Temperament is defined as individual differences in reactivity and regulation in the domains of affect, activity and attention -Rothbart & Bates

Temperament is relatively stable and it emerges already early in life. Every child's temperament is shaped for example by genetics and living environment.

According to research, children’s temperament has been linked to important outcomes such as academic performance, social development, and behavior adjustment. Therefore, it is important especially for parents, teachers, and childcare providers to understand different ways to communicate with children with different temperament types.

Understanding individual differences in children’s temperament are particularly important in early childhood as children typically enter their first structured educational setting and face environmental demands that may be quite different from those of the home environment.

What are the temperament types?

Thomas and Chess (1977) identified three temperament types:

Everyone has their preferred learning style, and you can assess it through close observation.

"Learning styles is a term that refers to different ways in which we learn, process, and retain information. All young children learn through meaningful hands-on experiences—through touching, doing, and moving. And children also learn through seeing and hearing." Abilitypath

As you follow what the children are doing and what their interests are, you will begin to see strengths and preferences that tell you something about each child’s preferred learning style. The 4 learning styles are:

• Visual (learning through seeing)
• Auditory (learning through hearing)
• Tactile (learning through touching)
• Kinesthetic (learning through doing and moving)

Visual learners

Visual learners learn through seeing. Children who are visual learners like to observe others' body language and facial expressions. Children learn through concrete examples and demonstrations. For older children who can read, written instructions are helpful in addition to verbal ones. These children tend to have a good imagination and they might even think in pictures. Maps, pictures, and other visual aids are good for this group. Too much action in the classroom may cause distraction.

→ Create a visual timetable of the day

→ When learning to count, help by drawing 2 + 2 with apples, etc

Auditory learners

Auditory learners learn through listening and sound. Children who are auditory learners learn through discussions and talking. Verbal directions help with written information. Too much noise may be distracting, so children with this learning style are best in the more quiet learning environment.

→ Practise storytelling

→ Listen to audiobooks

Tactile learners

Tactile learners learn through touching and using their senses. Children who are more tactile learners enjoy activities and projects that include doing by hand and touching different types of items. Children with this learning style might like to draw to help with memorizing things.

→ Make puzzles

→ Provide messy play (eg. slime)

Kinesthetic learners

Kinesthetic learners learn through moving and doing. Children who are more kinesthetic learners enjoy physical movement and they may have trouble sitting still. They often do two things at the same time, such as count and rock their chair. A hands-on approach that allows the child to actively explore around helps her learn best.

→ Count while jumping

→ Spot shapes from the environment

As a teacher, you may want to foster each child’s strengths by finding them suitable tasks according to their personal learning styles. It is also good to keep in mind that giving some challenges helps children to learn and grow as well. Also, some children can perform well in many learning areas. Therefore, offering a variety of learning experiences encourage the children to develop new experiences, strengths, and interests.

Kids Learning Style Survey (Love to Know)

How to support children's unique learning styles in early education?

Early childhood education programs are often organized so that it supports the needs and strengths of all little learners! Below is a checklist that helps you to analyze your center's ways of operating.

Does your center offer?

• Places and periods for free movement (eg. gym, outdoor play, activities that include moving, breaks between activities)
• Guided activities with teacher's guidance (eg. baking session)
• Circle time with a group of children (eg. morning circle 20min every day)
• Music and singing (eg. listening to songs, playing with instruments)
• Reading area (eg. regular storytime, books from different themes available for children to look/read independently audiobooks)
• Art area (Some materials like coloring pictures and crayons can be freely available for children. Paints, markers, scissors, and glue can be used under the teacher's supervision)
• Manipulatives/areas for fine motor skills (eg. Hama beads, legos, playdough)
• Role play area (eg. costumes/masks, shop, dolls)

Balance

Circle time includes group discussion, talking, and listening so it is ideal for auditory learners. Circle time is also appropriate for visual learners as well as guided activities when the teacher shows and gives examples. Tactile learners enjoy for example art area and manipulatives. Kinesthetic learners probably head over to the home corner and role play area. As you can imagine, many activities and learning areas include good learning environments for multiple types of learners, so they can all mix and match!

All these activities support the participation of children with a wide range of learning styles, but it also offers children experiences they may not typically go for. It is great if children can freely access different stations and choose the activity they enjoy. At times, it is anyway important to have also guided activities that have been planned by the teacher and circle times and storytimes.

How to deepen children's learning experiences?

Teachers can help children understand their strengths and individual differences and to respect those similarities and differences in each other. It is also a good idea to seek out real-world experiences that extend the children’s learning. For example, if a child is interested in playing shop, visit the local grocery store. The child will develop a broader understanding of the world if the information is meaningful and presented in a way that meets his or her individual learning style.

You may also go to the library and borrow books that belong to the same theme, extend the shop play by making your own kindergarten money, invite parents and sell real products such as self-made bookmarks and cookies... The sky is the limit! The more you extend the play = the more versatile learning experiences the children are going to get.

Here are some links to further reading regarding learning styles:

• Children's Learning Styles (Abilitypath)
• Diverse learning styles in early childhood education (Resilient Educator, 2018)
• Auditory, Visual & Kinesthetic: Helping Kids Succeed Through Different Learning Styles (Sarah Mead)
• How Children Learn by Observing Behavior of Adults (Eliza Martinez)

Happy learning!

