Learning Styles - The Cure For Underachievement

The younger children are, the more right-brain dominant they are; therefore they need more holistic, right-brain teaching methods because their analytical brain-processing skills are not yet developed and in many people (research estimates approximately two thirds of the Western population) holistic brain-processing remains the preferred thinking style throughout life. Most people can apply analytical thinking processes if they have to, but this makes learning harder and information storage much more difficult for them.

However, if a school system, which is based on analytical teaching methods, forces young people to do all their learning analytically (as this is the preferred teaching style, especially in academic subjects in most of our high schools) the result is that such a system sets up students for failure - especially those whose brain-processing is strongly holistic.

Another factor which contributes to the mismatch between teaching and learning styles is the well researched fact that teachers are strongly analytical in their approaches, more so in high schools than in primary schools (and even more in tertiary education) and cannot imagine that their specific subject area could be studied and presented holistically, in a more right-brain way. It is just not in their thinking! Such teachers also seem to have great difficulties in accepting that there is more than one way to learn anything, because due to their own sequential thinking processes, analytics believe 'their' way is the best and the only one.

And that false belief causes holistic students to fail, mainly in analytical subjects such as mathematics, science, economics, etc, which causes boredom and frustration, has a negative effect on their overall performance, and seems to be the main reason for behaviour and learning problems, which then lead to social problems among young adolescents.

Is your child analytic or holistic? Find out using our professional Learning Style Analysis instruments.

Never Too Late To Learn Your Learning Style

According to research, doing badly in primary school does not always prevent you from getting good results further down your education path. A study which has followed the lives of 500 young people throughout their school careers reveals that it's never too late to seek support from parents and teachers to improve your grades.

What's the starting point in supporting a child who wants to do better at school?
Determine their Learning Style, that unique way in which they learn best.

The Competent Learners study followed the students' progress from just before they started school until they turned 16. It found that over 50% of the children who under-performed as 8-year-olds still went on to graduating from high school.

"The period from age 10-14 appears to be a time when it is particularly important for teachers and parents to watch for signs that children are turning away from school and learning," the study concluded.

What can you do to keep the students focussed on school work? Make sure they're taught according to their Learning Style so their attention span doesn't waver.

A child allowed to learn their way will be happier, better adjusted, better behaved and, never forget, will achieve their potential at school.

Analyse your child's learning style today.

Communication Disorders and Learning Styles

Difficulties pronouncing sounds and stuttering are examples of speech disorders. Mild cases can be sorted by a Speech Clinic, elocution lessons, drama classes or Young Toastmasters Club.


Trouble understanding others and trouble sharing ideas are examples of language disorders. Contact your local speech and language therapist for assessment and treatment.

Difficulty sustaining attention when somebody else is talking may be a sign of ADHD, or a mild hearing loss, or a non-preference in the auditory sensory modality of your Learning Style. Please contact us if we can help you make sense out of your learning strengths.

Learning Styles and Learning Problems

Sometimes your child's learning problems will not be caused by their learning style, although they may be made be co-related. For example, if your child's learning style is auditory and they have a hearing issue, the learning problem will be magnified.

Vision Problems
Your child’s learning issues may be due to poor vision, easily corrected by a behavioural optometrist with eyeglasses or special eye muscle exercises.


Eye teaming: the brain can't combine input from both eyes, resulting in double vision. Largely undiagnosed or misdiagnosed as dyslexia.


Children with tracking problems can't control their eye movements to follow the line of print when reading.


Focus: eyes get tired during reading and cannot stay on the print


Longsighted children cannot see detail at close range (the book).


Shortsighted child cannot see detail at a distance (the whiteboard). This usually manifests at age 7 up and goes undetected. Warning signs: a good student loses interest in schoolwork, doesn’t progress or becomes disruptive.


Vision perception problems: the child experiences difficulties in analysing and giving meaning to what they see.


Fine motor eye-hand coordination problems cause poor handwriting and, as time progresses, lack of learning progress.


If reading difficulties persist after optometric problems have been corrected or excluded, the child should be referred for Irlen Syndrome testing to see if they can benefit from reading through a coloured filter.



