Executive Coaching Expertise- Dr. Karen Otazo

"I'm really listening even if I'm not looking at you:
How our brains work with our senses"

I wrote the guide to remind us all that people may be learning when we think they are not. It is a plea to let us all use what we know helps us to learn best. What kids do may not look the way their parents and teachers do things. All people do not learn in the same way, at the same rate and at the same time. As long as they can learn, kids and adults should have the time to lower their anxiety in stressful situations like tests. In my years of teaching, I found that untimed tests showed abilities that timed (“power”) tests did not.

Some teachers and psychologists who read the draft of this guide said that “learning styles” or “learning modalities” were no longer of interest to these professions. They said that these had been supplanted by new ways of learning since learning styles are only “preferences” and not important at home and in the classroom. However, learning preferences have not disappeared. The interaction of our brain’s preferences with our senses, guides our lives.

It’s true that people may have a preference for learning yet are able to learn in ways that are not their preferences. In the major path to learning for them, school, they may feel that they are not competent. Their insecurity may stop them from learning when they are presented with approaches they have to struggle with. We have an interesting focus in schools. The goal of teaching is often seen as packing in information to pass tests. Students need to develop the ways they learn as well. The hope with this guide is to encourage students to be responsible for finding their own ways to learn at school.

Please understand that we all develop our non-preferred ways of learning over time. As adults, we may work most of the time in a non-preferred way. Yes it’s harder for us. We learn and adapt. Amazingly, we can learn and improve at any age! For instance, even though we may prefer to learn by doing, we can read the instructions.

I wrote the guide to ensure that the readers understand that the way we learn and communicate is not about intelligence, but about the many ways of learning and doing. The myth that people who learn quickly and early, or do well on tests, are smarter has to be corrected.

After others looked at this guide and asked questions about how adults learn, I added a section on how brain preferences affect our everyday choices at home and at work.

My intent is that this guide will be helpful to all ages but especially to parents and teachers.

The background for the guide to be published shortly is the following:

In 2009, I volunteered in a public school in Houston. Intending to guide the students in their presentation skills a couple of hours a visit, I learned that they were an interesting bunch of kids. Based on a quick check of their learning preferences, their most preferred way of learning and doing was Kinesthetic/Moving. I found this out by asking them to tell me about their home life as I looked at their eye movements. This is one of the techniques from Neuro Linguistic Programming, NLP.

We talked about how famous people expressed themselves. They loved talking about President Obama’s hand movements and Clint Eastwood’s tough physical stance and short sentences. While I was addressing the class, the teacher respectfully asked the students to look at me when I spoke. I then asked the kids to do whatever it took to be able to hear what I was saying.

Many people know how to talk about the three different brain approaches to learning. What they may not notice is how auditory, kinesthetic and visual brains are misunderstood. Since I wanted to get a clear explanation for the different ways we learn, I looked for a good book on Neuro Linguistic Programming, NLP, to explain what I was seeing in their eye movements. I bought all the kids a couple of different books but the books did not help them understand what was happening. The kids knew what worked for them. So I talked with the kids.

As kids in the class looked everywhere but at me, I asked the kids what worked best for them to pay attention to someone talking. We all talked about how twirling hair, lying down, moving around and playing with an electronic game HELPED rather than hurt being able to listen. The preferred (favorite) ways of learning for these kids were Kinesthetic/Moving or Visual/Seeing. Since they were told to listen to me to hear what I was saying, they had to use either a second or third way of learning which they did not prefer. Thus, if they move something, that part of their brain is kept busy and another part which uses hearing is able to focus.

Help Your Brain Focus

Sometimes by keeping your second or third preferred way of learning and doing busy, you can help your other senses focus. Have you noticed how many people like to work while listening to music on their iPods or the radio? Sometimes, if you keep parts of your brain busy you can help other parts of your brain work better on focus. Certain types of music seem to work better than others. Not only kids, but also adults, are criticized for listening to music while doing something else.

Some Auditory/Hearing-First people learn best by listening to spoken words. While listening to the spoken word they can work on the computer, which is visual (looking at the screen) and movement oriented (typing the keys), which may be their second and third ways of learning and doing. To accommodate those who are not Visual/Seeing-First, it’s probably best that the important information appear first, or on a separate email, so that they can truly “see” all of what’s important.

In this guide we will look at how different parts of our brains relate to work and school. Story telling and language learning are related to the Auditory/Hearing part of the brain. Sports and handwriting are both related to movement thus are part of the Kinesthetic/Moving part of the brain. Spelling and reading are largely supported by the Visual/Seeing part of the brain.

What does it mean to “Pay Attention” when you’re in school?

Most of what we learn in the world is overwhelmingly visual. That may be why many people dislike voice mail. There is research that 20% of those who have it check it just once a month. Texting, “tweeting” and emailing win. What takes 7 seconds to read can take 79 seconds to hear. In our fast-paced, heavily visual world, auditory can take a back seat.

All around us are pictures on television, movies, the internet and advertising. It’s estimated that between 80-90% of what we learn in school and at home is visual. When we were young, we “learned by doing” when we learned how to dress, brush our teeth and eat. You may learn by doing in a technical setting like an apprenticeship program. However, most of the time you are reading words and pictures, and looking at information, in order to learn.

Lots of teachers are visual learners. They have also learned that the polite way to be in the world is more of a visual approach. “Look” at people when you’re talking with them. “Pay attention” usually means looking at the teacher or your parent. Looking and seeing are visual.

Below are some of the ways that we stay focused to learn as a result of our preferred ways of learning: Auditory/Listening, Kinesthetic/Moving, and Visual/Seeing. These are all the kinds of things that you do that may annoy teachers, parents, and even other kids. These are real behaviors for both kids and grown ups.

The behaviors fall into categories according to what someone prefers when they are learning. Usually, it’s our brain’s favorite ways of learning that often guides us to focus to learn by doing these things.

We’re lucky that we now have movement-related learning available around the clock with computers, email and texting.