 Everyone has their preferred learning style, and you can assess it through close observation.

"Learning styles is a term that refers to different ways in which we learn, process, and retain information. All young children learn through meaningful hands-on experiences—through touching, doing, and moving. And children also learn through seeing and hearing." Abilitypath

As you follow what the children are doing and what their interests are, you will begin to see strengths and preferences that tell you something about each child’s preferred learning style. The 4 learning styles are:

• Visual (learning through seeing)
• Auditory (learning through hearing)
• Tactile (learning through touching)
• Kinesthetic (learning through doing and moving)

Visual learners

Visual learners learn through seeing. Children who are visual learners like to observe others' body language and facial expressions. Children learn through concrete examples and demonstrations. For older children who can read, written instructions are helpful in addition to verbal ones. These children tend to have a good imagination and they might even think in pictures. Maps, pictures, and other visual aids are good for this group. Too much action in the classroom may cause distraction.

→ Create a visual timetable of the day

→ When learning to count, help by drawing 2 + 2 with apples, etc

Auditory learners

Auditory learners learn through listening and sound. Children who are auditory learners learn through discussions and talking. Verbal directions help with written information. Too much noise may be distracting, so children with this learning style are best in the more quiet learning environment.

→ Practise storytelling

→ Listen to audiobooks

Tactile learners

Tactile learners learn through touching and using their senses. Children who are more tactile learners enjoy activities and projects that include doing by hand and touching different types of items. Children with this learning style might like to draw to help with memorizing things.

→ Make puzzles

→ Provide messy play (eg. slime)

Kinesthetic learners

Kinesthetic learners learn through moving and doing. Children who are more kinesthetic learners enjoy physical movement and they may have trouble sitting still. They often do two things at the same time, such as count and rock their chair. A hands-on approach that allows the child to actively explore around helps her learn best.

→ Count while jumping

→ Spot shapes from the environment

As a teacher, you may want to foster each child’s strengths by finding them suitable tasks according to their personal learning styles. It is also good to keep in mind that giving some challenges helps children to learn and grow as well. Also, some children can perform well in many learning areas. Therefore, offering a variety of learning experiences encourage the children to develop new experiences, strengths, and interests.

Kids Learning Style Survey (Love to Know)

How to support children's unique learning styles in early education?

Early childhood education programs are often organized so that it supports the needs and strengths of all little learners! Below is a checklist that helps you to analyze your center's ways of operating.

Does your center offer?

"Understanding young children's motivational tendencies may contribute to the development of teaching practices that support children's positive dispositions towards learning tasks." David L. Brody et al. 2018

As the quote above explains, children's positive attitude toward learning depends on their teachers and more specifically their teaching methods.

Therefore it is needless to say, that taking a look at different teaching methods is worthwhile! Here are three great teaching methods that every teacher can try in their class easily.

1. Teaching through play

In Finland, early childhood education teachers and the entire early education system believe in learning through play. According to the Finnish National Core-curriculum of Early Childhood Education and Care, play brings joy and pleasure to children, and therefore it is a motivating activity to achieve learning goals. The child is perceived as an active agent of his/her own learning. Learning happens when children play, explore, move, express themselves and be creative. Play is seen as a motivating and joyful action, where children are learning various skills and knowledge. Children are naturally curious and they are willing to learn.

2. One-on-one teaching

Every once in a while it is good to take some time with each student to better assess their skills, thoughts, ideas, and points of development. A great way to get to know the children better.

3. Teaching in small groups

Children learn by playing solitary, in parallel, and in a group

Playing is the underpinning theme in the Finnish curriculum for early childhood education and care. In ECEC, children get to play every day. They play solitary, in parallel, and in a group. An operating culture that encourages children to play recognizes its significance to children’s wellbeing and learning. Playing is the main channel with which children express their emotions and an important source of well-being.

Initially, playing is about contact and interaction between an adult and a child. After this, the child begins to show interest in the surrounding world, and playing is targeted at objects and their purposes. During these early stages of play, playing is usually solitary or parallel. Solitary and parallel play gradually change into collaborative play, allowing children to develop interaction and different roles within a group.

The community encourages everyone to be resourceful, use their imagination, express themselves and be creative. Playing allows children to interact with one another. The staff help children join and ensure that all the children are able to be active participants in their peer groups.

What is the role of the Group Curriculum?

In the previous two blog posts, we discussed the whole Center's Curriculum and then the Child's Individual Curriculum Plan. The Group Curriculum complements these to strengthen the group level. The Group Curriculum has several important themes that help your planning process. 

Group Curriculum is a tool to support the process of pedagogical planning and to assess children's learning and overall educational work with the group and with your team.

View the Group's Curriculum template from Kindiedays!

The Group Curriculum is drafted at the beginning of the academic year, but it can and should be assessed and modified regularly with the staff. The Group Curriculum includes information about the specific children of the group, so each plan is valid only for one academic year.

The Group Curriculum should include information about the group's working methods, educators’ strengths, and individual qualities of the children.

With your team, discuss the following areas: