Learning Styles Visual Learners Auditory Learners Tactile/Kinesthetic Learners

1. Learning Styles • Visual Learners • Auditory Learners • Tactile/Kinesthetic Learners

2. Visual Learner Characteristics • Visual learners are those who learn through seeing things. A visual learner: • Is good at spelling but forgets names • Needs quiet study time • Has to think awhile before understanding lecture • Is good at spelling • Likes colors & fashion • Understands/likes charts • Is good with sign language

3. Auditory Learner Characteristics Auditory Learners are those who learn best through hearing things • Remembers names • Notices sound effects in movies • Enjoys music • Is good at grammar and foreign language • Reads slowly • Follows spoken directions well • Can't keep quiet for long period • Likes to read to self out loud • Likes oral reports • Is good at explaining • Enjoys acting, being on stage • Is good in study groups

4. Kinesthetic Learner Characteristics • Kinesthetic learners are those who learn through experiencing/doing things.You may be a kinesthetic learner if you are someone who: • Can't sit still for long • Is not great at spelling • Does not have great handwriting • Likes science lab • Studies with loud music on • Likes adventure books, movies • Likes role playing • Takes breaks when studying • Builds models • Is involved in martial arts, dance • Is fidgety during lectures • Is good at sports

5. Strategies that benefit each type of learner:

6. Visual Learners: • Use visual materials such as pictures, charts, maps, graphs, etc. • Have a clear view of your teachers when they are speaking so you can see their body language and facial expression • Use color to highlight important points in text • Take notes or ask your teacher to provide handouts • Illustrate your ideas as a picture or brainstorming bubble before writing them down • Write a story and illustrate it • Make outlines of everything! • Study in a quiet place away from verbal disturbances • Read illustrated books • Visualize information as a picture to aid memorization • Draw a map of events in history or draw scientific process. • Copy what's on the board.

7. Auditory Learners: • make speeches and presentations • use a tape recorder during lectures while taking notes • read text out aloud • create musical jingles to aid memorization • create mnemonics to aid memorization • discuss your ideas verbally • dictate to someone while they write down your thoughts • use verbal analogies, and story telling to demonstrate your point • Using word association to remember facts and lines • Repeating facts with eyes closed

8. Tactile/Kinesthetic Learners: • study in short blocks • move around to learn new things (e.g. read while on an exercise bike, mold a piece of clay to learn a new concept) • work at a standing position • chew gum while studying • use bright colors to highlight reading material • dress up your work space with posters • skim through reading material to get a rough idea what it is about before settling down to read it in detail. • Role playing • Studying with others • Using memory games • Using flash cards to memorize

9. Effects of Learning Style Awareness Nelson and colleagues (1993) examined the effects of a learning style intervention with more than 1,000 college students. This investigation revealed significantly higher grade-point-averages and improved attitudes for students made aware of their learning style preferences and then provided with suggestions for accommodating those preferences when studying and completing assignments. The findings of Cook (1989) and Nelson et al. (1993)were corroborated by Lenehan et al. (1994) who also reported significant increases in grade-point-averages and improved attitudes for students who had been provided homework/study prescriptions based on their individual learning style preferences. NATIONAL FORUM OF SPECIAL EDUCATION JOURNAL

10. Executive function • The neuropsychological concept referring to the high-level cognitive processes required to plan and direct activities, including task initiation and follow-through, working memory, sustained attention, performance monitoring, inhibition of impulses, and goal-directed persistence.

11. Executive Skills: Definitions •Response Inhibition: The ability to think before you act – to evaluate a situation and how our behavior might impact it. •Working Memory: The ability to hold information in memory while performing complex tasks. •Emotional Control: The ability to manage emotions in order to achieve goals, complete tasks, or control and direct behavior.

12. Executive Skills: Definitions •Sustained Attention: The capacity to maintain attention to a situation or task in spite of distractibility, fatigue, or boredom. •Task Initiation: The ability to begin projects without undue procrastination, in an efficient or timely fashion. •Planning/Prioritization: The ability to create a roadmap to reach a goal or to complete a task. It also involves being able to make decisions about what’s important to focus on and what’s not important. •Organization: The ability to create and maintain systems to keep track of information or materials.

13. Executive Skills: Definitions •Time Management: The capacity to estimate how much time one has, how to allocate it, and how to stay within time limits and deadlines. It also involves a sense that time is important. •Flexibility: The ability to revise plans in the face of obstacles, setbacks, new information or mistakes. It relates to an adaptability to changing conditions. •Goal-directed persistence: The capacity to have a goal, follow through to the completion of the goal, and not be put off by or distracted by competing interests. •Metacognition: The ability to stand back and take a birds-eye view of oneself in a situation. It is an ability to observe how you problem solve. It also includes self-monitoring and self-evaluative skills (e.g., asking yourself, “How am I doing? or How did I do?”).

15. Goal Setting Set goals that are specific, flexible, realistic and achievable Understand step-by-step process for reaching goals School Home +I can complete my Science project by Friday if I do 3 steps each night (record each step in planner) +I will make an appointment to see math teacher once a week until I bring my grade up to a B +If I get my homework done before dinner, I can... +I will make a “to-do” list in my planner every evening “Nobody ever plans to fail; but they do fail to plan.” Rick LeVoie