Kinesthetic Learners

Do you have a kinesthetic learner? If you have a child with Attention Deficit Disorder, you might.

Kinesthetic learners learn best with hands on styles of instruction. They often struggle more in school because a good portion of what’s being taught doesn’t utilize hands on methods. In addition, they have a need to get up and move around - they actually learn better if they can - but you can see how that wouldn’t work in school.

There are a couple of things you can do at home that might help:

Encourage them to move as they study, if possible. Reading can be done while pacing, and so can studying for an exam.

Find something small and quiet for them to fiddle with, preferably something that they can use in school. I have a pen with little beads attached to the top of it - something like that might work. Giving their hands something to manipulate helps calm that need to move around. Also, the tactile experience of feeling the same thing in your hand that you had when you were studying can trigger memory and help retention.

Whenever possible, find multi-media resources to reinforce what they’re learning. An online video, for example, or a movie made from the book they are reading. A great place to start is the textbook your child is using. Many publishers these days are supplementing their books with websites that have more information. That could be just what your child needs.

If you don’t know what learning style your child is, there are several tests available online, including mine.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

How the ADD Brain Processes

Recently I wrote about how I am learning some new and old things again, and how it surprised me that going over the same material a second time yielded new insights.

Although I haven’t studied any additional material in the last day or so, I am continuing to put together ideas, see relationships I didn’t see before, and just gaining even more insights.

I think that most people assume that you sit in class, listen to the teacher, and leave the class having learned something new.

Not everyone’s brain works that way. In fact, most ADD brains probably do not.

There are differences in the way each person absorbs and embraces new information.

Some people need to sit back and just listen without trying to take notes. Others need time to absorb what they’ve learned, and will be more comfortable with the new information once their brain has had some time to process it. Just like me - a day or so later, I’m still learning despite having studied anything new.

Still others need to see relationships between things. If they can relate the concept of what they’ve learned to something in their life or something that they already know, they find it easier to grasp.

I suspect that your ADD child may be a combination of a few of these styles. Let your brain process that for a while and see what it comes up with.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!