Learning Styles Blog

* May Madness * Special Offer

Yvonne Walus — Thu, 17 May 2012 02:25:28 GMT

As of now until the end of May 2012, you'll be able to purchase our LSA Swift Complete analysis tool for half the price! Simply quote this promo code in your shopping basket: KAMHY4E. Buy as many as you like!

Some of the benefits of having your teen's learning style analysed include:

improved school performance;
a confidence boost;
better communication between you and your child.

Understand your teen. Buy LSA Swift today.

Bullying - Can Learning Styles Help?

Yvonne Walus — Thu, 10 May 2012 12:06:44 GMT

New Zealand news is full of the latest wave of bullying at school and on social media (read the story here). It's sad. It's scary. And, in many cases, it can be avoided.

Sometimes a bully is somebody who is bullied themselves, at home or in the neighbourhood.
Sometimes a bully (typically a cyber bully) doesn't even realise their behaviour is hurtful.
Sometimes a bully is trying to communicate their frustrations in this most unfortunate of manners.

Can Learning Styles help? You bet.

Many children become rebellious at school because they feel bored, stifled and misunderstood. The solution for their disruptive behaviour lies in satisfying the needs of their unique Learning Style.

Dealing with a bully is no different. You only need to look at their learning style report to see what's behind the fists and the hurtful words.

Learning Style Analysis - it's not only about classroom learning. It's about behaviour, responsibility, perseverance and making friends.

Try it out today.

Outdoor Play Good For You Brain

Yvonne Walus — Fri, 04 May 2012 01:18:16 GMT

A recent study discovered less than 50% of New Zealand children engage in daily outdoor play, even though most of them live within easy walking distance from a playground or park.

That's despite the fact that outdoor play greatly benefits brain development. Children who play outside every day have been scientifically proved to have better motor coordination, more ability to concentrate, and fewer attention-deficit disorders.

Outdoor play develops children's imagination and creativity. It helps them socialise, connect with nature, and develop skills to work within teams.

So why don't we place more emphasis on playing outside? The weather and the constant lack of time are often cited as reasons. But perhaps our Learning Styles have to claim some of the responsibility, too? If our children are not kinesthetic and have a non-preference for mobility, it's hard work to get them outdoors, particularly if we ouselves share the same learning style elements.

What is your child's learning style? Find out.

Inspiring People - Gurutej Khalsa

Yvonne Walus — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 02:27:28 GMT

Gurutej Khalsa has known since she was six years old that she wanted to lead others to their greatness. She is a born leader, a creational genius, and a visionary thought leader. A founding practitioner of Kundalini, Gurutej is one of a handful of Kundalini Yoga Masters in the world. She has taught people for over 40 years to connect to their higher consciousness through healing, meditation, yoga, and chanting. She lives and breathes the meaning of her Sikh name, “the one who brings you from darkness into light at the speed of light.”

Caveat: Your reaction to this post will probably depend on whether you're more of a holistic or sequential processor. Which hemisphere governs your brain? Find out.

In the video clip that follows, Gurutej shares her thoughts on communication.

Watch the video here.

The theory in Gurutej's latest e-book, The Moon She Rocks You, is claimed to be the next biggest leap after Men are from Mars Women are from Venus.

If you are a woman, knowing about The Moon Centers gives you power over your
negative emotions. If you are a man, it gives you the key to understand women of all ages. You learn to listen to the voice of their emotions. Women – we can have control over those crazy emotional times in our lives. For more information, visit http://gurutej.com/store/11-moon-centers/.

Déjà Vu - Homework and Grandchildren

Yvonne Walus — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 02:01:03 GMT

When your children left home, you thought you’d seen the last of Pythagoras and his right-angled triangles. You thought wrong.

Remember the Bruce Willis line from DIE HARD 2: “How can the same _thing_ happen to the same guy twice?” If you feel like quoting it every afternoon, you’re not alone. Today’s financial reality means more and more grandparents provide after-school care to their grandchildren. Fortunately, this time round, you can be smarter about fighting in the homework war zone. We are all unique. We have our own way of doing things. And that includes doing homework.

Research confirms that every child has his or her learning style: that is, the way in which they best learn and memorise new things. “Children can learn virtually anything if allowed to do it through their own personal strengths,” says Barbara Prashnig, an international education expert. “We all learn through our ears, eyes, hands and body. But some children learn through their hands a lot better than through their eyes. And that means that they need to construct a hydrogen molecule out of sticks rather than just stare at a diagram of one.”

Your grandchild has unique needs and non-preferences when it comes to the way they learn and do homework. There is no such thing as a difficult learner - only a learner who hasn’t realised how to learn according to their learning style. Find out how your grandchild learns best.

