We want to develop a passion for learning in our children so they will want to be LEARNERS FOR LIFE. The brain and learning capacity of a child are extraordinary. If we retained that ability as adults, we would all be much smarter! How do we keep this passion for learning alive in our children? The most effective way is to embrace the way they learn, and teach to their learning style.

For teachers, this is a big job because the students have different learning styles in their classrooms. We need to be sensitive to all that teachers do each day as they seek to reach and teach each child. It is a daunting task at best. As parents, as you work with your children at home, you can help them to love the learning process and thus, build learners for life.

For starters, let us become observers of our children. If you are a parent of a pre-K child, you will notice that they are learning through all of their sensory gates simultaneously. Children look at things while talking about them, touching and shaking them at the same time to see what the object does. Little ones will try to put things in their mouth as well in order to get the full sensory experience. The young child completely engages in the learning process and finds everything fascinating.

As parents, we would be wise to set up lots of multi-sensory activities for our little children. These activities integrate the hand and eye, develop coordination and concentration. When children learn in this way, the brain connections are enhanced and learning increases. This is much better than watching movies, which only involve passive learning. The more the young child interacts with all of his senses, the stronger the brain connections and higher the retention level.

For children in elementary school, it is wise to let them run and play outside when they first come home from school. If the weather is bad, try indoor activities that enhance creativity. Children live in the world of make believe and it is healthy for their brain development to role-play and create with open-ended projects. Play is the work of the young child.

Keep the home environment rich with activities, things to explore and create. It would be wise to minimize television, movies, video games and yes, even computer time. What, you gasp? What about educational programs on the television, movie, video game and computer? The brain of the child develops at a faster rate with interactive learning. Research is showing there are areas of the brain that are not fully developing when children spend too much time with television and video games. Before you panic, you can reverse the process by investing language opportunities into your child. Talk with your child. Play with your child. Go on the journey of discovery and learning with your child. It is actual face-to-face adult conversation that is rich with language interaction which develops the areas of the brain to help the child with reading and language activities in school. May I gently suggest that you put your cell phone on silent when you pick up your child from school, shop in the grocery store and at meal times. Those teachable times provide invaluable opportunities to develop language and create meaningful memories.

Here are a few learning patterns that you may observe in your child and some suggestions about what you can do to enhance brain development on the home front. Children take in the information they are learning about through the following sensory gates:

• Visual: If your child is a visual learner, he learns best by what he sees. As this child gets older, writing things down, highlighting and making flash cards will enhance learning.

• Auditory: If your child is auditory, he needs the dual process of listening as well as talking. When this child hears, the information comes in partway. However, in order to retain and retrieve it, the child needs to talk about it. It is the talking that brings the information full circle in the brain. This child responds well to be quizzed orally, learned and/or any other auditory activity.

• Tactile: These children love to touch. They are not overly active children, but they do need to touch. You will find them busy with their hands. Learning will be enhanced for this child by providing lots of hands on manipulatives.

• Kinesthetic: These children must move in order to learn. Yep, this is the child on the move! If we understand that their need to move is inherent in the learning process and actually enhances learning, we are more patient with this child. Let’s provide lots of productive activities for this child to DO. As we keep him busy with learning activities, we will find that he becomes more focused and less inappropriately active.

• Relational: This is a child who learns best when he/she has a relationship with the adult. As parents and teachers, we can do much to facilitate this child’s learning by taking time to simply develop a rapport and relationship.

• Sequential: These children do like structure, order and organization. They thrive when things are predictable. They want to know the plan for the day and may become anxious when too many activities are spontaneous. We can enhance this child’s learning by providing a quiet, orderly place for him to spend time. He can think and learn at a more in-depth rate when things are sequential and orderly.

• Analytic: You can almost see the wheels turning in this child’s mind. They are busy analyzing, thinking and processing, and need quiet time to do so. They want to know “why” and seem to have an insatiable need to learn more.

• Multi-Taskers: These children do not welcome structure, order or predictability. They think outside thebox and love to do several things at once. For this child you will want to provide lots of hands on activities that are open-ended so this child can feel free to explore, invent and create. A word to the wise, if you tell this child how to do a task, they will often do the exact opposite. If it’s a discipline issue, that is different. If it is related to learning, let them go and explore on their own.

The world of learning and brain research is exciting. New information is coming out all the time. We know that brain connections are enhanced through a balance of focused learning time followed by a time to be active. We know that water hydrates the brain. As parents and teachers, let’s model drinking water around and encourage them to always be drinking water. As parents and teachers, when we are excited about the learning process, we become contagious to the children. As they observe our passion, they become more excited about all there is to learn. Let us model being learners for life.