If you know a little about learning styles and working styles, you will know that learning and working in a style that clashes with your own unique preferences will - inevitably - make you feel stressed and tired.
However, recent research indicates that the problem goes a lot deeper than that. Dr Nakamori Suganuma, of Osaka University, Japan, and a lead researcher into the issue, discovered that people who spend more pre-bedtime hours using the Internet or watching television are more likely to report that they don't get enough sleep.
This is even though they sleep as long (or almost as long) as people who spend fewer pre-bedtime hours in front of a computer or television screen, because longer Internet and television use before bedtime did not correlate with getting less actual sleep.
The research, therefore, implies that electronic media have an effect on sleep demand and sleep quality, either making the users THINK they’ve had too little sleep whereas in fact they may have had enough, or causing the users to need more sleep than those who don’t use computers and TV in the pre-bedtime hours.
So, what does that have to do with learning styles? Quite simply, your learning style will often dictate how much TV you will watch and how long you will spend on the computer. If you are predisposed towards e-learning, for example, chances are, you will spend more time on the computer than somebody who is not.
Also, learning styles are responsible - to a large extent - for determining WHEN you will use the computer and watch TV, particularly for work and learning purposes.
To find out what your learning style is and whether it might be responsible for making you crave more sleep, please click here.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Learning Styles: is your child too tired to learn?
Many children fail to achieve their potential at school because they run low on energy. Often, this is a direct result of mismatched learning styles, in other words, your child learns in a way that’s not accommodated at their school.
We all have an optimal way in which to absorb new and difficult concepts. If we are continually introduced to new ideas in a way that’s not the best for us, we will experience stress and fatigue. What’s more, when we are taught in a way that’s incompatible with our learning style, we will often fail to learn at all.
Many aspects constitute a person’s individual learning style: the time of day, the learning group, the way in which the information is presented (visually or orally), whether the teacher is using details or using the big picture, how bright the classroom light is, how warm the environment, how strict the structure - to mention just a few. Change but one of those elements into something that interferes with your child’s learning style, and the child will have to expand more energy in order to concentrate on his or her learning.
If you think your child’s learning style may be different to the traditional learning style expected at most places of learning, here is a scientifically researched way of finding out for sure: http://www.creativelearningcentre.com/products/learning-style-analysis/.
In addition to accommodating your child’s learning style, here are a few tips to help them replenish their energy levels:
· A nutritious low GI breakfast,
· Lunchbox packed with low GI snacks,
· Drinks plenty of water,
· Enough sleep at night,
· Keeping physically fit,
· Doing energising exercises (please contact us to find out more about them).
We all have an optimal way in which to absorb new and difficult concepts. If we are continually introduced to new ideas in a way that’s not the best for us, we will experience stress and fatigue. What’s more, when we are taught in a way that’s incompatible with our learning style, we will often fail to learn at all.
Many aspects constitute a person’s individual learning style: the time of day, the learning group, the way in which the information is presented (visually or orally), whether the teacher is using details or using the big picture, how bright the classroom light is, how warm the environment, how strict the structure - to mention just a few. Change but one of those elements into something that interferes with your child’s learning style, and the child will have to expand more energy in order to concentrate on his or her learning.
If you think your child’s learning style may be different to the traditional learning style expected at most places of learning, here is a scientifically researched way of finding out for sure: http://www.creativelearningcentre.com/products/learning-style-analysis/.
In addition to accommodating your child’s learning style, here are a few tips to help them replenish their energy levels:
· A nutritious low GI breakfast,
· Lunchbox packed with low GI snacks,
· Drinks plenty of water,
· Enough sleep at night,
· Keeping physically fit,
· Doing energising exercises (please contact us to find out more about them).
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Learning Style Homework Tips
Learning Style Homework Tips
Homework can be a tricky area for parents. How do you prevent it from turning into a battlefield? Learning styles, in particular the learning style of your child, holds many of the answers.
Children, especially holistic children, need to know why they have to do homework. What’s the benefit of doing something at home that you’ve just done in class? How does homework fit into the general scheme of their education? Explain to your children that homework is important to reinforce skills that have been taught at school. It also gives teachers a chance to monitor the students’ progress. If the children allow it, homework can also be a great way to learn to work independently!
Analytic children, on the other hand, probably aren’t as interested in the big picture. If they refuse to do homework, it’s probably because the task at hand seems too big and they have trouble breaking it into manageable details. Help them organise the work into step-by-step portions and sub-tasks. Create a list of all the things that have to be done that day and let the child tick them off as they go along.
If you’re not sure whether your child is holistic or analytic, please take the quick test by clicking on this link: http://www.creativelearningcentre.com/products/learning-style-analysis/.
Bear in mind that you need to set up an appropriate environment and atmosphere for doing homework. Setting aside a specific place to do homework is a good idea (please see the tips on how to create an optimal study environment), but again, for some children this may be a quiet corner, while for others it could be the family room with the music on and papers strewn everywhere. Also, children who thrive on variety (see their LSA results) might like the study area moved or redecorated several times a month.
Some children like to have parents involved in their school life and in their homework. This doesn’t mean that parents do the work that their children are supposed to do - showing interest in what your child is learning at present and what their assignment involves may be enough. Your child might like you to give them a quick test at the end to see that they’ve understood the work. Other children, however, may have a different learning style, one that is conducive to working without parental supervision.
Setting a specific time for doing homework works well if you can tailor it to your children’s “time of day” preference based on their LSA results, but you have to be realistic about what you have available: if your child’s preference is for early morning learning, this will usually clash with the school’s timetable during the week, and you might not want to pile every weekend morning with homework!
If your child has a strong preference for morning learning, and a strong non-preference for afternoon and evening learning, you might have to discuss this with the teacher. Show them the child’s LSA report and ask how you can work together to combat the homework blues.
To check your children’s LSA results, here is that link again: http://www.creativelearningcentre.com/products/learning-style-analysis.
Homework can be a tricky area for parents. How do you prevent it from turning into a battlefield? Learning styles, in particular the learning style of your child, holds many of the answers.
Children, especially holistic children, need to know why they have to do homework. What’s the benefit of doing something at home that you’ve just done in class? How does homework fit into the general scheme of their education? Explain to your children that homework is important to reinforce skills that have been taught at school. It also gives teachers a chance to monitor the students’ progress. If the children allow it, homework can also be a great way to learn to work independently!
Analytic children, on the other hand, probably aren’t as interested in the big picture. If they refuse to do homework, it’s probably because the task at hand seems too big and they have trouble breaking it into manageable details. Help them organise the work into step-by-step portions and sub-tasks. Create a list of all the things that have to be done that day and let the child tick them off as they go along.
If you’re not sure whether your child is holistic or analytic, please take the quick test by clicking on this link: http://www.creativelearningcentre.com/products/learning-style-analysis/.
Bear in mind that you need to set up an appropriate environment and atmosphere for doing homework. Setting aside a specific place to do homework is a good idea (please see the tips on how to create an optimal study environment), but again, for some children this may be a quiet corner, while for others it could be the family room with the music on and papers strewn everywhere. Also, children who thrive on variety (see their LSA results) might like the study area moved or redecorated several times a month.
Some children like to have parents involved in their school life and in their homework. This doesn’t mean that parents do the work that their children are supposed to do - showing interest in what your child is learning at present and what their assignment involves may be enough. Your child might like you to give them a quick test at the end to see that they’ve understood the work. Other children, however, may have a different learning style, one that is conducive to working without parental supervision.
Setting a specific time for doing homework works well if you can tailor it to your children’s “time of day” preference based on their LSA results, but you have to be realistic about what you have available: if your child’s preference is for early morning learning, this will usually clash with the school’s timetable during the week, and you might not want to pile every weekend morning with homework!
If your child has a strong preference for morning learning, and a strong non-preference for afternoon and evening learning, you might have to discuss this with the teacher. Show them the child’s LSA report and ask how you can work together to combat the homework blues.
To check your children’s LSA results, here is that link again: http://www.creativelearningcentre.com/products/learning-style-analysis.
This blog is moving...
This blog is moving to http://blogs.clc.co.nz/LearningStyles/Default.aspx. For a while, I will continue to post at both, but please update your URL.
Thursday, August 09, 2007
Learning Styles and Stress Management
Think “childhood”, and phrases such as “carefree”, “long summer days”, “doing nothing” or “fun” will instantly spring to mind. However, nothing can be further from the truth for the current generation of school-goers. In certain parts of the world, even preschoolers feel the pressure to achieve, and thus to secure a place in a reputable private education institution.
Some schools cite education and achievement as their top values. Others prefer to concentrate on learning through fun, treating every child as an individual with a unique learning style, and offering an all-rounded learning option that includes as much dancing as it does arithmetic.
The world out there is tough and competitive. Do you shelter your children and let them enjoy life as long as they can, or do you start grooming them for the rat race in kindergarten? That’s the choice that every parent has to make individually.
Meanwhile, if you think that your child is feeling stressed, their own learning style can give you a clue as to how to help them. Highly analytic children will want to retreat and solve the problem by themselves, while highly holistic children will want to discuss the issue with you. To find out how to deal with your child’s stress, please analyse their learning style on http://www.creativelearningcentre.com/products/learning-style-analysis/.
