Help, my child doesn’t understand my explanations! Essential strategies for different learning styles

Have you experienced this situation before? You do your utmost best to explain a Science concept (or another subject) and for some reason your child just don’t seem to get it. Before you start thinking to yourself that he might have learning difficulties, think again. Maybe his preferred learning style doesn’t match yours. So the way you explain things may not be in his learning style and therefore it takes a longer time for him to understand.

In the last article, we gave some simple clues to testing if your child is dominantly visual, kinesthetic or auditory. In this article, we want to share with you some simple strategies that you can use on your child to help improve the learning process for the different learning styles

For the Highly Visual Child

These kids remember what they see well. Posters, concept maps and schematic diagrams work well for them. Use CD ROM and videos that shows how scientific processes occur. Seeing the life cycle of a chicken or how the heart beats will go a long way in helping them understand than all the explanations in the world.

When choosing books for your child, get for them, the ones that have lots of pictures that can excite their curiosity. When making notes, encourage them to use colour pens and highlighters to code information.

When explaining concepts, draw out the processes on a piece of paper as you explain.

For the Highly Auditory Child

When studying, engage him in a discussion. Ask him question to assess his understanding. You can get him to record important learning points into an MP3 player and have him play back frequently to help remember.

Motivate him to learn by asking him to put concepts to familiar music like creating a simple song about the water cycle put to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. He will find memory work to be a lot more fun and a lot more effective this way.

When you are laying out rules or giving instructions, get your child to repeat what you said.

For the Highly Kinesthetic Child

One rule to follow, translate as much learning into action as possible. Don’t expect him to be like a typical learner – sitting down quietly to study. You will only end up being frustrated.

Visiting places with educational value will be very useful, such as the Science Centre, museums or any places associated with the topic being studied. At home, let him build models and props to help him understand better. Plasticine, ice cream sticks, glue and some other stationery are good to have at hand so that he can use it as part of his learning process.

Get creative with memorizing. Encourage him to act out sequences and events he is studying from his textbook.