Children's work - catering for different learning styles

You can read large books about learning styles, or even study it at college, but the basics can be summed up in one phrase:

Different people learn in different ways.

Actually, it’s perhaps better to say that different people learn best in different ways. So most of us learn a bit no matter how something is taught, but we will learn best through whichever style suits us the most.

Roughly speaking, there are three learning styles:

• Some people learn best by listening (auditory learning)
• Some people learn best by looking (visual learning)
• Some people learn best by doing (kinesthetic learning)

As leaders, we tend to teach in our own preferred learning style – so an auditory learner will include lots of up-front speaking, a visual learner uses plenty of visual aids, a kinesthetic learner will plan lots of activities. This suits the children who like to learn the same way we do, but is less helpful for the rest.

So as we put a session together, it’s good to aim for a range of learning styles - a mix of listening, looking and doing. This will help children who learn in a different way from us – but it has other advantages as well. Children understand and remember more when there is repetition – so it’s helpful to teach the same thing more than once, but in a variety of ways. Plus, most children have short attention spans, so it’s helpful to change activity (and learning style) regularly.

Craft: the secret weapon

It’s easy to think of craft as a convenient time-filler at the end of a session and/or to drop it completely if we don’t particularly enjoy it ourselves. But craft can be the secret weapon in children’s work. Done well, it can include all three learning styles, as well as giving you an ideal time to chat with children.

A good craft activity isn’t just making something. It’s putting something together that helps you understand and remember the story and/or the concept it teaches. You can use the finished item to tell someone else the story (a great way for children to involve parents and siblings in what they’ve been learning that day). And it will be memorable visually to reinforce what’s been learned.

And while all that’s going on, every adult in the room (remember, there’s no such thing as “just a helper”!) can be chatting with the children – either about that day’s teaching, or to build up relationships of care and trust. You can see why I call craft our secret weapon!