If we stand at the junction of Orchard Road and observe how people walk, we would notice that there are some that would sashay their way through the crowd as if they were on a catwalk. Others would bulldoze half a dozen people out of their way before reaching the other side of the road. There are yet others that look so lost in thought that the world might as well be a wall of faces and they would not notice.

People are different. We are tall, short, thin and fat. Some have double chins, others have triple. Many are scholastically smart.

We are created different from each other. This applies to the way we look, the way we think, sleep, eat and learn. Because we are different, we can focus on the things we are good at doing and achieve excellence. So, exactly how different can we be?

The Story of Samantha

As a psychologist, I often work with children who have certain learning difficulties. Samantha (not real name) was an 8-year-old girl that could not read words very well. Her visual processes were defective. She often mistook the letter “b” for “d,” “p” for “q”. Words like “bay” would become “day” while “bad” became “dab.” It affected her comprehension of text passages. As a result, she failed her English and other examinations. She could not understand what she was reading. She eventually became frustrated and sad.

While working with her, I found that she was able to sound out letters to form words quite well once she identified the letters correctly. Although the whole process was tedious, at least she was reading correctly.

We taught her to read aloud so that she could hear herself. In a short time, she caught on to the method and could process the words she heard herself read. Her comprehension skills improved gradually. Although reading was still very tedious for her, it was no longer an impossible task.

During her Primary Two examinations, she was allowed to sit in a corner of the room so that she could read aloud to herself. After failing every examination she has taken, it was a dream come true when she passed her English examination for the first time. Her self-esteem increased and she became much happier.

The keys to her passing the examination were hard work and understanding where her strengths lay. She was predominantly an auditory learner. When she began to use her listening strengths, she could understand words and sentences better.

My Teenage Story...

I didn’t know anything about learning styles during my school days but I knew I needed to attend lectures. If I missed certain lectures, I would need to spend a long time reading the notes to understand the lectures I missed.

Once I had a lecturer who spoke with a strong foreign accent, and I could not understand what he was saying. It was very tough for me. I struggled with the subject but I got used to his accent in the second semester, and eventually passed the examination.

Essentially, I am an auditory learner. I receive information best through hearing. With the foreign lecturer, the information I heard was distorted due to the strong accent, and that made it harder for me because I needed to hear the information to understand and remember it better. When left to read the notes on my own, I had a lot of difficulties before it could get into my mind.

This incident showed me that to process information effectively, we should learn to convert the information into the mode that is most effective for us.

What are your learning styles?

About the author

Michael Choy have trained more than 3,000 students, 3,500 teachers and 1,500 parents over 5 years. Ratings have been in the region of 90% - 100% positive from the participants. Globally, Active Intelligence Consultancy is part of the International Learning Styles Network based in New York. With paper presentations on their research at International Conferences, Active Intelligence strive to share their learning experiences with fellow educators. Go to http://www.activeintelligence.net/ to find out more.

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