Understanding The Different Learning Styles In Children

When I first opened the doors to Little Angels in 2004, I quickly realised something that no training or textbook can fully prepare you for — every child learns in their own way. That understanding became the foundation of our learning style childcare approach. One little boy, Jack, would light up when we brought out paints and picture books, while another, Sophie, could recall entire stories just from hearing them once. Then there was Mia, who needed to move — whether it was hopping, clapping, or dancing her way through the day.

These moments stayed with me, and over the years, they shaped how we approach learning at our centre. Because understanding how children take in information-how they learn-isn’t just about academics. It’s about connection, confidence, and creating a space where each child feels seen.

Here in Baulkham Hills, like much of NSW, our classrooms are wonderfully diverse. We have children from many cultural and linguistic backgrounds, each bringing their own stories and rhythms into the learning space. With this diversity comes a simple truth: a one-size-fits-all method just doesn’t work.

So, what does it mean to understand a child’s learning style? And more importantly, how do we use that knowledge to support their growth?

We’ll walk through the most common learning styles, how to spot them, the pros and cons of matching teaching methods to a child’s preference, and-drawing from both research and real-world classroom experience-what actually helps children learn best.

Why Learning Preferences Matter In Early Childhood?

The link between child-centred education and how kids learn best

Over the past 17 years, I’ve watched children learn in sandpits, on swings, through stories, during music time, and even while peering at a snail crawling across a garden path. What I’ve come to believe, wholeheartedly, is this: when we pay attention to how a child learns-not just what they learn-we begin to truly teach.

And in the early years, when the brain is building those first critical pathways, that understanding makes a world of difference.

Recognising Individual Learning Differences From A Young Age

If you’ve ever sat with a group of preschoolers during story time, you’ll notice how some lean forward to stare at the pictures, others close their eyes and listen intently, and a few might fiddle with a nearby toy or tap their foot on the mat. They’re all engaged-just in different ways.

One little girl at our centre, Aanya, loved puzzles. She could sit for 30 minutes, turning pieces around until they clicked. She wasn’t as verbal as her peers at first, but when we introduced story puzzles and sequencing games, her language exploded. She just needed a way in that suited her thinking style.

This is where child-centred education shines. Instead of asking, “Why isn’t this child keeping up?”, we ask, “What’s the best way to help this child connect with the material?”

When you take the time to observe those small, quiet cues-what children choose during free play, how they respond to music, whether they light up at movement or pictures-you begin to see clear patterns. And once you spot those patterns, your teaching becomes more purposeful.

A table like this can help educators or parents jot down observations over time:

Behaviour	What It Might Suggest
Watches carefully, copies actions	Strong visual or kinaesthetic preference
Sings or hums during tasks	Auditory preference
Asks lots of “why” questions	Logical or verbal thinking style
Prefers solo play	Solitary learner, self-paced thinker
Seeks movement often	Kinesthetic/tactile engagement needed

No formal test is needed-just watch, listen, and reflect.

The Impact Of Learning Styles On Classroom Engagement

When we align our teaching with a child’s preferred way of learning, we’re not indulging them-we’re unlocking the door to their attention and understanding.

Take Oliver, for example. At first glance, he seemed restless, always bouncing on his heels during group time. Traditional sit-and-listen methods didn’t work. But once we gave him tasks that involved movement-jumping out syllables, acting out story sequences-he started participating with joy. His retention of new words doubled in just a few weeks.

It’s not magic-it’s movement. And it’s understanding.

Now, does this mean every lesson must be customised to every child’s style? Not at all. But weaving variety into your daily rhythm-music, visuals, hands-on activities, quiet spaces-makes room for more children to shine in more moments.

In NSW early learning centres, we’re guided by the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF), which encourages inclusive practices and respect for individual learning journeys. Understanding learning preferences fits naturally within this. It’s part of creating an environment where every child can say, “This makes sense to me.”

A Practical Guide To The Main Learning Styles In Children

Over the years, I’ve seen many educators and families light up when they discover the simple yet powerful idea that not all children absorb information the same way. Some children are watchers. Others are listeners. Some just need to get their hands (and sometimes feet) into it to make sense of a concept.

Here’s a practical walk-through of the main learning styles, based not just on theory but also on what I’ve seen work in real classrooms and homes across Baulkham Hills and beyond.

Visual Learning In Children – The Power Of Pictures

Visual learners often spot the smallest detail others miss. These children remember what they’ve seen rather than what they’ve heard. If you’ve got a child who draws detailed pictures, notices patterns, or loves picture books, chances are you’re looking at a visual learner.

