Learning Styles and Brain Gender

How does a Learning Style influence the gender of your brain? Or is it the other way round, and the gender influences your Learning Style?

Situation 1
You ask a man for directions. He’s likely to draw you a map. His directions will have the exact number of streets you cross before you turn (“second to the left then third to the right”). His Learning Style is probably analytic and he is good at special orientation.

In contrast, if you ask a woman for directions, she’s more likely to orient you according to landmarks such as the bookstore, the bank and “the big blue canopy”. Her Learning Style is most likely visual and holistic.

(What is your Learning Style? Click here to begin your adventure.)

Situation 2
Imagine a group of three boys of school-going age. One of the boys has a cool toy, much-coveted by them all. What do you think will happen? You’re right: the other two boys will ask for the toy, grab at it, or even chase the boy who has it.

Now imagine the same group, only with three girls, one of whom is holding the toy. Can you guess what the other two girls are going to do? Research reveals that the two girls will punish the holder of the toy by excluding her from their clique, whispering behind her back or even hiding from her.

Both groups are competitive, both groups are hierarchical. Boys, however, rely on physical advantages (for evolution reasons, many males have a kinesthetic Learning Style), while girls form social groups of power (for evolution reasons, many females have a peers-oriented Learning Style).

For more information on Learning Styles, please take a look here.

We all know that males and females often think very differently. The commonly accepted scientific explanation is a mixture of sociological conditioning and the action of adult sex hormones. But in a recent article, New Scientist challenged the assumption that the basic architecture of the brain and its fundamental workings are the same for both sexes:
“Research is revealing that male and female brains are built from markedly different genetic blueprints, which create numerous anatomical differences. There are also differences in the circuitry that wires them up and the chemicals that transmit messages between neurons. All this is pointing towards the conclusion that there is not just one kind of human brain, but two.”

(What is your brain’s gender? Click here to find out.)

Your Child’s Spelling Problems and Learning Styles

If your child is struggling with spelling (particularly in English which is notoriously complex to spell, but also in other languages), it does not mean that they are lazy or a slow learner.

The most likely cause of your child’s lack of progress is their mismatched learning style.

Think about the way your child’s spelling is tested: are they expected to write the word down, or recite it letter by letter? Think about the way your child’s spelling is taught: visually from a book, or by listening to the teacher spell it letter by letter? (Click here for the article “Help, my teacher doesn’t know my learning style”.)

If your child has a non-preference for learning visually, learning spelling by reading words in a book is no good. Similarly, if your child is not auditory, learning letter by letter will not produce results.

(What is your child’s preferred learning style?)

Other potential causes of poor spelling include:

· Dysgraphia (a difficulty writing coherently, if at all, regardless of ability to read, unusual pencil grip),
· Dyslexia (especially if the child has good ideas for writing but a poor ability to write them down).

Your Creative Child (and her Learning Style)

Jessica is a lovely girl with an active imagination. Her drawings are superb and she has a gift of story telling. However, she needs to work on paying attention in class and keeping to the task at hand, as she’s easily distracted and hardly ever finishes her work.

Does your son or daughter’s school report card read something like that? Then you have a creative child on your hands.

Creative children typically have a highly holistic learning style, characterised by the following:
· thinking outside the box
· daydreaming
· ability to do several things at once
· lack of concern for details in favour of the big idea
· trouble with time limits and deadlines.

(To analyse your child’s learning style, please have a look at http://www.creativelearningcentre.com/Products/Learning-Style-Analysis/.)

Because most schools are geared towards children whose learning style is analytic (and thus quite the reverse of a holistic style), your creative child might struggle to flourish in the traditional education system. If not properly stimulated and rewarded, a creative child might lose interest in schoolwork and, in time, become withdrawn or rebellious.

Does your child’s learning style stand in the way of academic success? Here’s how you can help.

Stress, Burnout and Multitasking

Stress, Burnout and Multitasking

“There is time enough for everything in the course of the day, if you do but one thing at once, but there is not time enough in the year, if you will do two things at a time.”

That’s what Lord Chesterfield thought about multitasking almost 300 years ago. Do his words contain age-old wisdom, or are they hopelessly outdated in our world of uber-technology?

In 2005, a research study conducted by the Institute of Psychiatry at the University of London, reported that, “Workers distracted by e-mail and phone calls suffer a fall in IQ more than twice that found in marijuana smokers.”

