One Bite at a Time: 3 Tips for Teaching Auditory Learners

"Jehoshaphat, how can you do your home work with those ear buds in your ears?"

"Marigold, can you please stop talking for two minutes?"

"Angus, Why can't you go read a book?!"

These are just some examples of exasperation from parents of auditory learners. It's likely the moms or dads exclaiming questions like these are not auditory learners* themselves and, probably just as likely, Mom or Dad are visual learners. When visual learning teachers communicate with auditory learners it can often feel as if they are speaking different languages without an interpreter. Today I'll attempt to be your interpreter with at least these three common frustrations.

Q: How can you possibly learn with all that 'noise'?
A: How can they learn without it? If auditory learners are stopped from learning through stimulating their auditory senses (listening or speaking) then they will STOP LEARNING!

Let them listen to music while reading or working BUT it should be instrumental music or light on the lyrics.  Catchy phrases (i.e.- earworms) will create more of a distraction, especially for anyone with ADD.  One of my kids loves to listen to the sound tracks of video games like Kingdom Hearts or Zelda. Keep the volume low to create a 'white noise' or just loud enough to drown out other distractions in the house.

Another option is a soundscape app such as this one that creates ambient noise. This would be very effective for people with ADD or studying in an environment with distractions (can you say 'siblings').

Q: How can I get my child to stop talking all the time while I'm trying to teach her?
A: Don't stop her. Redirect her. Give her an outlet to talk about what she's learned.


History Study Group:They don't look
 like they are having fun but they are.

Little siblings come in handy if you can find one. Auditory learners will be able to reinforce what they've learned if they can talk about it by teaching someone else. Have them make a video or skit to summarize what they've learned. Do an oral report; just be sure to have an attentive audience or this won't work well.

Charlotte Mason's narration technique is fantastic for auditory learners. The child reflects back to the parent what they have learned by telling you everything they remember about what they just learned whether that is cuttlefish, pharaohs or Wilbur from Charlotte's Web. Use critical reading questions from your curriculum as a leaping off point.

Learn Out Loud! Join or start a study group. This is a huge boon for teenagers. The energy of being with a couple of other kids and the discussion based learning that results is just what they need. Reading out loud together and discussing the assignment energizes an auditory learner.

Q: Reading assignments result in World War 3 in my house. How can I make my child read more?

A: Have them read less.  Seems counter intuitive but find as many resources as you can to reduce and augment reading with listening. (For more about cultivating reading follow the link to my blog post.)

Use audio books BUT have them read along with the hard copy whenever possible. Older students should read along while listening AND take notes as they read in their book highlighting important information (this pairs their secondary style of visual or tactile with their auditory and reinforces their reading skills).  Audible (a subscription service) and Librivox (free auditory books in the public domain) are my 'go to' tools. Libraries often have audio books but you can run into availability issues. My dyslexic daughter has re-read most of the audio books we purchased with our subscription which delights this mama and now she reads for fun without the audio books and reads most of her textbooks (albeit slower).

Watch documentaries. Isn't that visual? Actually it's both. If your child is an auditory learner they can likely recite to you the entire dialogue from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope without hesitating.  Whenever possible I supplement our studies with documentaries from Netflix and YouTube.

These are just a few bite sized nuggets for tweaking how you teach your auditory learner. I would love to hear your own tips, tricks and trade secrets for teaching according to learning styles so be sure to comment. You can also check out my Pinterest board "Eclectic Learning Styles".

*RESOURCES:  There are lots of tips for teaching an auditory learner found on the internet and in great resources available about learning styles. Identifying my children's learning styles and teaching them accordingly has reduced the level of stress in my home and resulted in REAL learning. A popular book about learning styles is The Way They Learn by Cynthia Tobias. If you want real world suggestions for teaching different learning styles I recommend Jill Dixon's Concise Learning Style's Assessment or POC4U (includes assessments, tips AND suggestions for curriculum matched to learning styles).  POC4U saved me time, money and my sanity. No joke.