EP 38: Making the Most of Your Child’s Learning Style

Modern lists of learning styles are much lengthier than the one I learned in school. And — after raising 12 children — I can think of a few additional learning styles I’ve never seen on any chart. So in this episode of Loving Life at Home, we’re discussing how to make the most of your child’s learning style and what to do if you can’t figure out which it is.

Your Child’s Learning Styles

Hello, friend. And thank you for joining me for Episode 38 of Loving Life at Home. A couple of weeks ago, I was asked to address a local moms group on the topic of Learning Styles. They figured, with 12 children and 20+grandchildren, I probably have experience dealing with all different kins of learning styles – and they’re right!

So today, I thought I’d share on the podcast some of the things I told that room full of young mothers about children’s various learning styles and how that knowledge should affect the way we parent.

Well, back when I was first starting my family, we only ever talked about three learning styles: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic.

1. Visual Learners

Visual learners retain information most easily when they can see it with their own eyes and study it in detail. So if you have a visual learner, you’ll want to provide plenty of picture books and graphs and maps and other resources they can look at and read and observe visually and pour over to their heart’s content.

As it happens, I’m very visual. If I can study something long enough and closely enough – whether it’s a picture or a math problem or a crocheted doily or a quilt block or a painting style, I can usually recall and recreate it.

That’s why, whenever I’m introduced to new people, I’ve learned to ask them to spell their name for me. If I can picture it in my mind’s eye, I can usually remember it. Whereas, if I only hear their name during a brief introduction, it will likely go in one ear and out the other and I’ll have forgotten it before they even finish their first sentence.

The second classic learning style is…

2. Auditory Learners

Unlike me, auditory learners learn and retain information best when they can hear it. Their ears, not their eyes, are the fastest route to the memory centers in their brains.

So, for auditory learners, you’ll want to provide lots of verbal explanations. Let them listen to audio books, use repetitive poems, songs, and language CDs. Read aloud with them, explaining as you go.

I have several kids who are great auditory learners. I remember one in particular, Benjamin, who as a very young child would play quietly on the floor at my feet while I was reading history and literature books to his older siblings. He’d be involved with his Lincoln logs or duplo blocks and not appear to be paying a lick of attention, but afterwards – even months later – would be able to quote clearly and accurately and often verbatim the facts and dates and concepts we were discussing. He remembered a lot of that information as well or better than I did – and I was the one who read it out loud in the first place!

3. Kinesthetic Learners

Kinesthetic learners prefer hands-on activities and lessons that involve movement (clapping, stomping, sign language). So if you want to help a kinesthetic learner excel, give them lots of manipulatives and puzzles and thinking games, give them tools and teach them a variety of handicrafts, take them nature hikes and let them play sports, do science experiments with them, sign them up for gymnastics or wood working or dance or music lessons, go on walks, ride bikes, climb trees, and let them burn off energy running and playing.

These are all good things to do with your children, whether they are kinesthetic learners or not. But the kinesthetic kids will especially benefit from a more hands-on approach.

For years and years, those three classic learning styles were all we talked about. But as I was preparing for my recent talk, I learned that old pie chart has been expanded since the last time I looked at it.

4. Reading & Writing Learners

One of the charts I found had four categories of learners. The three we’ve already talked about – visual, auditory, and kinesthetic – plus one more, labeled reading/writing. But if you think about it, Reading & Writing are really just sub-categories of visual & kinesthetic.

You read with your eyes. You write with your hands. So they’re kind of just splitting hairs here. They’re separating kids who learn best from looking at pictures and graphs and maps from those who learn by looking at the written word.

5. Aural Learners and 6. Verbal/Linguistic Learners

Then somebody else came up with the bright idea of splitting Auditory learners into similar categories: So now you may see learning charts that differentiate between kids who learn through sounds like music and rhythm and other noises (which they label as Aural Learners) from those who learn by listening to lectures and audio books and verbal explanations (which they label as Verbal or Linguistic Learners).

7. Logical/ Mathematical Learners

And, of course, if we’re separating out kids who learn by reading books and kids who learn by hearing words, we have to acknowledge the fact that some children don’t do either of those tasks very well – their brains are more wired for math and logic. So now you’ll see charts on learning styles that also list Logical or Mathematical Learners as one of the options. 

8. Social Learners

Then, somebody else noticed some kids learn best in group settings. They want to be around people, they’re extraverts, and so now you will sometimes see a Social Learner segment on the Learning Styles pie chart.

9. Solitary Learners

And if we add Social Learning to the chart, we have to acknowledge the fact other kids are introverts and prefer to do their learning alone where they won’t be distracted by what everyone else is doing, so some charts now list Solitary Learners right next to the Social Learners.

10. Natural Learners

I even saw one chart that included Natural Learners. These are the kids who live to be outdoors.

I’ve definitely had a few of those. They are born adventurers. My thirdborn David would definitely fit into that category. “Outside” was one of the first words he learned how to say. By age 2, I had to watch him like a hawk. In the blink of an eye, he could scramble over our fence, dart down the alley, and climb the fence into a neighbor’s yard to pet their dog.

