Learning Styles, Re-visited

Browsing a bit through my past blog posts, I found this post on learning style:
http://cornerstonehomelearning.blogspot.com/2008/09/heart-of-matter-learning-styles-meme.html
(The rest of this post will make a lot more sense if you read the old one too, especially if you don't know a lot about learning styles or the specific children I am writing about.) A couple of the links on the old page were broken, so I have updated those.

I wrote that post
about five years ago. Now my younger two are the ages my older two were when I wrote it. So, I thought it would be interesting to re-evaluate learning style and see if any of my thoughts have changed on the matter.

When David was 13, I categorized him as an auditory learner with high levels of logical/mathematical intelligence and spatial intelligence. I provided him with lots of auditory input and he has also sought this out himself. I would change nothing about that assessment now that he is 18. I would now add that I believe he is dyslexic which explains quite a bit of his preference for audiobooks over the printed page. He still loves to build things and plans now to study mechanical engineering in college. 

Sixteen-year-old Emily's learning style is still visual (linguistic intelligence). She still loves to read and is a very fast reader. I don't see as high a degree of interpersonal intelligence as when she was younger nor do I notice her musical intelligence has continued to develop. She continues to struggles with math, and I believe this is due to dyscalculia, so it's possible that those struggles have eclipsed her development in other areas. I plan to work hard during the next two years to capitalize on her strengths to build her confidence. She has never had a strong kinesthetic ability, but two years of studying karate has increased her coordination and confidence about her physical abilities.  

Going back to what I wrote about James at age 8 really shocked me. I could write the EXACT SAME thing about him today at age 13. "... he moves and moves and moves. And moves. [....] the constant movement drives my ADD self nuts!" Wow! I hadn't realized I had assessed this so long ago. He still tends to move about constantly. If he stands next to me to talk, he shifts his weight from foot to foot or taps something or wiggles in some other fashion. I have been calling him on it so he can learn to manage it. It's a lot more to deal with when he's as big as an adult than it was when he was an eight-year-old. So, CLEARLY, the kinesthetic intelligence is still high for James. He is still focused on the intrapersonal as well as the existential, often asking me insightful questions that I don't expect. The naturalistic intelligence has seemed to dissipate, but maybe we just need to offer more opportunities to see if that is still an interest for him.

And on to my youngest, Suzanne, who is now 11. At age 6, I had very little idea of what her intelligences were. Today, we completed a multiple intelligence inventory. Her strengths lie in kinesthetic, inter-personal, and visual/spatial skills. Her linguistic skills are lower, mainly because I think she, like her older brother, is dyslexic. She has finally learned to read well and says she "loves reading" now, but it took many years and much prayer and hard work to achieve that. She finds her strengths in being a leader, especially in physical areas (like soccer) and in handicrafts like sewing. She also loves to make things pretty, such as setting a beautiful table with touches like placemats and flowers (things I usually don't bother with). So, really what I thought about her at age 6 was fairly accurate. 

So, how does this affect our homeschooling? I think I'll save that for another day.  

While you wait, try evaluating your own children. Here is a nice printable Multiple Intelligence Survey for Kids.  You can also try some of the online surveys from my previous post, or just google!

By the way, the graphic in this post illustrates my own results on the multiple intelligence survey.

Heart of the Matter - Learning Styles Meme

Friday is past, but I found this neat online homeschooling magazine that evidently offers a weekly meme. This week's is about learning styles.

Welcome to the Heart of the Matter Online meme. Every Friday we will feature a different topic for our meme. Please share with us your Your Children's Learning Styles.
We discussed curriculum and would love to hear how these choices best teach your children according to their specific learning styles. Are they visual learners? Auditory? Kinesthetic? Give us your best teaching methods!




I guess that's my cue! I've done quite a lot of study on learning styles and multiple intelligence theory. Learning Styles are generally divided into 3 categories - visual, auditory, kinesthetic.

Learning Style Quiz
Learning Style Chart (changed link 6/10/2013)
Learning Style Questionnaire

Multiple Intelligence Theory goes a little deeper to define eight or more areas in which learning takes place: Verbal/Linguistic, Logical/Mathematical, Visual/Spatial, Bodily/Kinesthetic, Musical/Rhythmic, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, Naturalist, Existential. The theory is based on the belief that we all possess at least eight unique intelligences through which we are able to learn/teach new information. Although we each have all eight, no two individuals have them in the same exact amounts.

Multiple Intelligence Inventory (changed link 6/10/2013)
Survey for Children (changed link 6/10/2013)

Ok, so what about my own children?

David (age 13) is very clearly an auditory learner. He adores listening to audiobooks and will listen to his favorites multiple times. He is not much for reading or writing, but math is a favorite and he likes to build things (Legos, models). I would categorize him with high levels of logical/mathematical intelligence and spatial intelligence.

For his schoolwork, this means that I try hard to offer many auditory experiences for him - books on tape, reading aloud, etc... Practically, this year, I've sought out his Sonlight books on audio recordings, as well as obtained the audio of his Apologia textbook. I think this will make it a more pleasant experience as well as increase his comprehension.

Eleven-year-old Emily's learning style is more like mine - visual (linguistic intelligence). She loves to read and is good at writing and spelling. Math is much more difficult for her, as it was for me. (I didn't learn to tell time until I was 10!) Her interpersonal intelligence is at a high level, as is her musical intelligence.

The visual/linguistic style is the easiest to teach in a traditional manner - books and paper/pencil tasks come naturally to this learner. She also loves learning songs to go along with her memorization. I am trying to use her musical strengths to help her learn her math facts.

James (age 8) is mainly a kinesthetic learner - he moves and moves and moves. And moves. He does enjoy books, however. This is the hardest for me in some ways, because the constant movement drives my ADD self nuts! However, because we are not in a traditional school setting, James does not have the stricture of sitting still all of the time. He can do his math on the floor, upside down hanging off the couch, or out on the porch. He can take a break to ride his bike up the sidewalk. This all helps and James, on the whole, enjoys his lessons.

He also seems to be quite spatially aware and also more intrapersonal than I often expect. James also is very interested in nature especially animal life, which probably rates him a high level of naturalistic intelligence. He is also my child who delights in asking me deeper questions - perhaps an existential intelligence?

Suzy (age 6) is harder to figure out. She isn't a workbook-y girl like Emily was at 6. She has a low tolerance for any activity that she is not the boss of. That's not so much learning style as a Type A personality. Suzy talked well at an early age, which hints at a high level of linguistic intelligence. She's not reading yet, but probably could have been with a little more diligence from me during her kindergarten year. She likes to dance and move, which indicates a bodily-kinesthetic awareness. She doesn't particularly like music, other than as an impetus to movement. So perhaps her kinesthetic style is higher than I might imagine.

Children under the age of 8 or so are hard to label, because most children are, by nature, kinesthetic. They learn by doing and touching. So, I will have a clearer picture of Suzy's intelligences in a couple more years, I expect.

Perhaps you noticed that my first three children all seem to be different learning styles! That makes it interesting here at Cornerstone Academy - lots of moving, singing, dancing, talking, building, writing, and reading going on here. How about your home?