Let's focus in on our (ok, my) biggest challenge in the home today... TACTILE learners.
Getting Started – Tactile learners are those ones that drive us nuts while they fidget or build or doodle and forever look like they’re not listening, but then shock us by reciting the exact lesson when we least expect it! There is a small risk, though – sometimes, they really AREN’T listening...Your sweet tactile learner is more involved in the doodle, or the pipe cleaner, or the fuzz on the carpet he’s enjoying flicking around. So…. make the fidget part of the language lesson. As you give out new words, have them doodle their own flash cards, or pound the play doh into the shape that makes the most sense – or just color a picture as they repeat the new word three times in a row.
I ALWAYS have my students repeat the word three times – this gets it in any type of learners’ head. Audials are saying and hearing it, Visuals are reading or looking at it, and Tactiles are coloring or touching it (I always ask them to put their FINGER, not their pencil, ON the word as we repeat.
the finger = el dedo (ehl-deh-doh)
This is the first part of a four part series on Tactile Learners and foreign language learning. If you have one of these special learners in your home, comment on your tips and tricks, or struggles on the Flip Flop Spanish Facebook page. We'd love to encourage one another!