What is your learning style, and how to work it out

Mable Green
Aug 16
3 min read

Sensory organs such as the eyes, ears, skin, nose, and tongue collect the information, and our brains interpret it. The dominant sense is usually our learning style. — Learning Style

Our nervous system receives information from the world around us. Sensory organs such as the eyes, ears, skin, nose, and tongue collect the information, and our brains interpret it. The dominant sense is usually our learning style.

What's your preferred learning style?

The one we prioritise or that works best for us is the sense we use to learn most effectively.

There are many learning styles; here are the three main ones.

Visual

Auditory

Kinaesthetic

There are many opinions about whether we learn via the dominant sense. Are we Visual, Auditory, or kinesthetic in our ways of learning? Educationalists, professors and teachers have their ideas of how a child learns. You hear people say they are Visual Learners, like diagrams and pictures. Others are Auditory Learners, enjoying podcasts.

Learning style questionnaire test- Click here.

It is accepted that children have learning styles, even though research has shown that it could compromise how children learn. It's better to offer all ways of learning so children can feel comfortable with whichever way they want to know. Multi-sensory learning allows the child to explore play so they find their way of learning. After the Reception class, there is an expectation to sit still and listen. Whole-class teaching means a lack of flexibility with styles of learning. A child with auditory processing issues will miss what the teacher says.

I'm not here to prove or disprove the best way.

The research was performed with Neurotypical students.

In the classroom, someone who is autistic faces a challenge in the management of their senses. An autistic child may have over-sensitivity or under-sensitivity to sound, taste, visual, and smell, and the degree to which this can be different for each child. My son is predominantly a visual learner, 90% visual and only 10% auditory, which shows his difficulty learning in a noisy environment. He’s not got hearing problems. It's a processing issue, just the way his brain functions. If he sees it, he learns it.

Difficulty processing

There are more neurodiverse children in the classroom than the teacher realises. The processing difficulties mean they struggle to utilise the information that their senses are receiving. Many children may never come near a diagnosis to support them in a conventional way with autism, dyslexia or ADHD, but have processing issues that are unseen in a classroom setting.

A child who seems unable to concentrate, daydreams and does not follow the work may struggle with receiving and processing the information the teacher delivers. They are not ‘low achievers’. They need this repeated in their learning style. Reinforcement with a worksheet or given time away from the classroom so they can process it. They can learn; it just takes longer. Sometimes, they don't need support if they cannot use their favoured learning style.

At home

I remember teachers saying that they had made their classrooms ‘Autistic Friendly’ with lots of visual things. Many autistic children are overwhelmed by too many visual distractions. Every autistic child is different in processing what they see differently. Some children struggle with the whiteboard in school and, while watching TV, can't keep still.

At home, we had a whiteboard at the bottom of the stairs with a list of things my son needed to do to be ready for school in primary school. If I gave him verbal instructions, he forgot them and started playing, but he could take responsibility for getting prepared with the board.