Are you a kinesthetic learner or teaching a kinesthetic learner? If your child prefers the kinesthetic learning style, then teaching with kinesthetic learning strategies may improve your child’s comprehension. Even if kinesthetic learning isn’t a preference, some activities for the kinesthetic learning style can help you improve as a learner or as an educator. As you explore kinesthetic learning, look for ways you can use these characteristics and activities to improve your learning or teaching strategies.
What is kinesthetic learning?
The kinesthetic learning style reflects a marked preference for tactile, hands-on learning experiences. This style is also called tactile learning or experiential learning. Kinesthetic comes from kinesthesis or kinesthesia, which is the experience of receiving information from the sense organs: touch, taste, smell, see, and hear. The difference between kinesthetic learning and auditory or visual learning is that a kinesthetic learner prefers to directly experience what they are learning about. Being a kinesthetic learner means that you often want to learn by doing—through hands-on activities, by participating in demonstrations, or moving manipulatives around.
Regardless of learning preferences, studies show that there is a direct relationship between movement and memory and learning. In general, all students that participate in active learning (learning with movement) will retain more of what they learned over time.
Importance of Kinesthetic Learning
Using kinesthetic learning strategies can be especially helpful in learning skills that require movement and coordination. Muscle memory allows you to complete familiar tasks or actions using motor functions without needing to think. For example, for most people, writing—which requires a series of complicated fine and gross motor skills—becomes so automatic that older children, teens, and adults rarely need to think about how to form letters to write a word. Similarly, when typing, we rarely think about the position of the letters on the keyboard or even the spelling of the word to type words. The same applies for all skills, crafts, and trades that use repetitive or practiced movements to perform well.
Kinesthetic learning activities develop physical connections between a concept and a real, tangible thing or action. Just as manipulatives help students develop number sense, using kinesthetic learning strategies builds connections and improves memory for specific skills, especially if the students do activities multiple times. The importance of kinesthetic learning comes in that all kinesthetic activities benefit all students, regardless of learning preferences.
Kinesthetic Learner Personality
If you or your child prefers kinesthetic learning, then you learn best by actively participating in learning. You’ll often retain information and new skills best by diving into a new activity and learning as you go rather than being told how to do something first. When you’re learning a new skill, look for ways to be physically involved. You might find it helpful to make up motions or gestures to represent vocabulary words or sequences that you have trouble remembering. Kinesthetic learners also learn best by adding a physical activity, like walking, bouncing, or fidgeting, to their study time. These simple physical activities improve focus and recall for all learners, not just kinesthetic learners.
Kinesthetic Learner Characteristics
A kinesthetic learner may
- Enjoy activities they can participate in rather than just watching,
- Find it easier to read or listen to directions as they go rather than be given directions ahead of time,
- Benefit from mild, repetitive activities while studying,
- Prefer walking tours, learning with gestures or motions, and hands-on, manipulative-based activities over lecture or quiet seat work, and
- Benefit from taking notes or doodling to add a passive physical element and increase focus.
Strengths of Kinesthetic Learners
- Kinesthetic learners often excel at diving in and trying new activities.
- They typically need little direction to get them started on new tasks.
- They may gravitate towards active hobbies, skills, and trades that they can learn by doing.
Kinesthetic Learning Examples
Kinesthetic learning comes when students do things themselves—typically with a physical activity. The first example of a kinesthetic learning experience that many of us share, aside from walking, is learning to write. As students learn about letter shapes and motions, they generally spend time tracing letters and drawing them with their fingers. Once they begin writing, they’ll practice writing the letters to develop fine and gross motor skills. Other examples of kinesthetic skills include
- Walking
- Riding a bike
- Dancing
- Aerobic stretches
- Drawing and painting
- Needle and yarn art
- Using scissors
Best Learning Environment for Kinesthetic Learners
To create or find a learning environment for kinesthetic learners, understand that freedom of movement is a requirement. If you want to encourage learning for your kinesthetic learner, you can’t have a bottoms-on-the-chair approach. Your top strategy for learning should be to get them up and moving and physically involved in learning. You might arrange a walking tour as a learning activity. Maybe you could add a trampoline they can bounce on while reading or memorizing. Give them a fidget toy or sketch pad to encourage focus for times when they must sit still. As much as possible, do lab activities in science and use manipulatives in math.