One child at our centre, Liam, used to struggle with following multi-step instructions-until we started using picture cards. We’d lay out visual cues for the routine: shoes off, wash hands, mat time. Suddenly, the transitions became smoother. It wasn’t a behaviour issue-it was a communication mismatch.

Helpful strategies:

• Use illustrated storyboards to explain routines or stories
• Label shelves and containers with both pictures and words
• Introduce visual timers for activities
• Offer books with strong illustrations, charts, and diagrams

A simple daily routine visual chart might look like this:

Time of Day	Activity	Visual Cue
8:00 AM	Arrive & unpack	Backpack + cubby icon
8:30 AM	Morning tea	Fruit + drink icon
9:00 AM	Story time	Book + mat icon
9:30 AM	Outdoor play	Swing + sun image

These supports don’t just help visual learners-they help everyone make sense of the day.

The Auditory Learning Style – Learning Through Listening

Auditory learners thrive when they can hear ideas. These children might not always be the loudest in the group, but they remember everything you say-even if you think they’re not paying attention.

I once had a little boy named Ethan who rarely made eye contact during group time, but he could recite every line of a book we’d read aloud once. He responded best to rhythm, rhyme, and spoken cues.

Signs you might be supporting an auditory learner:

• They talk themselves through tasks
• They enjoy music, rhyming games, or echoing what they hear
• They ask questions out loud and need verbal reassurance

Supportive tools:

• Record instructions or use audio prompts
• Include group discussions and read-alouds
• Let children retell stories in their own words
• Use clapping or rhythm to reinforce syllables or counting

At our centre, we’ve used clapping syllables to break up long words like caterpillar or platypus. Children love to play, and it helps cement vocabulary in a playful way.

Kinesthetic Learners – Hands-On Is Their Happy Place

These are your movers and doers. They learn best when their bodies are involved. And yes-they’re often the ones who fidget, wiggle, or struggle to sit still during long tasks. But don’t mistake that for inattentiveness. These children are often the most engaged when the learning is active.

I remember Mason, who had ants in his pants every morning. He couldn’t focus on puzzles or books-but hand him a tub of water and ask him to measure it out using cups, and he was completely locked in.

Common traits of kinesthetic learners:

• Prefer hands-on materials like clay, blocks, and tools
• Struggle with tasks that require sitting still for long periods
• Enjoy building, role-playing, or movement games

Engagement tips:

• Use movement-based storytelling (e.g. act out animals during story time)
• Let them build models or re-enact scenes
• Use obstacle courses or scavenger hunts to reinforce concepts
• Include sensory play with texture, weight, and temperature variation

Some centres use movement stations-spaces set up with targeted skills like tracing letters in sand, hopping for phonics, or balancing during number games. These stations give kinesthetic learners a place to move with purpose.

Tactile Learning Preferences – Fine Motor And Texture-Based Learning

Tactile learners often overlap with kinesthetic learners but tend to enjoy fine motor activities more than large body movement. These children explore through touch-feeling textures, squishing playdough, and threading beads.

They are the ones who may stroke the corner of a blanket or run their fingers over the grain of a wooden block. Their brains are absorbing information through their fingertips.

Ideas for tactile engagement:

• Sensory bins (rice, sand, lentils) with hidden letter shapes or counting objects
• Finger painting, threading, and lacing cards
• Writing letters in shaving foam
• Using textured flashcards or sandpaper letters

In our centre, we keep a “touch table”-a rotating station filled with sensory objects related to the weekly theme. When learning about the farm, for example, we added real straw, corn kernels, and pieces of wool. The children didn’t just learn about animals-they felt their world.

Read/Write Learners – Thriving With The Written Word

Read/write learners love words-plain and simple. These children tend to show an early interest in books, lists, labels, or anything with letters. They’re the ones who might ‘read’ to a teddy before they can actually decode, or pretend to write stories in a notebook before they’ve mastered the alphabet.

We once had a child named Clara who was quiet in group settings but would write pages of pretend ‘menus’ in the home corner. When given time to explore writing at her own pace, her confidence grew, and she started asking to label her own artwork. Writing became her voice.

