Question

how will you plan learning experiences based on children's strengths, interests, abilities and knowledge?

Answer 1

Young children thrive and learn best when they have secure, positive relationships with adults who are knowledgeable about how to support their development and learning and are responsive to their individual progress.

Learning strengths combine talents and abilities with existing skills and knowledge to help kids take in new information. These strengths are ways of thinking, feeling, or acting that can be used effectively. For instance, one child may naturally understand how other people are feeling.

There are many different types of learning strengths. For example, some kids are drawn to words, while some are good with their bodies and movement. Some kids do very well learning new information visually. Other common pathways include learning by listening to information, by finding patterns, and by working with other people. Many people learn best through combinations of these areas of strengths.

People have varying levels of natural ability in different areas. Your child’s set of abilities help make up a unique “intelligence fingerprint.” But it’s not the only factor. Another is thinking style. That’s the way kids process the information they take in.

Some kids are reflective thinkers. They need time to consider all the aspects of an idea before it makes sense to them. Some are global thinkers. These kids often have sudden “aha!” moments when everything makes sense all at once.

Just because kids have a natural ability in one area doesn’t mean they can’t build ability in other areas. It’s important to help your child learn to take on challenges when it comes to learning. Believing that abilities can improve over time despite setbacks is known as a growth mindset.

Take learning to tie shoes, for example. Kids who have a talent for thinking in pictures may have learned to tie their shoes by watching someone else do it. Kids with a talent for taking things apart and putting them back together may have learned shoe-tying by doing it over and over. Whatever a child’s preferred method is, it’s likely they learned to do other things the same way, too.