Hearing issues
Both learning and behavioural issues may be caused by hearing problems. Schools don’t test hearing routinely and may even misdiagnose mild hearing loss as ADHD.


If your child’s hearing is fine and they’re not ADHD, their inability to listen may stem from auditory processing difficulty (normal hearing but inability to process what they hear), so consult your local audiologist.

Learning Styles and Dysgraphia

Is your child's handwriting messy? Does your child find excuses not to do written work? It could be that their learning style doesn't lend itself to writing, but it could also signify a learning disability.

A specific learning disability that affects written language, impaired letter writing by hand and spelling, usually characterised by extremely poor handwriting. It sometimes combines strong verbal but particularly poor writing skills. Copying will be slow and difficult, even if the end result is neat (which it often isn’t).


Although children with dysgraphia do not have motor control problems, they may have difficulty touching the thumb to successive fingers on the same hand.


A student with any degree of handwriting difficulty may be labeled "dysgraphic" by some educational specialists, but may or may not need special education services. Conversely, most learning disabled students experience difficulty with handwriting.


Coping strategies include the child speaking their thoughts into a voice-recording device (if their learning style lends itself to this method of producing output), learning to type, learning shorthand. Dysgraphic children should be provided with all the learning materials and notes without the need to copy anything.

The Misunderstood Child

Learning Styles are a scientific miracle cure capable of addressing many problems a child experiences at home and at school, such as homework aversion, being disruptive, being bullied, underachieving. Sometimes, however, learning difficulties are not simply a result of a mismatching learning style.

Sensory Processing Dysfunction

Dysfunction of sensory processing is a neurological problem with processing sensations. Children interpret sensation from the environment or from their bodies in an inaccurate way: sensory-seeking, sensory-avoidance and dyspraxia. All three variants have to be diagnosed by a specialist and are usually treated using sensory integration therapy (a fun process in a sensory-enriched gym with lots of swinging, spinning, tactile, visual, auditory and taste opportunities).

Sensory Seeking


Children with sensory dysfunction do not necessarily exhibit every characteristic, for example, a child with vestibular dysfunction may have poor balance but good muscle tone, or show characteristics of a dysfunction one day but not the next.

 Children with "sensory seeking" behaviour do not always process incoming sensory input. They may appear hyperactive, engage in dangerous activities (climbing too high), be unaware of pain or extra loud sounds. Their learning style will typically include tactile and/or kinesthetic preferences.

Sensory Avoidance

Children with "sensory avoidance" hate crowds, noise, dirty hands, walking on sand and being touched. Their learning style will typically not include tactile preferences.

 

Dyspraxia

Children with dyspraxia (a motor planning problem, also known as Developmental Coordination Disorder), have trouble learning new things even though they may be very intelligent. The problem is that the connections that link the brain to the rest of the body don’t work properly, and the child’s body finds it difficult to do what the brain is telling it to do. Lots of practice usually helps to master a new skill.

The dyspraxic child may display the following symptoms:

seem clumsy,

• not know today what they knew yesterday,
• not understand multiple instructions,
• be disorganised,
• lose things,
• have illegible handwriting,
• not know how to draw,
• be bright and intelligent, but fail academically.

Their learning style will typically exhibit holistic preferences.

What learning preferences does your child exhibit?

Find out.

Asthma and Learning Problems

Asthma is more than a respiratory condition that causes difficulty breathing. The latest research conducted by Canterbury University (New Zealand) shows that children with asthma are more likely to fall behind with their reading after a year of school than children without asthma. Asthma is now a recognised physical learning disability, alongside visual impairments and hearing issues.

Unlike wearing glassess to combat short-sightenessd, however, suffering from asthma has no easy medical solution. Fortunately, learning disabilities caused by asthma can be overcome with the help of learning styles. 

It's really as easy as 1,2,3:

1. Let your child answer the Learning Style Analysis questionnaire.
2. Read the report on how they like to learn.
3. Create the optimal learning environment.

You'll find you may need to change the time slot in which you schedule homework. You may need to change the room's lights or allow your child to do homework on the floor. There are many environment, physical and social elements that can affect your child's performance. They are impossible to guess without an expert tool.

