Evergreen and Everlasting!
Some things will never change. How we learn is one of them. I was eighteen, entering college, when I learned about the four different learning styles.
I have a slight learning disability, and I struggled throughout all my schooling. I had to work doubly hard for any grade I earned, especially because I didn’t know the best way to retain the information I was taking in.
In college, a placement test indicated that I needed additional academic attention. So, at 8:00 AM every Monday through Thursday, I attended a preliminary class to help me understand my own learning style.
At first, I was ashamed of myself for needing this class. While all my friends headed off to their entry level courses, I endured the preliminary classes that preceded the entry level course.
Then I discovered all the various ways of learning. This was an extraordinary gift. Not only did it ease my collegiate path going forward, but it also made me attuned to the impact learning styles have on communication and comprehension.
I won’t get into too much detail but below is a quick breakdown of the four main styles of learning:
- Visual- People who need graphics, charts, diagrams, pictures, and the like are visual learners.
- Audio- Audio learners retain information by listening to others. There is a good chance an audio learner can listen to a lecture and perform well on a test. They also read aloud to truly absorb information.
- Reading & Writing- Taking notes and reading over what they have written is the best studying tactic for this style of learner.
- Kinesthetic- Hands-on learning. You can’t just tell the kinesthetic learner how to do something, they must walk through each step with you to retain the information being provided.
I don’t think I am alone in saying that I am a little bit of all of them. The trick is to find out which style you need to apply for any given situation.
The other point of significance is incorporating each of these styles into your business and marketing strategies, especially as you scale.