Last week H was down with fever. With Grade 10 prelims less than a month away I watched him struggle to study despite continuous sneezing, a streaming nose and a throbbing head. Being a veteran of epic colds, my heart went out to him.

‘Shall I read to you?’ I offered.

‘No,’ said he, ‘I can’t study orally. I need to read it myself’.

I got that. I too find it hard to comprehend ideas unless I see them written down. Which is why I haven’t taken to audio books and my Audible credits have been piling up.

I am more of a visual learner. I can’t even choose from a menu card at a restaurant if someone reads it out to me. I need to hold it in my hands and read it for myself.

On the other hand there’s N.

She took a while to get comfortable with reading and for years I helped her study orally, reading out entire portions of her syllabus. Spellings were a struggle and that made school life difficult. Mercifully she found compassionate teachers and I shall forever be grateful for that. 

I specifically remember her Grade 4 teacher telling me that spellings would cease to be an issue in times to come as more and more writing would go digital. As an editor and writer, I found that inconceivable. However, coming from someone I respected and trusted, it was the most comforting thing I had heard at that point in time.

Anyway, N continues to score full marks in her aurals. She picks up lyrics to entire songs without even being aware of it, she can tell long complicated stories with ease. 

She has mastered reading but unfamiliar words still give her trouble. That doesn’t stop her. She loves stories and is an avid reader and a decent enough writer with a rich imagination. However, the oral form remains her preference.

Visual and Auditory learners

Meanwhile, I read up a lot on learning differences, getting sucked into the Internet rabbit hole of information.

I found that auditory learners like N make up just 30 percent of the population (which is why it took me longer to come to terms with her way of learning) while 65 percent are visual leaners like H. The last 5 percent is made of kinesthetic learners who need to do things in order to learn.

Last week’s episode brought back memories of frustrations of their early learning years. I continue to marvel at how different H and N are despite being twins.

Interestingly, ones preferences remain all though life, right up to adulthood. Some of us learn best through books, while videos and podcasts work better for others.

That said, there’s a whole school of thought that rubbishes this categorising of learning styles.

I’d like to believe that learning styles exist but aren’t watertight. Ultimately it boils down to good communication and understanding what works best for your child. Just like everything else about parenting there really is no cut and dried wat.