Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

What's your child's dominant learning style? This week on Home School Heartbeat, we've been discussing the three styles of learning. Join us today as Michael Farris, Chairman and General Counsel of Home School Legal Defense Association, discusses kinesthetic learners.

Michael Farris:

When children are very young, they learn primarily through hands-on experimentation. As they grow, many children develop skills in learning through sight and hearing. However, some children retain their strong tendency toward learning through their sense of touch. These children are known as kinesthetic, or tactile, learners.

If your child is a kinesthetic learner, he is active and hands-on about everything, including learning. He is probably very athletic, energetic, and uses lots of gestures when talking. Of all your children, he's the one that just can't seem to sit still. He's in perpetual motion and touches almost everything he sees.

Your kinesthetic learner may be your greatest teaching challenge, simply because most traditional curriculum isn't designed for him. Workbooks provide visual learners with things to see, and storybooks give auditory learners things to hear, but you're going to have to be creative in giving your kinesthetic learner things to touch. Use real pennies or an abacus in teaching math. Don't just tell him about evaporation; put some water on to boil and let him feel it!

Of course, learning has to involve seeing and hearing as well as touching. But if you emphasize your child's God-given traits, you increase his real love for learning. This is Michael Farris.