My Doer

Wyatt is still having trouble with learning all of his letters and it's stressing me out! I think that he has a very different learning style than either John or I. I am a visual learner and I think that John is a visual learner as well.

I am still trying to figure out all of the different learning styles, how to determine a person's style, and how to encourage learning with each different style and each different person.

One book that I read states that there are "talkers, watchers, and doers". Wyatt is a doer. So he needs lots of opportunities for hand on learning... cooking with Mom, handling objects, and touching things.

The book went on to say that although "does" may be bright, they are at most risk for failure in school because school is mostly letters and numbers, abstract symbols on worksheets and teaching through visual and auditory methods. So it's our job as parents to understand our child's pattern for learning and help them be successful in any environment. Sounds easy right?

There's more...some kids learn best in a group. Some kids excel individually. Other kids need a structured classroom while some kids need to discover concepts without guidance. Some kids need to see the big picture before breaking things down into smaller parts and other kids learn best in logical steps and want rules for doing new tasks.

How does your child process information?

Some kids learn best by seeing. Reading, observing pictures, and studying diagrams--these are visual learners (watchers). Jonah is here!
Some kids strength is hearing explanations and talking about the information--these are auditory learners (talkers). Samuel fits in here!
Other kids need to get their muscles, movement, and touch involved in the learning process by doing an experiment, rehearsing, or taking an active approach--these are kinesthestic learners (doers).
Some kids use combinations of all three methods of learning.

The book goes on to talk about the benefits of determining a person's unique style of learning and even says that siblings rarely have the exact same style of learning. (At least with 4 kids 2 of them should have the same learning style!)

Its a lot of information. I am still figuring all of this stuff out. But the stuff that I have read so far reaffirms my decision last week to pull Wyatt out of his preschool and put him into a different preschool. It was a tough decision. But the new preschool is less structured and he will get more individual attention. I don't think that we are going to regret the decision. I am still struggling to help him with his letters at home though, which is why I bid on and won this awesome train set. You know what they say...if you can't beat 'em... join 'em!