The term ‘learning style’ refers to the fact that when we want to learn something, each of us uses their own method or set of strategies. Although the specific strategies we use vary according to what we want to learn, each one of us tends to develop global preferences. Those preferences or tendencies to use more certain ways of learning than others constitute our learning style.
Each member of the group will learn differently, have different doubts and will advance more in some areas than in others. These differences in learning are the result of many factors, such as motivation, previous cultural baggage, and age. The concept of learning styles is however attractive because it offers us great possibilities of achieving more effective learning.
Children learn in different ways. Some need to see things; others prefer to listen to instructions, while others prefer to do the activities themselves. It is particularly important to identify and adapt to the learning style of very young children, who need to have a good start in life by acquiring a lot of new knowledge. Just as important is the choice of preschool for your child, keep in mind if it supports your learning style.
The VAK Model holds that we have three systems to represent the information in our mind: Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic. Now, learning is closely related to the way we mentally represent information, therefore, we can say that from representation systems, there are also three learning styles:
Visual Learning Style
Preschoolers who have a visual learning style prefer to see things. They understand the information faster if they are presented in visual format: written, displayed, represented or in some visualized form. The preschool of these children should offer stimulating and interesting visual walls, material and equipment for the classes. Their classrooms should be clean and organized, and teaching should be reinforced through bulletin boards, posters, and charts. It is related to the sense of sight. When they use the visual representation system, students read or construct images that represent ideas. They take notes, make drawings or diagrams that help them visualize and process a greater amount of data in a short time, so it is the ideal model to establish relationships between data and concepts. The capacity for abstraction and the ability to plan are directly related to the ability to visualize.
Auditory Learning Style
Children with an auditory learning style learn best through music, stories or instructions. Encourage these children to work in pairs or small groups instead of individually or in large groups. Teaching for this type of children should be done through group discussions, storytelling, and other oral teaching methods. It is related to the sense of hearing. The student uses the auditory system of representation when he remembers a verbal message or a sound experience, usually in a sequential and organized manner. He shows a preference for receiving oral explanations and often repeats the words or concepts he deems important. It is very effective in learning languages or speeches. Naturally, it is the most appropriate in learning everything related to music.
Kinesthetic Learning Style
The kinesthetic learning style is not as popular as the visual or the auditory one. Those who learn best in this way are interested in practical activities, such as, for example, drawing, building, or getting involved physically and actively with learning. They need to manipulate objects instead of seeing or hearing them. It is related to emotions, the senses of touch, smell and taste. When the student processes the information relating to his sensations and movements, he is using the kinesthetic representation system. In this way, you get deeper learning, but one that requires more time. The reason is very simple: it is faster to learn, through sight, that a bicycle is a vehicle with two wheels; but learning to drive it requires mobilizing all the systems of our organism.
Besides these three learning styles one more style of learning is quite popular that is tactile learning style.
The tactile learning style is similar to kinesthetic. However, those who learn best in this way prefer small-scale movements rather than large-scale ones, unlike kinesthetic. They should be taught and encouraged to write by hand and they should be given the opportunity to work with small blocks and sets to assemble and solve puzzles.