KINESTHETIC CHILDREN AND THEIR NEED TO MOVE
1. Kinesthetic learners need to move. They wiggle, tap, swing their legs, bounce, and often just can’t seem to sit still. They learn through their bodies and their sense of touch.
2. They have excellent “physical” memory – they learn quickly and permanently what they DO as they are learning.
3. Kinesthetic Leaners are often gifted in athletics, dancing, and other physical activities.
4. They are generally very coordinated and have an excellent sense of their body in space and of body timing. They have great hand-eye coordination and quick reactions.
Kinesthetic learners are learners who need body movement and hands-on work. This is also true for tactile learners and children who have been labeled dyslexic, ADD, and ADHD.
HELPING KINESTHETIC LEARNERS FOCUS
5. Teach them to use deep breathing and purposeful relaxation to help with focus.
6. Information they learned via body movement is stored in the brain and if the child repeats that movement, it will not only help them focus, but will also help them remember what they learned.
7. Use skits for learning concepts and gestures for learning sight words, for example. Body movement as they learn will hold their focus on the lesson.
8. They will focus more easily if they have objects to manipulate instead of always using pencil and paper.
KINESTHETIC LEARNERS IN THE CLASSROOM
While some people believe that a teacher would have to teach several different ways in order to accommodate the various learning styles, we don't think so.
9. Let them move! If you tell them they can stand up, swing their legs, or even pace the floor as long as they are not disrupting the other students, their performance will improve.
10. Use novelty and change where you teach lesson in order to help break up long periods of time when the students would be sitting in their desks.
11. Teach kinesthetic learners to visualize themselves doing what they are learning. If you are teaching them steps for solving a problem, have them go inside their imaginations and “see” themselves following the steps.
12. Their attention follows their hands. Teach them draw sketches or diagrams of what they are hearing in a lesson, or when doing a sheet of math problems, teach them to point to each problem they come to. Let them use flashcards with information they are learning
.
Teachers will be successful in reaching all their learners at one time if they will develop a teaching style that is a synthesis of methods that target the whole brain.
TACTILE LEARNERS
13. Tactile learners are closely related to kinesthetic learners. The tactile style is more moderate involving fine motor movements rather than whole body movement.
14. They learn primarily through the sense of touch.
15. They learn best through hands-on activities
16. They express their learning best with projects they make such as mini-books, games, dioramas, skits, model making, building blocks, art materials, math manipulatives, and so forth.
Sarah Major, CEO of Child1st Publications, grew up on the mission field with her four siblings, all of whom her mother homeschooled. As an adult, Sarah has homeschooled a small group of children in collaboration with their parents, and has taught from preschool age to adult. Sarah has been the Title 1 director and program developer for grades K-7, an ESOL teacher, and a classroom teacher. As an undergraduate student, Sarah attended Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill. and then received her M.Ed. from Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, MI. In 2006 Sarah resigned from fulltime teaching in order to devote more time to Child1st, publisher of the best-selling SnapWords™ stylized sight word cards. In her spare time Sarah enjoys gardening, cooking, pottery, quilting, and spending time with her family.
Child1st Publications, LLC
www.child1st.com
800-881-0912
1. Kinesthetic learners need to move. They wiggle, tap, swing their legs, bounce, and often just can’t seem to sit still. They learn through their bodies and their sense of touch.
2. They have excellent “physical” memory – they learn quickly and permanently what they DO as they are learning.
3. Kinesthetic Leaners are often gifted in athletics, dancing, and other physical activities.
4. They are generally very coordinated and have an excellent sense of their body in space and of body timing. They have great hand-eye coordination and quick reactions.
Kinesthetic learners are learners who need body movement and hands-on work. This is also true for tactile learners and children who have been labeled dyslexic, ADD, and ADHD.
5. Teach them to use deep breathing and purposeful relaxation to help with focus.
6. Information they learned via body movement is stored in the brain and if the child repeats that movement, it will not only help them focus, but will also help them remember what they learned.
7. Use skits for learning concepts and gestures for learning sight words, for example. Body movement as they learn will hold their focus on the lesson.
8. They will focus more easily if they have objects to manipulate instead of always using pencil and paper.
KINESTHETIC LEARNERS IN THE CLASSROOM
While some people believe that a teacher would have to teach several different ways in order to accommodate the various learning styles, we don't think so.
9. Let them move! If you tell them they can stand up, swing their legs, or even pace the floor as long as they are not disrupting the other students, their performance will improve.
10. Use novelty and change where you teach lesson in order to help break up long periods of time when the students would be sitting in their desks.
11. Teach kinesthetic learners to visualize themselves doing what they are learning. If you are teaching them steps for solving a problem, have them go inside their imaginations and “see” themselves following the steps.
12. Their attention follows their hands. Teach them draw sketches or diagrams of what they are hearing in a lesson, or when doing a sheet of math problems, teach them to point to each problem they come to. Let them use flashcards with information they are learning
.
Teachers will be successful in reaching all their learners at one time if they will develop a teaching style that is a synthesis of methods that target the whole brain.
TACTILE LEARNERS
13. Tactile learners are closely related to kinesthetic learners. The tactile style is more moderate involving fine motor movements rather than whole body movement.
14. They learn primarily through the sense of touch.
15. They learn best through hands-on activities
16. They express their learning best with projects they make such as mini-books, games, dioramas, skits, model making, building blocks, art materials, math manipulatives, and so forth.
Sarah Major, CEO of Child1st Publications, grew up on the mission field with her four siblings, all of whom her mother homeschooled. As an adult, Sarah has homeschooled a small group of children in collaboration with their parents, and has taught from preschool age to adult. Sarah has been the Title 1 director and program developer for grades K-7, an ESOL teacher, and a classroom teacher. As an undergraduate student, Sarah attended Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill. and then received her M.Ed. from Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, MI. In 2006 Sarah resigned from fulltime teaching in order to devote more time to Child1st, publisher of the best-selling SnapWords™ stylized sight word cards. In her spare time Sarah enjoys gardening, cooking, pottery, quilting, and spending time with her family.
Child1st Publications, LLC
www.child1st.com
800-881-0912
