What’s the big deal about kinesthetic learning?

“What if my child is a visual or auditory learner? Can’t I just skip the ‘hands-on’ part of our lessons?”

Many people believe that adding kinesthetic (or hands-on) activities to a lesson is all about making learning fun. While making learning fun isn’t a bad thing, it’s not the most important reason to add kinesthetic activities to your lessons.

Another common misconception is that your child has one main learning style and that you should always use instructional methods and activities that focus on that style. Following this logic, many people assume that if their child isn’t a kinesthetic learner, they don’t need kinesthetic activities.

So why include them?

Understanding the big picture

When I developed the All About Learning Press programs, I knew I needed to create reading and spelling programs that would be effective for children with a variety of learning styles. Children learn best when they are taught through a variety of “pathways” to the brain simultaneously. This concept, known as Simultaneous Multisensory Instruction (SMI), is a much more effective method of teaching children than methods that focus on only one learning style.

Is your child primarily a visual learner? Though he may learn best with visual activities, providing him with kinesthetic and auditory activities alongside the visual activities will provide him with the most effective learning opportunities. Is your child primarily a kinesthetic learner? He still needs auditory and visual activities to learn best.

What’s the main goal of kinesthetic instruction?

Kinesthetic activities help ingrain learning into the long-term memory by turning a lesson into an experience. When a child is engaged in a kinesthetic activity, he is moving and touching and interacting with his lesson in a physical way. And a great side benefit is that kinesthetic learning IS fun.

How hard is it to teach with kinesthetic activities?

When I created All About Reading and All About Spelling, I wanted to make the hands-on component really easy for you! There are lots of hands-on activities built right into the lessons.

For example, your child can manipulate letters, phonograms, and words using the colored letter tiles included in our program. But even if you want to create some of your own ideas, kinesthetic activities rarely require major effort on a parent’s part.

Hands-on activities often require no advanced preparation and no (or minimal) materials. An effective spelling activity can be as simple as writing letters in the air or tapping out syllables on a kitchen counter—no materials required! As you teach, think about how you can physically involve your child in the lesson using materials you already have around your house. Start in your kitchen pantry. Do you have elbow noodles? Rice? Pudding? Tactile activities don’t have to be expensive to be effective. Shaving cream and liquid soap can be wonderful mediums for getting little hands involved in the learning process.

Need more ideas?

• Fill a rimmed tray or baking dish with rice, salt, beans, flour, etc. Have your child practice forming letters or words with his finger.
• Is it winter? Go outside and stomp giant letters in the snow. Live near the beach? Trace your letters in the sand.

• For some ooey-gooey fun, fill a Ziploc bag with shaving cream, whipped cream, liquid soap, glue, or pudding. Seal the bag and have your child write letters or words on the bag.
• Make raised letters for your child to trace. Write a letter on an index card with liquid glue. After the glue dries have your child trace the shape of the glue with his or her index finger. To create a rougher surface, sprinkle sand on the glue before it dries. Want even less preparation? Have your child trace letters on sandpaper or felt.

• If you’re not afraid to let your child get his hands dirty, try writing in mud—that’s a lesson that won’t be forgotten.
• Spell words while jumping on a trampoline or bouncing a ball. Yell out a letter for every jump or bounce!

• Form playdough into letters to spell words.
• Use pipe cleaners or Wikki Stix to form letters and words.

Kinesthetic learning is fun—and the possibilities are endless!

Do you have a hands-on activity that your child loves to do? I’d love to hear about it!

Photo credit: Carisa at 1+1+1=1