At some point most of us have taken a quiz. Visual, auditory, or kinaesthetic. You answer fifteen questions about whether you prefer diagrams or podcasts, and out pops a label that supposedly explains how your brain works.
It's a satisfying idea. Tidy. Useful-feeling. There's just one problem: the research doesn't back it up.
The learning styles theory has been taught in schools for decades and tested just as long. The findings keep coming back the same way. Knowing whether a child prefers pictures over words doesn't reliably predict how well they'll learn something when you teach it that way. The brain is more complicated than a three-option quiz.
But here's the thing. Children genuinely do have different strengths, different ways of engaging, and different conditions where they do their best thinking. That's real. And paying attention to it makes a real difference. It's just not a fixed category with a name on it.
How the brain actually takes things in
The brain doesn't learn through one channel. It builds understanding by connecting lots of things at once: movement, emotion, context, what something reminds you of, whether it feels relevant.
Think about how a kid learns to ride a bike. They watch someone do it. They feel the balance in their own body. They fall off, try again, figure out what worked. No one labels them a kinaesthetic learner. They're just learning the way humans learn, through experience, repetition, and a bit of trial and error.
What changes between kids isn't the mechanism. It's which entry points feel natural, which environments help them settle, and which kinds of tasks play to their strengths. That's worth knowing about. It's just not a box to put them in.
What to actually pay attention to
Forget the quiz. Watch your kid instead.
When do they seem most switched on? Moving, building, drawing, talking it out, reading quietly, working alongside someone else? There's no right answer, just useful information.
What do they remember without trying? The stuff that sticks without effort tells you a lot about what's genuinely capturing their attention. That's usually a mix of interest and emotion, both of which are strongly linked to memory.
What helps them focus? Some kids need quiet. Others need a bit of noise or movement in the background. Some do their best thinking in the morning. Some need to move around before they can sit down and concentrate.
And when something isn't landing, what happens? Do they get frustrated and shut down? Try a different angle? Ask for help? That tells you something about how they handle challenge, which matters just as much as how they take information in.None of this gives you a label. It gives you a picture. And a picture is far more useful.
What to do when they're stuck
If writing the spelling words ten times isn't working, the problem isn't the repetition. Repetition is actually how this stuff gets locked in. The problem is that passive, disengaged repetition barely works. Your child is copying without thinking, which means the brain isn't really doing much with it.
The goal is to make the repetition active. Get the brain actually involved.For spelling words, try saying them out loud in a silly voice. Spell them backwards. Write them on a steamed-up mirror. Text them to you and you text back. Use them in a sentence about something they actually care about. Write them in sand, on a whiteboard, on each other's backs. Make up a stupid rhyme. Draw a picture that represents the word. The more ridiculous the better, honestly, because the brain remembers things that are funny or surprising far better than things that are boring.
For times tables, same idea. Say them while bouncing a ball. Clap the rhythm. Turn it into a game where you take turns and whoever gets it wrong has to do five star jumps. Stick them on the bathroom mirror. Use an app that makes it feel like a game. Connect the number to something real. If there are six people coming for dinner and everyone needs two sausages, how many sausages do we need?
None of that is avoiding the work. That is the work. The brain encodes things more deeply when they're connected to movement, humour, or something that actually means something. Which is why it feels like pulling teeth when you're both just staring at a piece of paper going through the motions.
A few other things worth knowing. If your child needs to move, let them move. Spelling words while walking around the room isn't a distraction. For some kids it genuinely helps things land. If they need to talk it through before they can write it, let them talk first. And if they need to know why it matters, answer that honestly. "Because it's homework" doesn't give the brain much to work with.Ask them what helps. Kids often know exactly what works for them. They just haven't been asked.
Why it matters
There's a lot of research on what makes a strong learner. Near the top of the list, consistently, is the ability to think about your own thinking. To notice when something isn't working and try something different. To know yourself well enough to know what you need.
That's not an innate trait. It develops. And it develops fastest when the adults around a child treat them as someone worth understanding, not just someone to get through the curriculum.
A child who knows themselves as a learner has a kind of confidence that doesn't depend on being told they're smart. They know what they need. They know how to ask for it. And they know that when something isn't working, it's not because they're the wrong kind of person.
That's worth a lot more than any quiz result.
Growing Minds Hub is here to support children, families, and educators in Rotorua, through a one-day-a-week learning programme, individualised educational psychology support, and workshops for parents and teachers. Find out more here.
Want to read more? John Hattie is one of the world's most respected education researchers, and he happens to be a New Zealander. His book 10 Steps to Develop Great Learners, written with his son Kyle, takes his research and puts it into practical language for parents. One of the most evidence-based parenting reads out there. Find it here.
References
Pashler, H., McDaniel, M., Rohrer, D., & Bjork, R. (2008). Learning styles: Concepts and evidence. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 9(3), 105–119.
Rogowsky, B.A., Calhoun, B.M., & Tallal, P. (2015). Matching learning style to instructional method: Effects on comprehension. Journal of Educational Psychology, 107(1), 64–78.
Hattie, J., & Hattie, K. (2022). 10 Steps to Develop Great Learners: Visible Learning for Parents. Routledge.
Flavell, J.H. (1979). Metacognition and cognitive monitoring. American Psychologist, 34(10), 906–911.
Mayer, R.E. (2009). Multimedia Learning (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.
