Inquiries into a child’s learning style abound on the internet and in homeschool meetings as homeschool parents are beginning to realize everyone learns in a different way, and just because a parent is a visual learner, does not mean the student can’t be a kinesthetic learner. This can be a problem when attempting to transfer information from teacher to student if the parent is unaware of the best way to teach his or her child. So, what exactly are learning styles and multiple intelligence, and how can parents figure out what type of learners their children are?
First, learning styles refer to the different ways people learn. There are three main types of learning styles: Visual learners learn through seeing, auditory learners learn through hearing, and kinesthetic learners learn through feeling/touching. According to REACH of the University of Louisville, learning involves encoding (taking information in through senses), which leads to storage, which leads to retrieval and eventually back to storage. Discovering your learning styles along with your child’s learning style will help both of you integrate effective approaches when teaching and learning.
Several learning style quizzes can be found on the internet, and there is also a Learning Style Inventory offered by REACH. Edutopia offers a very interesting learning styles quiz that shows strengths of Multiple Intelligences, a theory published in Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences by Howard Gardner who claims there are eight types of intelligences that humans possess, but most people are stronger in certain intelligence areas versus other intelligence areas. Go ahead and take one of the learning styles quizzes and the different qualities and recommendations for each learning style will be discussed in future articles.