision you make on which program to go with initially. Individuals who favor taking on huge chunks of work at once will appreciate speeding up their studies in virtual curriculums where their criteria may be accomplished earlier than expected. Students who are keen to gain knowledge from their peers should search for physical classroom settings in which they can form a study team.
Even something as simple as the object permanence box, a concept usually taught during early childhood, has a physical component to it. This manipulative requires children to maneuver a ball from one location to another in order to enact a game of “hide and seek.” It is a straightforward design in which a youngster puts a ball into a gap in the top of the box, where it then temporarily vanishes before emerging out into a tray at the bottom. This is an enjoyable task that eventually instructs young ones that things still exist, even if they are not able to see them. Even babies who cannot yet walk can gain knowledge through physical activities using the Montessori system.
By giving young learners physical objects to work with, you are helping them completely engage in the learning process. Most children require more than a simple presentation in order to remain focused and become fully involved. Discussing the Pink Tower, Object Permanence Box, or simply a heap of wooden blocks, physical exercise resources are pleasurable to employ and supply a surplus of data to each lesson.
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