Our Learning Style Analysis questionnaire is an expert tool. We invite you to use it.

Teaching The Non-Conforming Student

In last week's blog, we discussed the issues arising from parenting a non-conformist. Teaching a non-conforming student is even trickier, because you have a whole classroom of students, not only Johnny Non-Compliant.

There is no single magic solution. However, research suggests that the following techniques have a good chance of achieving positive results:

• be respectful towards the student
• be a person worthy of the student's respect
• give the student attention and positive reinforcement
• offer the student a face-saving "out" from any dispute they may be involved in
• try to satisfy as many Learning Style needs of theirs as you practically can, with the help of our LSA tools. 

Gifted students are often non-conforming, often due to their attitude of "I'm so smart I don't need to do this worksheet" or due to their history of being bored at school. If Johnny Non-Compliant is a bright child, you can overcome his frame of mind by stimulating his interests and creativity. Get him on your side by admitting that sometimes the tasks you ask him to do will be way below his capability, but you have a good reason for wanting him to do it anyway (to memorise something, to increase the speed of his performance, to teach him perseverance, to keep him busy). Ask him to help you tutor one of his peers - teaching something is often a good way of really understanding the concept on a deeper level.

Learning Difficulties - Check The Environment and Physical Needs

Do you have a child with learning difficulties in your life? Then you already know there is no miracle cure, no one-solution-fits-all answer.

Perhaps you've already gone the healthy-diet route? Eliminated junk food, increased the fruit and vegetable intake... yet the child's concentration span is shorter than an eye blink? Ask yourself the following:

• does the child seem to concentrate better when chewing?
• is the child more sluggish after lunch?
• does he/she have an intolerance to salicylates which occur naturally in even wholesome food?

The first two points can be checked easily using the Learning Style Assessment tool.

To find out more about learning styles, have a look at this excellent video featuring Barbara Prashnig.

Does it matter if girls do better than boys?

Welcome to 2011. To stimulate debate, we kick off with a controversial topic: Does it matter if girls do better than boys?

"Boys tend to do better in exams," says Professor Alan Smithers, director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at Buckingham University. "Girls apply themselves to coursework and work more consistently throughout the year."

However, research confirms that girls generally outperform boys at school, even if boys do better in maths and science. In fact, girls in all-girl schools do even better than girls in co-ed schools, while boys in all-boy schools do worse than boys in co-ed schools.

Statistics from USA are equally worrying:

• Boys average a year to a year and a half lag behind girls in reading and writing skills
• Boys represent up to 70% of children diagnosed with learning disabilities
• Boys represent 80% of children diagnosed with behavioral problems
• Boys account for 80% of high school dropouts
• Boys represent less than 44% of America's college students

If you have a boy (or a girl) in your life who is at a risk of becoming a statistic, check his (or her) learning style using our one of Learning Style Analysis instruments.

Dyslexia and Learning Styles

Dyslexia Foundation of New Zealand recognises that the left and right brain hemispheres of a person with dyslexia are wired differently to those in a non-dyslexic:

"... Dyslexia has a substantive neurobiological basis. Brain research, including studies from Yale and Auckland universities, has shown that while it is common to use the ‘verbal’ left side of our brain to understand words, dyslexic people use the ‘pictorial’ right side – making them slower to process and understand language, but stronger in creative areas like problem solving, empathy and lateral thinking."

Dyslexics tend to be top-down rather than bottom-up thinkers. This means that their Learning Style is holistic, in other words, they learn from getting the big picture or the overall idea first, and then look at the details.

Dr Sally Shaywitz, founder of the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity, identified the strengths of dyslexic information processing as:

• higher level conceptualisation
• high learning capacity
• exceptional empathy
• excellence in highly specialised areas
• "out-of-the-box thinking” which leads to new insights.

Unfortunately, those strengths come at a price. Dyslexic learners often have trouble with literacy, numeracy, decoding words and their meanings. Auditory information processing may be a challenge, together with making deadlines, planning and organising.

