One common worry in homeschooling is wondering if your child/student is ‘on track’. It’s the top question we receive from parents here at Homeschool Boss, “My child is so gifted at reading, but they just can’t figure out math, what are we doing wrong?” Some parents find that whenever they start working with their child on a challenging subject, it quickly goes from a joyful experience to a battle. If this sounds like you, you are not alone!
So, why is it that so many children excel in certain subjects but struggle to keep up in others? Children struggle with topic-specific comprehension due to how they uniquely learn and utilize executive functioning skills. Most likely, it’s not the subject itself, but the skills the subject is asking your student to use. The truth is, every student has certain things they are better at than others. As every parent knows, even siblings raised with similar upbringings often have totally different interests and skills. Every child is different, and their learning style will be, too.
To understand why your child is struggling in certain subjects requires you to understand how they are learning in the first place. If you can understand your child’s strengths and weaknesses and connect them to how your student thinks when they are learning, you can teach in a way that works for them. So, how do you identify your child’s skills and weaknesses when it comes to learning? And how do you know which learning approach actually works?
Identify Learning Styles
Most children are wired to comprehend certain ways of learning quicker than others. This can be a bit abstract until you see them in action, so let’s break down a few common examples.
Razonamiento Complejo
Complex Reasoning is your child’s ability to understand and analyze new information, and solve problems. This might look like being able to hear an instruction and then understand that instruction in order to take action on a task. This might also look like being able to visualize how objects relate to each other in space. These are two very distinct examples: your child may be a great complex reasoner in one of these areas, but struggle with the other!
Memoria
Some students are particularly good at remembering visual concepts like formulas, figures, and pictures. Basically, non-language-based information. Others may be able to recall what they or hear, allowing them to memorize concepts or language more quickly.
Velocidad
Speed is how efficiently a child is able to work to process information to complete assignments or physical tasks within the expected time. This may show up in standardized testing, how they participate in group settings, how quickly a student is able to take notes, or play sports.
Executive Functioning
This is how efficiently a student is able to complete an assigned problem (regardless of how well they know and understand the information). A child may be skillful in focusing, which allows them to notice small details. Or, they may be a skillful flexible thinker, so when a problem requires them to change course, they are able to adapt and continue without shutting down.
How do you figure out how your child learns?
It is one thing to understand learning styles, but it’s another to figure out how those apply to your learner.
Mindprint is an assessment tool which identifies a student’s learning strengths and actionable next steps to support academic growth. The test works using a series of ‘puzzles’ geared to pinpoint the skills students are using to solve the puzzles. The tool was initially developed by the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine through a National Institutes of Health grant, and independently validated through a John Hopkins University Study.
Take an inventory of how your child’s memory, executive functioning, complex reasoning, and speed translates into how they are learning using Mindprint. Once you understand what ways your student learns best, you are able to shape how your child is learning about a subject. Additionally, when you know what skills may challenge your child, you can work on those skills. Just because a student is stronger in one skill right now doesn’t mean that other skills can’t grow. Knowing it’s an area for growth can allow for the intentionality and attention certain skills may require.
We heard from parents that they needed a way to understand why their child Mindprint answers that question. After we implemented this test into our selection, the feedback was almost immediate: parents finally understand in a new way their child’s approach to learning, and are making the breakthroughs that wouldn’t have been possible without that knowledge.