School Programs for Gifted Children

Yvonne Walus — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 04:34:16 GMT

Goes your child's school have a Gifted or Extending program for their pupils? And what does it mean? A gifted child is not the same as a gifted learning. Children may be gifted in various ways: gifted in fast learning, gifted in music, gifted in people skills, gifted in making friends with animals, gifted in athletics. While most education institutions understand this and cater for students with after-school activites such as drama circles, music classes and sports, their "gifted" program dusing school hours is reserved for children who are gifted in fast learning. This makes sense, because the idea is that the child has already mastered what's required by the curriculum and is now sitting in class, bored.

Your child's learning style will tell you whether your child is a gifted learner. Find out.

Naturally, children who are ahead with the curriculum should not be given additional work to do in their own time, instead, they should be given different work do to during class, without increasing either the workload or the time they have to devote to learning. We wouldn't want children to feel that if they do their work quickly and correctly, they are simply given another worksheet to complete.

"Extension learning" in class or outside the class should naturally stretch beyond giving Year 6 work to those Year 5 pupils who are ahead. This only compounds the boredom problem when they get to Year 6. Extension and stimulation is all about branch-out learning, i.e. introducing students to things that are not in the curriculum, like studying the subject in extra depth or doing logical puzzles or writing scripts for movies.

Remember, gifted children can also fall into the category of kinesthetic or tactile learners. Children who learn differently usually underachieve, no matter how bright they are. What is your child's learning style?

Happy Easter with Learning Styles

Yvonne Walus — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 02:38:08 GMT

On behalf of the Creative Learning team, we would like to wish you a joyful, healthy and safe holiday.

Teach Your Teen To Drive With Learning Styles

Yvonne Walus — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 06:24:31 GMT

Did you know that car crashes cause the most deaths among the USA teenagers?

Learning to drive is a lot like learning to walk. At first, you fall over. You think you'll never be able to master it. It's stressful, it's frustrating, it may even be dangerous. And then, one day, you realise you've got it. Driving feels like second nature, the car is an extension of your hands, your feet, and your head. You forget how steep the learning curve had been.

And that's just the thing. When you learn to drive, you have to learn a myriad of new skills, some of them counter-intuitive (like looking in the rear view mirror when driving forward), all of them difficult yet vitally important to your safety as well as the safety of those around you. Some people learn these skills faster than others. It's all to do with a person's individual Learning Style.

If your teens are a holistic processor, they'll probably get the hang of it all more easily: operating the clutch with the left foot while applying the accelerator with the right foot while changing gears with one hand and steering with the other and flicking the indicator with their imaginary third hand. If they're analytic, however, they might ace the Learner's License yet struggle to drive a manual car.

What other Learning Style Elements might help your teen learn to drive? Being visual, auditory and tactile will help, together with not needing mobility when concentrating. Check here to see whether learning to drive will come easily to your teen. Also check what other elements can help them in their journey, like their optimal time of day, temperature, noise level, etc.

Maths, Girls and Learning Styles

Yvonne Walus — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 00:49:26 GMT

What can stay-at-home parents do to help their daughters (or sons, for that matter) get ready for school with their basic maths concepts? Encourage them to play with blocks, according to Dr Maureen Woodhams. Listen to her brilliant interview here for other ideas.

Naturally, some children will be more inclined to play with blocks than others. It's all up to their unique Learning Style. If your child is tactile and doesn't require mobility to learn, blocks and boardgames are probably a good starting point. But what if your child requires to move around in order to absorb new information?

Play detective: take them for a walk around the neighbourhood and read the numbers on the letterboxes. Ask your child to anticipate the next number on this side of the road and on the other side.
Sing children's songs with counting and pre-counting themes.
NumberJacks is a great video to watch with your kids... if they are visual. Allow them to jump around the room while watching to satisfy their need for mobility.

Find out what your child needs by assessing their learning style.

Creating Successful Companies

Yvonne Walus — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 02:26:07 GMT

In the year 2012, you need a lot more than just a PC and an unlimited access to the Internet in order to achieve in the continually-changing business world. Your web site may be the most popular link of the week, but if you don't understand yourself or your colleagues, you will fail to utilise your most important resources: the people.

Have you ever felt frustrated because your assistant takes such a long time to reach the simplest decision? Or because your best marketer never contributes during those early-morning brainstorming sessions? Have you ever wondered why you and your staff members are constantly under stress?

Such questions form just the tip of the iceberg. Diversity is what it's all about, and it has nothing to do with gender or race. We are all individual human beings and we all have different Working Styles. Some of us like working in an open-plan office, reassured by the steady hum of voices around us, others find background noise counterproductive. Some of us keep our desks tidy and make use of filing cabinets, others insist on piling their work on their desks and floor. There are those who have to know every single detail before making a decision, and those who require the overall picture first.

Nothing wrong with any of those approaches, of course, provided we all know what we want. The problem, however, is that often we are not even aware of our own needs.

Do you know what makes you tick? Find out.