How Does My Child Learn?

27 December 2010

There are three ways your child can learn.

Looking, or visual learning, involves responding to visual stimulation, like motion, color, shape and size.
Listening, or audio learning, more has to do with sounds and spoken words.
Moving, or tactile and kinesthetic learning, happens through touch and movement.

Tips for Maximizing Learning

Lookers - From birth to 12 months

Give your visually-oriented baby lots of interesting things to look at and watch. Hang mobiles, wear bright colors, flip through the pages of colorful picture books or photo albums, make faces in front of a mirror or place him where he can observe family activities.

Lookers – From 13 months to 3 years

Let your child play with crayons, finger paint, Play-Doh and different colored paper. She also will enjoy puzzles or other games that involve matching shapes and sizes. In conversation, whether walking down the street or looking at a magazine, point to different objects and ask her to name them.

Listeners – From birth to 12 months

Focus on offering opportunities from listening, such as playing gentle music, talking to your baby, “conversing” with her by imitating her sounds, laughing and by providing her with rattles and other noise-making toys.

Listeners – From 13 months to 3 years

Converse with your child in adult language, rather than baby talk, so his skills develop. Ask him questions, read him stories and get him into a playground where he can talk to and make friends with other children. Also, teach him songs like the ABCs and nursery rhymes and give him children’s cassette tapes for listening and singing along.

Movers – From birth to 12 months

Incorporate touch and chances to use, move and manipulate objects. Massage, bathing, and cuddling provide good opportunities for touch. Games like peek-a-boo and mobiles with rings or other pieces of your baby can reach for will give her the opportunity for movement.

Movers – From 13 months to 3 years

Take your child to the playground, the beach or the swimming pool. Give him a tricycle to ride, sand to dig in or a soft ball to kick, throw or catch. Touch is also important, so keep him close with hugs, high fives, and tickling.

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