4 Types of Learners

Have you ever wondered how some children learn fast and some need lot of repetition or revision of concepts?

Some sit very sincerely in a class or participate actively or some just cause distraction…

Some seem very interested in a given topic whereas some seem disinterested…

There are various factors governing these behaviors, like, physiological, psychological, emotional, and several others.. but in this blog, I’ll be discussing the types of the ways in which children learn concepts.

Understanding these will be really helpful for teachers and trainers as they can create lesson plans considering these types of learners. This will make their lesson plan more effective and impactful.

If we take a broader look there are four types of learners, which means people learn in four different ways. These can be further branched out and divided into many other sub types.

I’ll be discussing the 4 main types of learners in this blog.

The 4 main types of learners are:

1.???Visual

2.???Auditory

3.???Read/Write

4.???Kinesthetic

Let’s take a deep dive in these types one by one.

1.???Visual learners: Children belonging to the Visual learners group learn concepts faster and in a better way by looking at pictures or videos or any kind of visual tool or teaching aids like flash cards etc. For them, their visual skills are more dominant and they enjoy any concept if it is taught in a visual manner. Cartoons, cartoon strips, memes etc. are some forms of Visual elements.

2.???Auditory: Some children learn faster by listening to the concepts in the form of stories, songs, poems, etc. for them they learn better with the sounds attached to the concepts and music along with it. They enjoy anything that has rhythm and high and low notes. The teacher and use various types of voice modulation techniques also to gauge their attention. Children belonging to this category, learn faster with the help of auditory lessons.

3.???Read/Write: This is the most practiced method, although not very common. Parents and teachers feel that by making all the children read and write, they will help them in learning faster. It doesn’t work always. Like the Visual and Auditory learners, some children learn faster by reading or writing. After leaning any concept, they need to practice it by reading it or writing it several times.

4.???Kinaesthetic: This is my personal favourite ??. Well, that’s because I’m a Kinaesthetic learner myself. Kinaesthetic learners need learn better by moving around or by shaking hands and legs or by walking and running and sometimes even by playing. Basically, they need lot of movement to learn something or some concept. Follow up Activities like, a concept-based game or role play works best for such children.

We need to understand that all these skills are interlinked. It doesn’t mean that an Auditory learner will not learn by reading or writing. It just means that in the case of an auditory learner, the auditory skills are more dominant and the other skills are less effective or they learn faster and quicker with the help of auditory learning as compared to other types of learning methods.

The benefits of understanding the four types of learners are that they are helpful even for grownup i.e. working professionals. With age, the gap between our dominant learning skill and other methods reduces but still one can change the basic wiring. This means that grown up visual learners, continue to learn better visually. Any visually appealing concept will grab their undivided attention.

So as a teacher to toddlers or teens or as a trainer to corporates, it’s a good practice to design ones lesson plan or training in a multi leaning method that involves all of the above methods of teaching and learning.

For e.g. teaching the lifecycle of a frog to preschoolers. The teacher can use flash cards to show different stages in the life cycle of the frog (this will appeal the visual learners).

Then the teacher can sing a short poem or a song, that will hold the auditory learners on their seats.

The teacher can make them write stages in their note book (for the Reading and Writing learners group)

And towards the end, the teacher can make some simple dance steps on the poem or song, this will help the kinaesthetic learners.

Likewise, if a trainer wants to conduct a session on Leadership for a group of professionals, the following activities can be done.

Visual: Show some slides

Auditory: Make them listen to audio clips of inspiring personalities like Swami Vivekananda or Martin Luther King

Read/Write: Give an activity to note down their take away and last but not the least

Kinesthetic: make the participants get up from their seats and form small groups and conduct a group discussion activity.

I hope you found this blog useful.

I would love to read your comments.

If you found this blog useful, do like it, share it with someone who will benefit from it and share your thoughts in the comments.

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