You might notice a read/write learner if they:

• Enjoy looking at books on their own
• Try to copy words, make lists, or create signs during play
• Prefer written instructions over verbal ones
• Retain information more easily when it’s written down

Supportive strategies include:

• Offering personal notebooks, mini-whiteboards, or journals
• Encouraging children to “write the room” by copying labels or words they see
• Using sentence starters to help children tell their stories
• Creating opportunities for early writers to label drawings or rewrite a known story in their own words

Many children in this group also benefit from using visual schedules that are accompanied by written words. Even if they’re not reading fluently, being exposed to consistent language builds recognition and supports early literacy.

Here’s a simple way to support this style during a group activity:

Activity	Verbal Prompt	Written Support
Story retell	“Can you tell me what happened first?”	Use picture cards with keywords below
Science experiment	“What did you see happen?”	Fill in a sentence frame: “I saw…”
Music & movement	“What’s your favourite song?”	Provide song lyrics to follow along

By integrating writing into everyday play and conversation, we allow these learners to connect meaningfully with the world around them-on their own terms.

Beyond The Basics – Other Learning Style Models Worth Knowing

While the VAK model (visual, auditory, kinesthetic) is the most widely known-and certainly the easiest to observe in a busy early learning setting-there are other models that offer deeper insights into how children process and make sense of their world.

In my experience, particularly in a culturally diverse community like ours in Baulkham Hills, using multiple lenses helps us better meet the needs of the children in our care. Some children don’t fit neatly into one category. Others show strength in areas that the VAK model doesn’t account for, like working with others or understanding patterns in nature.

Here are two influential models that can broaden our understanding and support truly inclusive, personalised learning.

David Kolb’s Learning Cycle In Early Years Contexts

Kolb’s model is based not just on what children prefer, but on how they process information through experience. It breaks learning into four stages:

1. Concrete experience – doing or having the experience
2. Reflective observation – thinking about what happened
3. Abstract conceptualisation – drawing conclusions
4. Active experimentation – trying it out again in a new way

Children tend to favour certain parts of this cycle, forming four learning styles: Divergers, Assimilators, Convergers, and Accommodators.

In early learning, you won’t hear a three-year-old say, “I’m an Accommodator.” But you will see it in how they play.

Let me give you an example.

We had a child named Isla who loved dramatic play. She’d act out stories from home corner, change roles, and add new props. She was a classic Diverger-curious, imaginative, and always looking at things from different angles. Another child, Reuben, loved building and testing. He’d try to make a ramp steeper to see how fast a car would roll down-an Accommodator, learning through action and real-world experimentation.

Using Kolb’s model in practice:

• Divergers: Encourage storytelling, drawing, and role-play
• Assimilators: Use charts, books, and structured reflection (e.g. “What did we notice about the seeds today?”)
• Convergers: Offer problem-solving challenges and STEM kits
• Accommodators: Set up hands-on projects like planting, building, or experiments

This model reminds us that learning isn’t just about content delivery-it’s about the cycle of doing, thinking, reflecting, and trying again. That’s something we already build into our curriculum planning cycles, but naming it helps make it intentional.

Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences In Preschool Settings

Gardner’s theory suggests that intelligence isn’t a single score or narrow ability-it’s a whole spectrum. This model outlines eight (later nine) different intelligences that people draw from in different combinations.

Here’s a breakdown relevant to early childhood education:

Intelligence	Early Signs	How We Support It
Linguistic	Loves books, storytelling, rhymes	Books, puppet play, shared writing
Logical-mathematical	Enjoys patterns, counting, and problem-solving	Puzzles, measuring, sorting, and prediction games
Bodily-Kinesthetic	Constant movement, hands-on curiosity	Obstacle courses, sensory play, dancing, and building
Musical	Sings often, remembers tunes	Music time, rhythm games, musical storytelling
Visual-Spatial	Notices shapes, colours, likes drawing or maps	Drawing, construction play, shadow play, and visual art projects
Interpersonal	Thrives in group play, shows empathy	Partner tasks, social games, group projects
Intrapersonal	Independent, reflective, likes solo tasks	Journaling, quiet corners, and independent choice activities
Naturalist	Drawn to bugs, animals, and nature play	Gardening, nature walks, and observing the weather
Existential (less common in early years)	Asks deep “big picture” questions	Story discussions, circle time reflection

A few years ago, we had a little boy named Amir who was fascinated by insects. He wasn’t particularly drawn to books or puzzles, but he could name every bug he found in the garden. His eyes lit up when we added a bug exploration table. That’s naturalist intelligence at work-and by leaning into it, we sparked growth in other areas too, including language and drawing.

