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:

According to the Finnish Act on Early Childhood Education and Care, every child in ECEC has the right to receive education and care that is systematic and goal-oriented. In order to achieve this, an individual ECEC plan is created for every child together with the child and their guardians. These plans include goals that are set together and promote the systematic care and education provided for the child. Read more: What is Finnish ECEC?

How is the child's individual plan created?

A child’s ECEC teacher is responsible for creating and evaluating the child’s individual ECEC plan. This is a process and involves several steps. In addition to a discussion and the writing process, the creation of a plan includes an assessment and observation of the child’s strengths, needs, and views, as well as an evaluation of the child’s previous ECEC plan. All staff members working with the children take part in the process, and the creation, observations, documentation, and evaluation are conducted multi-professionally.

The plan is based on the child’s strengths and interests, as well as on their best interest and needs. The pedagogical goals and measures, and any support measures and their implementation, are recorded in the plan. The linguistic and cultural background and linguistic skills and abilities of a child who speaks a foreign language or is bilingual are factored in when creating their individual plan. The child’s cultural and religious background will also be considered when creating the plan.

This is how the City of Helsinki has defined the child's individual learning:

Wondering what a curriculum framework really is?

"Curriculum is an organized framework that delineates the content children are to learn, the processes through which children achieve the identified curricular goals, what teachers do to help children achieve these goals and the context in which teaching and learning occur.”  

- National Association for the Education of Young Children  (NAEYC)

The Center's Curriculum consists of the information related to the children's learning process in one tight package. It is a guideline for the staff in their everyday work, and it also tells a lot of you and your values to the families. Therefore, it is a nice idea to have your Center's Curriculum available for the families too. With this as starting point, you can then plan your daily work and create the syllabus consisting of the weekly plans, preplanned lesson plans, etc. 

How to create the curriculum framework?

It is very important to think about how your center operates and what are the core values that everyone should know. Writing down the curriculum with the staff unites your team and sets everyone on the same page.

When planning, arranging and developing early childhood education and care, the primary goal must always be the overall wellbeing of the children. Children’s interests, wishes and needs guide the teachers work forward.  

I  have prepared a list of questions that guide you when writing down your Center’s Curriculum. The checklist is based on Finnish best practices. Naturally, you should adapt these to your local needs and requirements. Think of the questions in detail, as thinking of the themes ahead makes it all easier when the situation hits you - for example a case when someone is bullied. When your team has a clear practice of how to deal with bullying, families trust your professionalism and most of all children feel secure, valued, and happy.

Take a look at the themes and include the relevant ones in your Center’s Curriculum!