Learning Styles and Raising Smart Children

Your child’s learning style is the way in which they understand and remember new concepts.


In November 2007, an article in the Scientific American claimed they’d cracked the secret of raising smart children (http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=the-secret-to-raising-smart-kids&print=true).

All you need, it seems, is to NOT praise your children’s intelligence.

Praise their diligence and hard work instead.

The reasoning is simple: there is very little a child can do to improve their inborn intelligence, however, there is something they can do about the amount of effort and enthusiasm they put into their learning.

Furthermore, if a child believes their lack of success at school is due to their lack of brainpower, they will get de-motivated. On the other hand, if a child believes their lack of success at school is due to their lack of conscientiousness, they will probably try harder next time.

So how does that tie in with Learning Styles?

If you look at the various elements in the Learning Style Pyramid, you will see that Motivation and Persistence are two of the Attitudes that determine a child’s individual learning style.

If you child has a need for being externally motivated, they will thrive on praise and external rewards.

If your child’s persistence is fluctuating or low, you will need to address the reasons: do they believe schoolwork is too hard, do they think they are not intelligent enough, or is it that they don’t see the point of seeing a task through?


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