Study Tips for Kinesthetic Learners
- If you’re a kinesthetic learner, you may benefit from handwriting notes rather than typing or just listening. When you’re studying, highlight or underline important information. These are small but simple ways to be hands-on with your learning.
- Walk or pace when you’re memorizing.
- Make up motions or gestures to help you remember vocabulary words or sequences.
- Role play what you’re learning about.
Activities for Kinesthetic Learners
If you’d like to bring the kinesthetic learning style into your homeschool or teaching approach, try some of the following activities to get your learners physically engaged with their lessons.
- Manipulatives. Manipulatives are physical representations of ideas and concepts, so they give tactile learners a chance to touch and feel an idea.
- Walking tours. Walking tours get kids up and moving. You might put pictures up on the walls for kids to go and visit and look and different inventions, set up a picture zoo, or create a small art gallery in your home.
- Role play. The power of a child’s imagination can give a sizeable boost to recall and engagement when they get a chance to physically act out events in history, stories, or discoveries.
- STEM. STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) activities give students a chance to use what they know in multiple disciplines to create something that solves a real-life problem.
If you’re not sure what learning styles you prefer, take our learning styles quiz or read about all 7 types of learning styles.
Hands-on activities can be handy along with classroom pedagogies to ensure sensible training. While kids and teens may get indulged for better grades and academics, adults may participate in activities to instantaneously grasp skills. But, which learning style can be befitting, especially for pragmatic learners?
The behavior and attitude of the aspirant determine their learning styles. There are broadly four core learning styles: Visual, Auditory, reading & writing, and kinesthetic. When the pupil chooses to learn by the movement of hands and perception of their body maneuver, they are probably kinesthetic learners.
Kinesthetic learning, as we know, is a unique learning style in which the learner touches and feels the entity to learn about it, stipulating hand-eye coordination and finer learning. The edge is that such style may be preferred at all ages. Accordingly, what activities can be appropriate for such individuals?
Activities can be of varying complexities based on the age of aspirants. Consequently, here we traverse through kinesthetic learning activities for kids, college teens, and adults. Comprehending these can make you lucid with how such a learning style can be evident for anyone.
Kinesthetic activities for kids: Learning numbers and letters finer
Little ones are often enticing, they always look to explore and learn about new notions and entities. Kinesthetic learning may be a custom-tailored style to feed their enthusiasm with a practical approach. Kaj Gronbaek[1] outlines that Kinesthetic interaction supports body-kinesthetic learning as argued in the learning literature. Further, it is fun and motivating, which encourages children to explore and learn.
Here are a few activities that can encourage body-kinesthetic learning in toddlers.
1. Salt Tray Response
Salt trays are often used to create a plane to practice letters and symbols as an alternative to paper. Here the little ones can use their fingers to draw shapes, thereby ensuring kinesthetic learning. To start with, the Instructor offers a salt tray to the toddler. Now the little one is asked a question. The kid needs to present their answer by writing on the salt tray. For instance, If the question is Write ‘F,’ the toddler writes the letter. To get ready for the next questions, the toddler can erase the answer soon after the mentor evaluates it.
This activity is facile and interesting, especially for those who often play with sand and are kinesthetic learners. This activity also aids in amplified motor skills.
2. Find it out
The mentor needs to procure different toy models of animals, birds, things, fruits, vegetables, etc in a bucket and alphabet magnet toys in a box. To start with, the teacher will randomly pick out an alphabet toy from the box and students needs to find a relevant toy from the bucket whose name is starting from that alphabet. For instance, if the instructor picks out the letter ‘F’, the student needs to find say “fish” or “flower” toys.
This activity creates scope for the children to touch and feel various things around them. Furthermore, They learn the alphabet and different things around them from that alphabet.
