ABOUT Jena

If you’re having trouble figuring out whether your child is a visual, auditory, or tactile learner, take a peek at how they interact with people.

Visual learners tend to be very perceptive, watching body language instead of really listening to words. They tend to be able to perceive emotions better as well, since they miss nothing in a person’s expressions. They probably love to read quietly, and often ignore an emphasis on reading outloud or struggle with reading outloud as they have a tendency to understand something by looking at it, but have trouble connecting that visual part of their brains to the part that forms those images into sounds and words.

Auditory learners tend to be the talkative ones; this doesn’t mean they’re gregarious or extroverted, however. They like to talk and they like when others talk to them; their interactions are based on how another person formulates their sentences, their word choice, and their inflection. If a child is hanging on every word, they’re probably an auditory learner.

Tactile learners tend to always be interested in what they’ve got in their hands, even though it’s obvious that they’re listening and retaining information. They sometimes appear “distracted” or “inattentive” to many teachers who don’t know how to deal with tactile learners, and it’s a source of frustration for them because they do understand what’s going on… they just understand it better when they associate a certain texture, color or object with the topic.

My nephew and I are both auditory learners, where my sister is a visual learner. She often complains that she’s frustrated with his constant chattering and need to tell her everything he sees or finds interesting. She also gets frustrated that he and I “speak the same language” in that I chatter as much as he does and never seem to get annoyed by the constant stream of verbage coming from his lips. The differences are very apparent when different sorts of learners get together into a group; the side-effects of each perception often annoys or aggravates someone who doesn’t see or hear things the same way.

As a side note, this does continue into adulthood and affects people in offices, too. Some people have an extremely good memory for what they read, but can’t remember what conversation they had over breakfast with their spouse. Understanding the differences in not only learning styles, but perception styles often helps communication and interaction in the office.