Some ideas that might also appeal to your child include:
1. Listening to music with a beat that is slower than their heart rate.
2. Taking a walk together - a forest or a beach will work particularly well.
3. Essential oils such as lavender, chamomile, mandarin or rose have a calming effect - you can burn them in the room if you have a burner or dab them directly onto the wrist.
4. A comforting healthy snack, like low-fat low-sugar apple pie or cocoa.
5. Distraction: ask your child what the best thing was that she saw or did today.
Just as prevention is better than cure in the area of physical health, so it is with stress. If your child does not thrive on achievement, it’s best not to push them. To check, do their Learning Style Analysis on http://www.creativelearningcentre.com/products/learning-style-analysis/.
Some schools cite education and achievement as their top values. Others prefer to concentrate on learning through fun, treating every child as an individual with a unique learning style, and offering an all-rounded learning option that includes as much dancing as it does arithmetic.
The world out there is tough and competitive. Do you shelter your children and let them enjoy life as long as they can, or do you start grooming them for the rat race in kindergarten? That’s the choice that every parent has to make individually.
Meanwhile, if you think that your child is feeling stressed, their own learning style can give you a clue as to how to help them. Highly analytic children will want to retreat and solve the problem by themselves, while highly holistic children will want to discuss the issue with you. To find out how to deal with your child’s stress, please analyse their learning style on http://www.creativelearningcentre.com/products/learning-style-analysis/.
Some ideas that might also appeal to your child include:
1. Listening to music with a beat that is slower than their heart rate.
2. Taking a walk together - a forest or a beach will work particularly well.
3. Essential oils such as lavender, chamomile, mandarin or rose have a calming effect - you can burn them in the room if you have a burner or dab them directly onto the wrist.
4. A comforting healthy snack, like low-fat low-sugar apple pie or cocoa.
5. Distraction: ask your child what the best thing was that she saw or did today.
Just as prevention is better than cure in the area of physical health, so it is with stress. If your child does not thrive on achievement, it’s best not to push them. To check, do their Learning Style Analysis on http://www.creativelearningcentre.com/products/learning-style-analysis/.
Thursday, August 02, 2007
Learning Styles and Maths
Mathematics is probably the only school subject that has a reputation for being “difficult”. Although most children of school-going age can count comfortably from one to ten, some of them will not understand that the rhyme onetwothreefourfivesixseveneightnineten actually refers to the action of counting, and they don’t know that “two” is more than “one” even if they understand that “two lollies in Jane’s hand” is more than “one lolly in my hand”.
Thus, some children begin their first lesson in Maths on a sour note of “I don’t understand” and “it’s too difficult”. And even if they manage to sail through the arithmetic side of things, there are things like Geometry to trip up those good at numbers.
Children with a preference for sequential information processing will probably tend to do better in arithmetic, which is usually introduced at the beginning of the child’s maths career. By the time they hit concepts more easily understood by a simultaneous mind (geometric patterns, abstract algebra and imaginary numbers), they probably firmly believe that they are “no good at maths”.
This is why it’s so important to get help as early as possible. As soon as your child turns 5, you can use the Learning Style Analysis Junior MINI tool to determine whether they are sequential or simultaneous thinkers. The tool will also show you whether they are good at absorbing visual information (a very useful skill when it comes to geometry and trigonometry), whether they would learn well with word sums and real-life examples, and how best to motivate them in their learning.
The Learning Style Analysis Junior MINI report will also show you how to do revision and homework with your child in a way that’s most beneficial to them. Click here for more information: http://www.creativelearningcentre.com/products/learning-style-analysis/about.html.
Thus, some children begin their first lesson in Maths on a sour note of “I don’t understand” and “it’s too difficult”. And even if they manage to sail through the arithmetic side of things, there are things like Geometry to trip up those good at numbers.
Children with a preference for sequential information processing will probably tend to do better in arithmetic, which is usually introduced at the beginning of the child’s maths career. By the time they hit concepts more easily understood by a simultaneous mind (geometric patterns, abstract algebra and imaginary numbers), they probably firmly believe that they are “no good at maths”.
This is why it’s so important to get help as early as possible. As soon as your child turns 5, you can use the Learning Style Analysis Junior MINI tool to determine whether they are sequential or simultaneous thinkers. The tool will also show you whether they are good at absorbing visual information (a very useful skill when it comes to geometry and trigonometry), whether they would learn well with word sums and real-life examples, and how best to motivate them in their learning.
The Learning Style Analysis Junior MINI report will also show you how to do revision and homework with your child in a way that’s most beneficial to them. Click here for more information: http://www.creativelearningcentre.com/products/learning-style-analysis/about.html.
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