3. Decipher Empirical problem
Adorning paper-based practices with a sensible touch can turn it into an enticing activity. To start with, the teacher provides 5 small balls to the kid. Now, the instructor asks a question. Say, what is 1 +2? The kid takes one ball in one hand and two balls in another. They now can count all the balls and answer back ‘3’.
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Every kid gets a chance to touch and feel the ball as they count the answer, thus ensuring kinesthetic Stimuli. This activity can be further kinesthetic by making the little one write the answer in a salt tray.
4. Ball and Clay
To start with, the teacher needs to get a marker, a ball, a marker cleaner, and play clay. Mentor writes a letter on the ball and throws it to the student. Now the young one needs to identify the letter and create the shape using play clay. Once completed, the students show the clay shape to the teacher for approval. Once evaluated, the instructor can erase the letter and replace it with a new number/ letter to repeat the cycle again.
This activity ensures academics is mixed with sports to make it intriguing. Kids hold the ball to spell words and also create it with clay, ensuring touch and feel. The activity can be practiced almost everywhere, including on the beach on vacations, making it handy. Furthermore, making alphabets with clay ensures they learn to write these on paper effortlessly later.
5. Number Dicing
This facile activity can be icebreaking in the morning, or refreshment after a period. The mentor needs to arrange a dice and bowl full of chocolates to start. One student comes to the table and takes dice from the teacher, and rolls it. Now, the little one counts the number and can take the same number of chocolates from the bowl as a reward. This activity can be made yet more enticing by asking the student to create the number using these chocolates. For instance, if the number on dice is 4, the student picks four chocolates and forms “4” with those chocolates.
Dice is often an obligatory part of board games. For children, they may aid in motor skills, as they roll dice. The activity turns kinesthetic when the child turns to count the chocolates and create numbers themselves.
Kinesthetic activities for college teens: To ameliorate their academics
For teens and college students, kinesthetic simulations along with classroom pedagogies can be assistive, especially in fields like Nursing and engineering. Kayce Mobley[2] outlined some kinesthetic activities that are helpful for students, ensuring no reasonable stress is put on teachers.
He stated that kinesthetic examples could allow instructors to remain relevant in physical classrooms, offering a straightforward counterpoint to the recent trend toward MOOCs (massive open online courses) in higher education.
Here are some activities that can aid college-goers kinesthetically.
1. Decking Notions
Recalling the notions that were previously taught can effortlessly be ensured with note making or flashcards. Getting these cards in action later can make out an intriguing activity.
To start with, a group of students piles up their previously prepared flashcards from different subjects. Now, a student picks up a random card and puts out body movements to depict the subject and notion on the card to others. For instance, If the subject is math and the chapter is Circles, the student can form a circle with their hands to depict.
Involving bodily movement, along with an engrossing revision of lessons makes this activity a noteworthy kinesthetic pick.
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2. Stick Angles
To start with, teachers offer students five sticks each. Now, teens are provided with a question whose answer is to be represented in the form of a model made with these sticks. For instance, a teacher may offer a geometry question and ask to solve them by making angles with sticks. A student can represent the answer by representing it holding the sticks at an angle of say 30. These sticks models can also be used for making molecular models for students whose studies are related to chemistry
This activity assists in inferring real-life models of academic problems, thus inferring the knowledge kinesthetically.
3. Instant Prototypes
College students often like to infer from simulations. To ensure learning, asking them to prepare prototypes can be a great idea. Say the teacher has explained about the difference in speeds due to difference in gear size, students may be asked to make a prototype of 2 gears with chain/belt with home-based collections like cardboard and paper. Their prototype can be evaluated later to ensure they have grasped the notion.
This activity can be a great take-in for automotive and engineering students, as they let them build and understand notions kinesthetically.
4. Cut-Paste Narration
In subjects like history, students learn about various kings and their acquisitions in detail. They may be asked to make a pictorial representation of an era to ensure the same. For instance, if they have been learning about the Argead dynasty, or the Mughal dynasty the professor may ask them to create a family tree and flowchart presenting successive rulers. Teens may procure images of kings, cut them, and then create a pictorial narration of the dynasty’s history on a poster.
