Not everyone learns the same way, and that creates problems in classrooms and at home.
As a generalisation, there are three types of learners: auditory, kinaesthetic, and visual. These are the main channels of learning. It’s a generalisation because, a person is more likely to be a combination of two (or more) rather than simply one, as in being purely an auditory learner. How do you identify a kinaesthetic learner?
Kinaesthetic learners just want to touch and feel everything. As adults, their mates give them plenty of personal space because they just want to playfully thump them all the time. Their house is a mess because they just want to collect and pull everything apart, just to see how it works. Putting it together again may be another matter. Does this sound like someone you married?
It is easy to identify an adult kinaesthetic learner, but how do you identify it in your child?
Well for starters, their teacher will be strongly suggesting you attend Parent Teacher Nights, so they can discuss how disruptive this young pupil is in the classroom. They fidget, leave their seat to touch things, move things and find it difficult to sit and learn. They may not even be aware of their movements as they are easily distracted by the movement of others, and want to investigate.
This student needs a hands-on approach to learning so sitting in class and listening, reading from a book, or even taking notes from the whiteboard is not the best way for them to learn. They will respond better when learning is through participation, such as in chemistry experiments, or building a model. These students do well in sports, drama and live for school lunch breaks. By the age of seven, they have been categorised as being an under-achiever, or worse still, hyperactive. But fear not.
Being a kinaesthetic learner is not a problem, as approximately fifteen percent of the population are kinaesthetic learners. The problem is our education system is geared towards auditory and visual learners, and kinaesthetic learners are the speed bump in our systems road to education. What can you do?
For starters, accept them for who they are, healthy active children. Give them down time after an active session, and reward them for the tasks they perform. These guys may be reward driven. Kinaesthetic learners do best with images so paint them a picture of what you want from them and give them regular breaks while studying.
Your student is likely to become an actor, dancer, physio-therapist, massage therapist, surgeon, mechanic, carpenter, P.E. teacher, athlete, farmer, etc.
The point is, be patient, give them space and let them grow…
XtraMile Tuition Strategies makes learning fun again
One night I left the stove on at my stinky house and I was woken by the unfamiliar smell of fire and hoary rubbish that I left on the table. By the time I got to the kitchen, I smelt the fire cooking a stale apple core and a decayed banana peel that smelt gross, and the dog food that smelt nice. The fireman said, ‘’You smell like you haven’t had a bath for 6 months!” and I said, “That’s true”. He sprayed rusty water on me with his big water hose until I smelt as lovely as a rose. While the fire brigade was busy washing me, my house was busy turning into a vessel of lovely ashes.
This morning, my friend, Jonah, who is eight year’s old, like me, shot a nerf-bullet to get his mate’s attention in the wood-house. They were both at Jonah’s family’s Californian farmhouse, just beside the magic tree. The bullet hit the magic tree in the face just as it was waking up and that hurt it a lot and it caused the tree to fall. The tree dragged itself up and then whacked the old wood-house into lots of bits of wood until the barn didn’t exist anymore. Jonah and his mate called 000 and the ambulance took them to the hospital.
Type ‘student’ into Fotolia and you have 14337 pages of pupils sitting quietly at their desk diligently working away. DREAM ON.
When John and Jeff came to the ditch on the way to school, Jeff slipped and hit his head on a stick. The ten-year-old twins were alike in many ways as both were playful and blonde. John came down to Jeff to remove the stick from his head when suddenly a vicious alligator burst from the water and chased them up the slope and all the way to school. The teacher opened the window and through a baton at the alligator and the kids ran into the school room. The teacher said, “That’s what happens when you’re late for school’.
It was just after lunch and Bang! The puppet knocked over the bookshelf which fell on top of the new television. She had straight yellow wool for hair with black sewn-on buttons for eyes and inside her long pink dress was my hand. Mum stomped into the room as the puppet grinned but it was me that Mum shouted at. When Mum turned her back, the puppet jumped on the counter, ripped the paintings off the wall and tipped over the bowl of fruit. After lunch, I took the puppet off my hand , picked up the mess and mopped the floors.
We all want our children to do well in school and in life, but how do you ignite that spark that fuels a need for knowledge. How does your child develop an interest in the world around them?
Well, if your child was an average student last year chances are they will be an average student this year. If they struggled with maths last year they will probably be struggling with maths this year. Nothing changes unless something changes. What has to change to improve your child’s grades?
And on the other side of the coin insufficient sleep will make children hyperactive, lacking in confidence, irritable, inattentive and fall behind in class and if this sounds like your youngster then it is so easy to rectify.
A long time ago in an old house, there was a brown teddy bear with a special secret. Every morning, before breakfast, the fluffy little guy would put on his black cloak. He would get in his toy car and drive right down the narrow street and visit his friend Bob, the polar bear teddy. They would play in Bob’s huge garden until the sun fell. Teddy would drive in his little red car back down from his secret friend’s house until he was back in the old house.
XtraMile Tuition Strategies (North Brisbane) - 0415 049461 