Do you have an active child?

Children learn in different ways. Some by watching and looking, writing it down and reading it again before a test. Others listen carefully, saying it over and over again in their heads to learn it and others need to learn by doing. They need to learn actively. This poses obvious problems in a classroom and these children need plenty of exercise - they're like puppies, they can't learn when they're bursting with energy that needs to be expended outside. 

These three ways of learning - visual, auditory and kinaesthetic, split three ways roughly equally and there are plenty of overlaps of course because some subjects require more auditory skills (music and languages), some more visual skills (art) and some such as PE and science that are more hands on and kinaesthetic. The key literacy and numeracy subjects are usually taught using a combination of VAK to ensure every type of learner is satisfied to some extent. 

I once gave a talk at Parent Gym and when I explained about how children learn differently, one of the audience said that her son had told her that he had been told at school that he was a kinaesthetic learner and that he should learn his spelling while he skateboarded. She scoffed as she said this as if it was all nonsense. I asked if it had worked. 'Well actually it did' she said. One of my students was telling me that after learning about VAK on the course I teach NLP kids practitioner, she decided to apply it to her daughter who loves dancing. Each ballet position was a different letter and she quickly learned her spellings and continues to learn that way. 

Children who are auditory learners find it easier to concentrate in lessons when they look out of the window so that their eye faces the teacher to pick up the sound better. It also helps them to talk about what they've learned. Reciting dates , spellings or facts and using pneumonics is also helpful. 

Visual learners like to use different colours, diagrams and mind maps, charts and visual aids. 

Talk with your child about how they learn best and help them develop strategies that work. They will perform better with some teachers because perhaps that teacher uses a style that suits their learning best. Find out which teacher they find easiest to learn from and talk about how they can adapt some of that strategy to help them learn from others. 

Focus on what they do well and the homework where they get good marks to find patterns. Ask 'how did you get that high mark? What strategy did you use? What was the thought process?'. Believing you can do something is an excellent belief strategy.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author. All articles published on Life Coach Directory are reviewed by our editorial team.

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Slough SL1 & Hove BN3
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Written by Judy Bartkowiak, Energy Healer - low self esteem, anger, anxiety in families.
Slough SL1 & Hove BN3

Judy Bartkowiak runs a thriving kids coaching practice in Berkshire/South Bucks, runs parenting workshops and trains the NLP kids practitioner course.

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