This activity ensures pupils make use of fingers and touch the sheets to cut and make the right narrative, ensuring their retained knowledge kinesthetically.
5. Play Acting the Chapter
Literature students often expedite through works and plays. A scene can be acknowledged better by inferring it visually and possibly being a part of it. Consequently, to start the activity, the teacher chooses students for different characters of the play and then asks them to roleplay the scene for better comprehension of roleplayers as well as the other students.
Such activities can not only expose the scene but also highlights the emotional level of each character absorbing it better.
Kinesthetic activities for adults: Putting in lessons promptly
Contrasting to kids, Adults often can decide for themselves about what is significant to be learned. They often have a set of viewpoints that they have developed by their experience. Grown-ups often expect the learning to be immediately helpful. Kinesthetic learning can be helpful to those who desire to learn a new skill or information, feed inner desires or increase competence in the workplace. Here are some activities to ensure to keep them involved, active and capable:
1. Cook it Up
Cooking is a mix of multiple kinesthetic activities. Right from traversing through the kitchen to dicing vegetables to making enticing shapes out of doubt, every part of it is almost kinesthetic. The individual can take up the task of cooking and relate the ingredients with other notions and start learning them as they go forward with the recipe. While some like listening to music as they cook, some concentrate on the process.
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This recreational activity is often believed to be a stress buster, while its stipulation of hand movements makes it a tremendous kinesthetic activity, especially mixing up the ingredients.
2. Simulacrum
Inferring from visual cues turns pivotal in some instances. Charades can be a great kinesthetic take-in for the same. This party game stipulates the individual to give visual cues aiding others to guess the word. As the person strives to offer the clue using their hand and body movement, retaining the notion turns easy later. To start with, a tray full of chits is prepared, each having a word on it. Now, a person picks one of these chits and sees the word. They should give visual cues to the other people in the activity, letting them guess that word. Say, if the word is Monkey, they can act like a monkey to demonstrate.
3. Group Debates
Sitting in a group and debating about a topic can give out multiple views on it. In corporate companies, employees are offered a topic to share their ideas and views. Such practices not only improve personalities but also generates leads to expand and develop for the company. Not only in corporations but group discussion can also be implemented in other professions as well. The clear edge of the activity is that each individual expresses their views with relevant hand movements to communicate better, ensuring kinesthetic influence.
4. Field Errand
Field trips are often cardinal to discern the actual working of the system. Practicing assignments in the field can be a great take on kinesthetic learning. For an engineer who visits the plant to learn about a new model, the motor can look to start and make demonstrations to learn it better. For instance, a group of junior engineers may visit a manufacturing plant and take turns to operate it to observe how it works. Such kinesthetic activities ensure each individual observes crucial detailing,
5. Presentations
In workplaces where employees come up with intriguing ideas, these may not efficiently communicate through a piece of paper or mail. A detailed presentation with slides and videos can add kinesthetics to it. Say a manager came up with a new idea to promote a T-shirt. Instead of elucidating about its traits, they may ask an employee to wear it, so that the essence can be discerned precisely.
Such activity ensures that the learners are properly involved because of their physical involvement, which ensures kinesthetic training.
Concluding thoughts
Activities can be often intriguing as they involve the individual, turning them energetic. Kinesthetic activities for every age group are depicted above. Expedite through them to check which of these can fit you and your little ones. Further, some activities can be apt for everyone. For instance, Playacting can work for both teens and adults too. These fun-generating activities can act towards refreshment being an effective learning strategy. The above-mentioned picks can be worthy for people preferring any learning style along with Kinesthetics.
References:
- Interactive Floor Support for Kinesthetic Interaction in Children Learning Environments. (2007). Kaj Grønbæk.
- Ditching the Desks: Kinesthetic Learning in College Classrooms. (2014, August). Kayce Mobley. //doi.org/10.1080/00377996.2014.951471