Gardner’s model is a reminder that every child is intelligent-we just need to pay attention to the ways their strengths show up.

These broader models encourage us to look beyond labels and consider each child’s learning profile as unique. They also reinforce what many early childhood educators already know instinctively: that play, variety, and responsive teaching are essential for building strong foundations.

How to Identify Your Child’s Learning Style at Home or School?

Identifying a child’s learning style isn’t about putting them into a neat little box-it’s about opening a door. It’s about noticing the way they naturally connect with the world and using that knowledge to support their development with care and intention.

In my years working with families across Baulkham Hills and surrounding suburbs, I’ve found that parents often already know their child’s learning preferences- they just haven’t had the language for it yet. They’ll say things like, “He’s always humming something,” or “She’ll build towers for hours but won’t sit for a story.” These are golden clues.

Observation And Play As Your Best Clues

Children tell us everything-if we’re watching. During play, their learning preferences often shine through. Some children drift towards books, others towards building blocks. Some move constantly, while others sit quietly and draw.

One of our educators once noticed a child, Noah, who always grabbed the same toy-a plastic microphone-and sang into it during every transition. He wasn’t just playing-he was expressing and processing through sound. That observation helped us add more auditory-based activities to his day, and his engagement with group learning grew tenfold.

What to watch for:

• What toys or activities does your child choose during free play?
• How do they respond when introduced to something new-do they watch, listen, ask questions, or dive in hands-first?
• During story time, are they more engaged by the pictures, the words, the voices, or acting it out?

Here’s a quick table to help parents and educators jot down notes over a week:

Observation	What It Might Indicate
Likes to copy dance moves or actions	Kinesthetic or visual preference
Asks for music during play	Auditory or musical intelligence
Draws or labels their work	Visual or read/write preference
Talks to self while playing	Auditory or interpersonal learner
Spends time outdoors watching bugs	Naturalist learner

No formal testing needed-just open eyes and a notepad.

Using A Learning Style Assessment For Kids (And How To Keep It Simple)

There are questionnaires available-like the VARK for children or educator-developed observation checklists-but in my experience, they’re best used as a guide, not a diagnosis.

We once trialled a simplified “learning style snapshot” at our centre during parent-teacher chats. It was just three questions:

1. What does your child choose to do during free time?
2. How do they prefer you help them when they’re stuck?
3. What do they talk about most after a big day?

The answers were surprisingly revealing.

If you’re keen to do a light-touch assessment, keep it playful:

• Give your child choices: “Would you like to listen to this story, look at the pictures, or act it out with puppets?”
• Observe their focus and recall: which version did they talk about or remember later?
• Ask simple questions: “What helps you remember things?” or “What do you like most at kindy?”

Children aren’t always self-aware about how they learn, but their preferences come through loud and clear if we listen with curiosity.

Red Flags And Myths To Avoid

It’s important to remember-learning styles are preferences, not fixed traits. Children are incredibly adaptable, and the way they learn can shift with age, mood, setting, or even the topic.

I’ve seen children who were completely hands-on in preschool become strong readers in their first year of school. Preferences can evolve-and that’s a good thing.

Be cautious of these common myths:

• “My child is a visual learner, so they won’t do well in reading or maths.”
• “He’s too active to be a reader.”
• “She’s a talker, not a doer.”

These statements, though well-meaning, can limit how we support a child’s growth. The truth is, every child can benefit from learning across multiple modes-it just helps to know where to start.

Checklist: Spotting a rigid mindset

• Are we only offering activities in one mode (e.g. mostly listening or worksheets)?
• Are we avoiding certain subjects because we assume the child won’t connect with them?
• Are we labelling the child too narrowly (“He’s not a numbers kid”)?

Instead, we want to build bridges across styles-to use a child’s strength as a stepping stone to support other areas.

Understanding how children learn isn’t about following a trend or ticking a box-it’s about truly seeing the child in front of us.

At Little Angels, I’ve seen again and again how a simple shift-like using pictures instead of just words, or adding movement to a counting game-can open up a child’s learning world. When we pause, observe, and adapt, we offer children more than just knowledge. We offer them confidence. We offer them joy.

Learning styles aren’t rigid rules. They’re starting points for connection. And when used thoughtfully, they can help us create early learning environments that celebrate differences, honour strengths, and give every child the chance to shine.

Whether you’re a parent trying to support your child at home, or an educator planning your week, my encouragement is this: stay curious about how your children learn, not just what they learn. You might just discover something wonderful along the way.