He grew up to be an army dentist, but is still and adventurer who loves being outdoors. When he was stationed in Germany, he climbed the highest peak, went on a 100-mile march, and skied the Alps in every country that mountain range bordered. In Hawaii, he went scuba diving and snorkeling to his heart’s content.

11. Oral Learners

And, as long as we’re getting super specific with these learning styles, after raising 12 children, I can suggest even more categories — categories I’ve never seen on any list. The first one would be Oral Learners.

These would be those children who put everything in their mouth. Have you ever seen – or raised – one like that? Our Rebekah definitely fit into this category. She nearly choked to death before she ever learned how to walk because she found a tiny little plastic propeller from one of her siblings’ toy helicopters on the floor and got it lodged in her throat. Her father saw her gasping for breath and turning blue on the floor and – snatched her up and somehow, by God’s grace, managed to dislodge the thing.

When Bekah was a baby, I had to sweep multiple times a day and vacuum under all the sofa cushions and clean out every corner and crevice and keep our kitchen trash behind a locked door, or else she would be swallowing every crust and crumb and disgusting piece of refuse she could get her hands on.

We really had to watch her closely whenever we went out to eat, or she would glean the used chewing gum from underneath the restaurant tables. Rebekah is now a nurse. She seldom ever gets sick and credits her robust immune system to all that early germ exposure!

12. Orderly Learners

Another learning style is the Orderly Learner. Have you ever seen one of those? They are born organizers. They line up their match box cars. They sort their legos by color and style. They fold and file their T-shirts in tidy rows in their drawers.

That was my Samuel to a T. He squirreled away the outfit he wanted to wear for his birthday eight months in advance. He was very strong in math. He was an early riser and would get up at 5 am to do math drills beside me. By high school, he was doing violin at 5, then calculus.

He’s now an anesthesiologist, where his meticulous attention to detail is put to great use.

13. Competitive Learners

Competitive Learners turn everything into a contest or game. This would be our son Ben. Lots of fun. He would’ve made a great coach, because he’s so good at motivating people to give 110%.

He loved playing tag and told his siblings if they could catch him, he’d give them candy or do their chores. Great at inventing games and leveling the playing field so all ages can play together. I remember a couple of times in grade school, he came and tried to get me up at 3 or 4 AM to do lessons, so he could finish in time to be on the tennis court at dawn.

Ben is now an ICU Nurse but still loves to play games and make up contests. He works nights, so he can spend the rest of the day playing with his wife & kids.

14. Inquisitive Learners

These are the kids who are constantly asking Why? Why? Why? Why is grass green? Why do birds fly? Why do stars shine?

My Isaac is an Inquisitive Learner — and he’s still asking lots of questions. Only now he’s in college studying chemical engineering, so his questions are considerably more cerebral.

15. Limit Testing Learners

Testing Limits is also a way of learning. This was our Joseph. He could take anything apart and unlock any door. We put flip locks high on the doors in an effort to keep him inside, but he learned to push a ladder back chair against the door and climb the rungs to reach the lock.

When he was a baby, he slid a penny behind a flat night light, shorted our electrical circuits, tripped the breaker, and left a big black smoke blotch on our wall. All through his childhood, it seemed like angels were constantly tapping me on the shoulder, just in the nick of time to save Joe from utter ruin.

Now (surprise!) he is an electrician, but moonlights as a handiman. He’s very resourceful and can fix anything.

16. Combination Learners

Guess what? Most children are best described as having a Combination of Learning Styles. So even if you’re not sure what your child’s predominant learning style is, you should just do your best to expose your kids to multiple learning styles. And that is okay, since even if they are predominantly one, there will be some things your children won’t necessarily be able to learn in their preferred style. Some things they can’t learn by singing songs or playing games or putting things in their mouths.

At some point, your children will have to learn how to read and write. How to do math. How to listen. How to get along with others.

The nice thing about trying to give your child exposure to multiple learning styles is that doing so comes in handy for teaching multiple children at once. So use as many channels for teaching your children as you can simultaneously.

I do this with the monthly memory challenges I sponsor for my grandchildren. For whatever scripture verses I assign each month, I include printable coloring sheets, craft activities, songs, links to sign language videos for the verses, etc.

Tackling such material from a variety of learning styles helps make it sticky. It’s like throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks.

There are several ways I’ve found that help children have an easier time remembering the things I teach them:

• Modeling/ Mirroring – live a good example in front of your children; exemplify the traits you want them to develop
• Music – you can use songs to teach Bible verses, states and capitols, US presidents, parts of speech, and all sorts of other information to your children
• Multiple Channels – again, use a variety of approaches to help cement the information in your children’s brains
• Mistakes – give your children an opportunity to fail frequently while the stakes are low; they can learn valuable lessons by making mistakes
• Muscle Movement – let them work with their hands as often as possible