I only have one question: did the designers of the research study check the participants’ working style (in particular, whether their preference for information processing was simultaneous or sequential)? At a guess, they did not, or the result would have looked totally different.

(To find out whether you are a simultaneous information processor who thrives on multitasking, or a sequential information processor who does not, please have a look at http://www.creativelearningcentre.com/Products/Working-Style-Analysis/.)

So why is that important? In simple terms, we cannot measure all people with the same yardstick, nor should you compare apples and pears. To say that multitasking is bad for a person’s productivity is like saying that everybody should wear shoe size 11 because that’s the most comfortable shoe size around.

Yes, it’s true that, for some people, multitasking leads to stress and burnout.

It’s equally true that, for some people, concentrating on a single task results in boredom, creativity block and poor productivity.

Our Working Style Analysis tools can help you determine your optimal working conditions. Do you know whether multitasking is good for you? Do you know whether the light at your office makes you lethargic or irritable? Do you know your working style? If not, here’s how to find out.

Reading problems: why children struggle

Many factors may make the task of learning to read difficult for children:
· Learning to read a language that’s not phonetic (e.g., English).
· Learning to read in a second language.
· Home culture not seeing books or stories as a priority.
· Child not interested in the books they have access to (most boys prefer non-fiction, while most girls prefer fiction - especially if it involves ponies and fairies).
· Parents unaware of the importance of playing word games with their children.
· Dyslexia.
· Dyspraxia.
· Your child’s learning style not being compatible with the teaching methods at their school.

(To analyse your child’s learning style, please have a look at http://www.creativelearningcentre.com/Products/Learning-Style-Analysis/.)

When you find out that your child’s reading progress is below expectation, the first step is to find out which area seems to be the challenge:
· Letter recognition.
· Word recognition.
· Reading out loud.
· Reading comprehension.
· Dictation (writing a word you hear).

If your child is highly visual, for example, chances are, their letter recognition may be good. But if they are tactile, they may need to learn the shape of letters by tracing them in the sand.

Children who are auditory may prefer to spell words out loud rather than write them down.

Children who have difficulty following a story line may be dyslexic, but they may also be highly holistic.

Do you know your child’s learning style? If not, here’s how to find out.

Learning Styles and the Art of Listening

· Understanding
· Affirmation
· Validation
· Appreciation
· Job well done
are only some of the benefits of listening effectively.

In addition, listening - when done right - creates an atmosphere of love, trust and respect.

Although the traditional image of a good listener is somebody who looks at you and sits still except for nodding encouragingly, it is not an image of somebody who is necessarily taking in information.

Everybody has their own unique listening style. You yourself may listen best while playing with your pen, or staring at the floor, or bustling around the room, or even lying back in the chair with your eyes closed (try to explain that one to your boss without a printout of your Working Style Analysis report). You may prefer to know the conclusion before you want to hear the details of the process. Even the amount of light in the room may affect the success of your listening endeavours.

(Does your listening style have a preference for fiddling or pacing? Click here to find out.)

When listening, it’s often best to utilise as many senses as possible: use the ears to hear the message, the eyes to read body language, imagination to visualise the message, intuition to determine what the speaker is actually saying and the mouth to repeat it all back to make sure you’ve understood correctly.

Happy listening!


To analyse your communications style, have a look here.

Learning Styles in “Fight or Flight” Mode

Fact 1:
Some Learning Style elements are biological, others are shaped throughout our lives.

Fact 2:
Sometimes circumstances force us to bend our natural Learning Style to suit our situation, particularly in an area where we have a natural flexibility or adaptability. (If you haven’t had your Learning Style professionally assessed, you may assume that you are analytic, for example, whereas your real style is more holistic by nature.)

Fact 3:
When we are under severe stress, or exhausted, or unwell, or under the influence of even moderate amounts of alcohol - in other words, when we are in a “fight or flight” situation - our Learning Style tends to revert back to our inherent mode of information-intake.

What can cause such levels of stress?
· Driving in traffic.
· Working night shifts when you are not a night person.
· Changing jobs.
· Moving to another city or country.
· Becoming a parent.
· Having a permanently stressful job (CEO, fire fighter, policeman).

Can you remember the last time you had your learning or working style assessed? Were you in a stressful or a relaxing phase of your life? Was it different to your situation today?

It may be worth your while to do the assessment again.