Different Learning Styles of Children and Positive Parenting

Different Learning Styles of Children

and Positive Parenting

Major Stress:

The major stress for the parents is to raise their children and give them the best possible by them. So the parents continuously keep asking for advice, watch the neighborhood, their colleagues, their relatives, other success stories, etc. As parents we are not completely sure what skills and talents our children have until they demonstrate them. Sometimes the skills are identified while parenting and sometimes incidentally when the child does something stunningly different like a drawing, solving puzzles, painting, singing, games, memorizing and reciting a big poem, calculating, explaining something, winning some competitions, or writing poetry or stories creatively, etc.

What should my children become when they grow up?

Most of the parents get stuck in every stage of the child’s growth right from their kinder garden to the completion of their studies. Hence the parents try to put the child either in the family predominant occupations, trending careers in the market or what parents wish them to be.

The parents may not be sure which skills would be required for the children when they grow up and start training them in various extracurricular activities apart from the schooling. The child could be enjoying all of them but it would be stressful as well because the child has to concentrate on the academics and also the other extracurricular activities.

We were studying various parenting patterns, teaching styles, children learning styles, their interactions and the achievements. Some were successful with less effort and some were struggling hard for being successful in academics. A very few are good in whatever they do. The same child who is successful in few subjects might not be equally successful in few subjects. Same child who is successful in academics may or may not be doing very well in creative activities or games or music, etc. On the other side, the same teacher teaches the whole class but few get very good marks few are average and few struggle to be even average.

Different Learning Styles:

It is observed that the learning skills were good when they align to the interests of the child and the method or style of learning of the child. There are 3 styles of learning 

(a) Visual (b) Auditory and (c) Kinesthetic.

a.    Visual  Learning Style - Some children learn easily by viewing things. They understand and remember by viewing pictures, shapes, sculptures, paintings, etc. They try to visualize things and see how they look like and remember them. They like to watch rhymes, videos of places or things or activities, etc.

b.    Auditory Learning Style - These children learn easily by listening. They enjoy listening and grasp them easily when someone explains them about anything. Listening to rhythms, tones, chants, stories, music, etc. are few traits they exhibit.

c.    Kinesthetic Learning Style – These children want to learn things mostly by doing them by their own. They would like to involve in physical activities with gestures, body movements, object manipulation, positioning things, building blocks, making things, etc.

It is very important to identify the suitable learning style of the children for reducing the stress on them. Otherwise it would be very stressful for the children to cope up with the growing needs of the academics. Juggling the learning styles like trying auditory style to a kinesthetic kind of learner is like taking the child to a magician for a stomach pain. It might look good for the moment but the child would still need the doctor.

These learning styles are known to parents and teachers not by their names but in general as a practice of trying different things. Because the teachers have to deal with the children of a whole class at the same time, they would show a mix of them and explain the children. The teaching methods are also not much designed for individual style of children but the Parents can take an extra effort in identifying the learning style of the children and provide them guidance accordingly. Once this style is identified and works well for the child, it would be easy for the parents to provide necessary aid needed by the child.

Over the period, the parents can also plan to train the children on other styles of learning in a planned way. It would not be a big success to make the child learn in any learning style however it will help improving the skills of grasping through other styles of learning also. This way the children can start taking inputs form the teachers, parents, friends and other influencing persons in other learning styles and suit them into their inherent learning style. This will adjust the children to fit into various circumstances they come across in life at various stages and become successful.

By

Aruna

Great Brains