Many Kinds of Smart - Understanding your child's learning style

The first job of a growing child, is to figure out how the world works and how they fit into it. As a parent four times over, it became very clear to me that each of my children had their own unique way of going about this task. My eldest daughter was very verbal and she understood her world best by talking about what she was learning - with us, her stuffed animals, or Grandma over the phone! While my son was fascinated with how things physically worked. From age 2 years he lived to build structures with his duplo or lego. His stories were always best told by drawing or through picture books. It was no surprise to us when he chose to study Community Design at university.

The educational system is getting much better at recognizing a child's learning style and providing stimulating approaches to address each. In your child's classroom, you should be able to see the use of poetry, song, fingerplays or drama to engage every learner. That sitting still at a desk is now only part of their day. The teacher may bring in objects from the natural world, take the children out on a neighbourhood walk or he may provide charts as well as books to make information clearer. The goal is that there be a good balance.

In these early years of school, your child will very quickly start to compare themselves to their classmates. For example, my son was very aware that he struggled to remember the sounds that each letter of the alphabet made while others seemed to pick it up easily. To avoid him becoming discouraged, we shared with him how people learn in different ways: he has to work hard to remember the sounds that letters make, but look how effortlessly he sees the letter patterns of words! Understanding your child's learning style is a great help as they approach new challenges in their lives.

To learn more about learning styles please check out this article in Today's Parent magazine... Many Kinds of Smart.

All the best!
Beverley

Beverley Cathcart-Ross is an author, speaker, certified parent educator, and co-founder of Parenting Network. Click here for Workshops for Winter 2011!