If you're familiar with Creative Learning's Learning Style Pyramid, you will immediately realise that dyslexic learners have a non-preference for analytic learning.

Ultimately, dyslexia can be characterised as a learning preference – based on individuals preferring to receive, process and present information in ways that make more sense to the dyslexic-wired brain, such as tactile, kinesthetic or video rather than through written or spoke words. (Please note that the preferences alone are not enough to diagnose dyslexia, as you may find many holistic tactile learners who are not dyslexic.)

Is it possible that your child's Learning Style displays dyslexic preferences? Find out today.

Watch that Maths!!!

Despite the teachers’ best efforts, some students still leave school without rudimentary numeracy skills. The message I keep hearing from parents is simple: watch the maths, because once your child falls behind on the basics, it’s a difficult journey to catch up again.

So how do you watch the maths?

• Ask your child whether she likes her maths schoolwork and whether she thinks she’s good at it.
• Ask your teacher whether your child is performing below, at, or above expectations for her age group.
• Ask yourself what your child’s Learning Style is and what sort of games you can play with her at home to boost her confidence in her ability to “get” numbers. (Have a look here to find out.)

Depending on her learning preferences, you might:

• Devise a colourful worksheet for your child to complete on a regular basis.
• Play a board game that involves numeracy skills.
• Organise a treasure hunt in the woods or on the beach (the clues are based on maths).
• Make a flip chute or an electro board together (please contact us for more information on making learning tools).

Carbon-friendly Learning Styles

Learning a Responsible Life Style

No matter what your Learning Style is, analytic or holistic, visual or tactile, impulsive or reflective, you will have heard of global warming, carbon emissions and their impact on your life style.

If you believe that your life style is ‘costing the earth’, you’re probably right.

• How much electricity do you use to do your washing, heating the house, surfing the Internet, watching the news on TV, having light in your dining room, cooking your meal, repelling mosquitoes and charging your iPod?
• How much waste do you add to the planet’s landfills?
•  Does your food come from the farm next door or from a country across the ocean? Do you know what its carbon footprint is in terms of transport?

 

Educational Aids and Toys - an Example 

Consider the latest toy or learning aid you’ve purchased. Chances are, it was made in a faraway country using a carbon-expensive production process. Chances are, it came packaged in a large box, a mixture of cardboard, plastic and millions of little wires to hold it attractively in place (the packaging probably took even more carbon emissions to make). Chances are, within a few months the toy will break and join its expensive packaging on the garbage dumb.

 

Learning Styles Are Environment-Friendly! 

Learning Styles from Prashnig Style Solutions and Creative Learning are environment-friendly. No carbon miles have been involved in their production, because the team works in a virtual office and it’s a clean process. The ready product was ported directly onto the Internet, so there was no transport cost. And because you can purchase our Learning Styles online from the comfort of your home, you don’t clock up carbon miles, either.

 

Our Offer to You 

Let us show you what learning tools to make at home (without the expensive carbon footprint) depending on your unique Learning Style. (You will need to purchase a profile credit to do your analysis online.)

Award-Winning Kung Fu Panda knew about Learning Styles

For those of you who don’t know the story (and it’s well worth seeing), here is the official summary from IMDB: “A CG-animated comedy about a lazy, irreverent slacker panda, Po, who must somehow become a Kung Fu Master in order to save the Valley of Peace from a villainous snow leopard, Tai Lung. ... Po ultimately becomes a Kung Fu hero by learning that if he believes in himself, he can do anything”.

That’s true enough. What they’ve left out is HOW Po learns the secrets of being the greatest warrior. Po loves food and he loves Kung Fu. His learning style is to strive for a food reward in order to master the ancient arts of martial arts, and he will stretch his skills to the limit and beyond in order to achieve. Simply put: as much as he loves Kung Fu, he is unable to learn it without the external reward.

So, the secret to learning well is two-fold:

• Believe in yourself
• Use your Learning Style to guide you.

Kung Fu Panda swept up film awards in 10 categories recently, so I’m sure its message is award-winning too!

(Do your children struggle at school? Read the solution here.)

