Modalities- Learning Through Our Senses

A family has just purchased a new computer and printer. It was decided that they would learn to use it together as the mother and the father wanted to use it in the family business, and the daughter needed to learn how to use it for school projects and the family business. A specific time was set aside for them to learn to use the machine.

Within a week, the house was in an uproar. The father wanted to use the computer manual and teach himself by constant trial and error. The mother wanted to pick up the necessary skills by watching her husband and daughter and practicing on her own. She prepared little drawings to help her remember how to get into programs and turn the machine off. The daughter decided that this was too amateurish and took a course offered at school. She then tried to tell her parents what she was learning at school.

The three family members failed to learn together because they failed to recognize that they each had a preferred way to learn.

Person	Sense	Channel	Learning Characteristic
Father	body movement	kinesthetic	likes to interact directly with materials likes to practice and experiment
Mother	sight	visual	likes to actually see a process relies on charts, diagrams and notes
Daughter	hearing	auditory	takes instruction well likes directed learning with discussion

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