How does your child learn?

When observing my almost 3 year old during free play and structured learning, I am amazed at how I can already see her learning styles in action!

I am referring to the 3 basic learning channels (there are also Multiple Intelligences and more in-depth learning styles).

Visual: learning by seeing

Auditory: learning by hearing

Kinesthetic: learning by doing

 

I think it is very important to provide structured and open ended activities in all of the learning styles for young learners.  But, I was suprised when I already saw my daughter focusing on a certain learning style.

For example, she can recognize numerals up to 10.  She uses her visual learning skills to see these numerals and auditory learning to hear the number we tell her it is.  But, she has a difficult time counting to 10 orally (with no numerals in front of her).  This tells me that she prefers to learn with her sense of sight, rather than hearing or doing.  I have seen this same thing happen with uppercase letter recognition.

I am very interested in seeing if her preferred learning style changes as she grows.

Even with this knowledge, I know that as a parent it is my job to provide opportunties using all of her senses.  But, I think it is amazing to observe and learn about how our children are so unique!