 

 

 

Learning Styles and Integrated Learning Therapy

Learning Styles are often a solution in themselves:
1. You do the LSA (Learning Style Analysis) assessment.
2. You discover that your child needs a silent environment, a brightly lit room and lots of hands-on projects in order to understand new things.
3. You provide those learning conditions to your child.
4. Your child thrives and their learning achievement surpasses all expectations.

(To find out more about learning styles, please click here.)
Learning Style elements that may influence your child’s academic success at school may include the following:
· a need for mobility
· a need for background noise
· a need to talk to others in order to understand complex things
· a tactile learning style
· a kinesthetic learning style
· a non-preference for teacher authority,
· a non-preference for auditory input
· a non-preference for visual input (particularly text)
· a non-preference for structure and guidance
· and many others.

To discover your child’s learning style, please start here.

There are times, however, when Learning Styles are only the beginning of the journey. Integrated Learning Therapy is an integrated approach to help children with learning challenges such as dyslexia, dyspraxia, ADHD, Aspergers Syndrome and Autism to reach their potential. It brings together knowledge and practice from various fields, such as include neurophysiology, cognitive psychology, sensory integration and nutrition.

Because their approach considers everything within the child and his/her environment that may be a factor causing learning or behaviour difficulties, the therapist will usually begin with the child’s Learning Style Assessment.

Learning Style Analysis - Spotlight on the MINI

Learning Style Analysis Junior MINI (or LSA MINI) is one of our products designed to assess the learning styles of children as young as 5 years of age.

Of course, in many countries children don’t learn to read until they are 6 or 7 (even later if they follow the Rudolf Steiner schooling system). So how can they do the LSA MINI questionnaire?

· The most obvious solution is for the parent to read it out to their child, or for the teacher to read it out to the class one question at a time, and taking a break after every three to five questions.
· An idea that might appeal to a child’s sense of wonder is for the computer to read the questionnaire out loud (using the free speech functionality of Windows XP or Vista).
· The parent may elect to answer the questionnaire themselves, putting themselves in their child’s shoes and using the knowledge they have of their child’s behaviour patters and interests.

The LSA MINI is also a great tool for older children whose concentration span is short, children who are learning-different, and people of all ages whose command of English is more suitable to shorter, simpler phrases (please check our website to find out whether we’ve already translated our products into your home language).

What happens once all the questions have been answered? The results of the questionnaire are processed algorithmically into three comprehensive reports (one for the student, one for the parent, one for the teacher), with summaries, graphs, pictures and detailed text, including information about the child’s predisposition towards computer technology, Internet safety, giftedness and underachieving. Take a look at this free online demo of LSA MINI.

What’s to come in 2008: all our LSA Parent reports will include important facts about learning styles and ADHD, learning styles and obesity, learning styles and smoking, learning styles and computer misdemeanours, learning styles and bullying. We are committed to a better learning future for all and we believe that early knowledge equals prevention.

Happy New Year, everybody!

Learning Styles and Stereotypes

Your learning style dictates the way in which you understand and remember new concepts. The learning style will also determine the way
you communicate, work and socialise.

No wonder, then, that many people hope to generalise learning styles and classify them into familiar labels. Some of the questions you may have encountered in your learning styles journey may include:

· Are men more analytic than women?
· Are women better at communication?
· Are left-handers more artistic?
· What about tactile people and art skills?
· Do we become less holistic as we grow up?
· Is there a learning style more prevalent in either sex?

While the popular bestseller “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus” offers many useful insights into how the two genders deal with stress (insights that correspond to certain elements of learning styles), there is no confirmed research that suggests either gender is more analytic in the learning style sense.

The only thing we can say with confidence is that a disproportionately many artists are left-handed and women indeed tend to prefer warmer temperatures (see Environment Elements in the Learning Style Pyramid)!

Why are generalisations so difficult when it comes to learning styles? One of the reasons is that with 49 elements to choose from, the number of possible learning style combinations is a whopping...
355271367880050092935562133789062!

Furthermore, the jury is still out on what makes “a perfect manager” (is it a people’s person or somebody who can enforce deadlines?) - or a “natural artist” (it’s not enough to be tactile, you must also be visual and have a high persistence) - or “athletic talent”.

Besides, learning style analysis is not about labelling: it’s about the fascinating discovery of the way you operate.

To analyse your learning style, have a look at this free online demo.

Learning Styles and ADD

It is hard for parents to have their child diagnosed with ADD (attention deficit disorder). It’s harder still to make the decision to put them on medication such as Ritalin.

So before you accept somebody’s ADD label as applicable to your unruly and impetuous child, who’s acting up in school and has trouble paying attention, here is a reality check.

· Most healthy children’s attention span is shorter than the sound of their name.
· Most healthy children are impetuous (spontaneous).
· Most healthy children are a handful and will misbehave regularly.

Of course, some children are noisier than others. Some children run around more and listen less. It all has to do with their own unique learning style.

A learning style is the way in which a child understands and remembers new concepts.

If your child needs mobility for learning, he will want to pace the classroom so as to better understand the lesson. An impulsive child will shout out an answer before she hears the end of the question, potentially earning a label of hot-headed or unthinking or attention-deficient. If your child is highly kinesthetic, she will not want to be stuck between the four walls of the classroom.

Moreover, if you child’s learning style is a mismatch with the school’s teaching style, and if he has a history of being misunderstood by the teachers, he may become rebellious and unruly.

Such children are at risk of being misdiagnosed with ADD.

To find out your child’s learning style, have a look at this free online demo.

Learning Styles 100

Did you know that there were at least 100 reasons to know your child’s learning style? To conserve space, however, we will mention only the top 10:
1. Your child’s learning style is the optimal way in which she understands new concepts.
2. A learning style consists of learning needs that should be met in order to ensure learning success.
3. A learning style also consists of learning non-preferences which - when violated - can lead to the child’s lack of interest in new material, failure to progress and disrespect for teachers and the school system.
4. Your child’s learning style can tell you whether she is a gifted student or an underachiever.
5. It can alert you to her likely behaviour on the Internet.
6. It can predict whether your child will be likely to develop a smoking habit.
7. It provides indicators as to whether the child could be in danger of becoming overweight.
8. Understanding your child’s learning style helps you turn homework into home-fun.
9. It helps your child build her self-awareness and increase her self-esteem.
10. It helps prevent misunderstandings and communication gaps.

That's only 10 out of 100 good reasons to purchase a LSA for your child.

Speaking of the number 100, it’s hard to believe that this is our 100th blog post. We’d like you to celebrate the centenary with us, and what better way than to make it possible for you to discover your child’s learning style?

This is why we are extending this special offer to you: buy a Learning Style Analysis (LSA) Mini Complete before the end of November 2007, and we will throw in the Learning Style Manual as a free bonus to the first 100 people who respond.

All you need to do in order to claim your gift is enter this code when purchasing your LSA MINI Complete online: 4CE6WPB.

Learning Styles and Learning Difficulties

• Is your child bored at school?
• Does homework become a daily battlefield?
• Has the teacher ever mentioned that your child tends to be disruptive or undisciplined in class?
• Are your child’s school results a poor reflection on the child’s intelligence and ability?
• Has your child been diagnosed with ADD (ADHD) and you feel uncomfortable with that diagnosis?
• Is your child’s reading level below expectation?
• Is maths difficult?
  
  If you said ‘yes’ to any of the above points, your child may be experiencing a mismatch between her learning style and the way in which the school is teaching the curriculum.
  
  
  Your learning style dictates the way in which you understand and remember new concepts.
  
  Some of the factors that affect your child’s learning style, and therefore her learning success, include:
  * Her need for snacking during the learning process
  * The amount of real or artificial light in the room
  * The presence (or absence) of background noise in the room
  * Your child’s need for adult supervision or for learning in a group
  * Your child’s preferred sense or senses for information intake
  * … and many others.
  
  Ultimately, if your child’s learning style needs are not satisfied, she will experience learning difficulties. She may become unenthusiastic about learning new things, her self-confidence will plunge (she may start to believe she is ‘stupid’ or ‘slow’), her attitude may become rebellious or apathetic.
  
  To find out your child’s learning style, have a look at this free online demo.