JabbaHow does my child learn best? How to find out
Written by The Jabba team · Updated 15 July 2026
How does your child learn best? Not by being put in a box. The idea that every child has one fixed learning style (visual, auditory or kinaesthetic) and should be taught accordingly is one of the most widespread myths about learning. Researchers have tested it again and again and don't find that children learn better when teaching matches their preferred style. What actually works is meeting the material through more than one sense, and finding the way in that suits the topic and the day.
In 30 seconds
- Fixed learning styles are a myth: the preference is real, the effect on learning isn't.
- More than one sense at once beats meeting the material only one way.
- The method should fit the material, not a type you've pinned on the child.
- Swap the question from "what type is my child?" to "what worked today?".
The myth of fixed learning styles
You've certainly heard it: some children are visual, some auditory, some need to touch things. Find your child's type, and teach to it.
It sounds right because there's a real kernel in it. Children have real preferences. Some prefer to see a drawing, others to hear an explanation. That's true.
What doesn't hold up is the jump from preference to result. When researchers test whether children actually learn more when teaching matches their preferred style, they consistently don't find the effect. A child can prefer the drawing and still not learn more from it.
Worse, the label can do harm. A child who's been told they're "not a reader" gets an excuse not to try. Boxes turn into ceilings.
So what works instead?
What the research actually points to is more down-to-earth and more useful. Notice that none of these needs you to know your child's type.
- More than one sense at once. Seeing something, hearing it and doing something with it beats meeting it one way. That holds for almost all children, not for one particular type.
- The method should fit the material, not the child. Geography needs maps, whoever's looking. Pronunciation needs sound. Fractions are grasped best with something you can move. The topic decides.
- Active beats passive. Trying to recall something yourself, or explaining it out loud, sticks far better than re-reading it.
- Little and often beats a lot at once. Practice spread over time is one of the best-evidenced effects in all of learning research.
- The right level. If something is too hard or too easy, no amount of senses helps.
How to find out what works for your child
Change the question. Instead of "what type is my child?", ask "what worked today?". What you're looking for isn't a type. It's a pattern in what works when.
- Try more than one way in. If something's hard, try drawing it, saying it out loud, or doing it with something concrete. See what makes it click.
- Notice where it locks up, not what the child prefers. If it stalls on the text, it's the reading that needs help. If it stalls on the concept itself, make it concrete.
- Look at the timing. Many "it doesn't work" moments are really a tired child at five in the afternoon.
- Ask the child. Not "are you visual?", but "what helped when it suddenly made sense?".
How Jabba meets a child more than one way
If the point is that children learn from more than one sense, and from the way in that suits the material, then a good tool has to be able to switch routes. That's how Jabba is built.
Your child can talk to Jabba or type to him, whichever suits the child and the day. Words are read aloud while they can also be seen, so reading becomes more than one sense at once. Maths starts as blocks, number lines and fraction bars the child can move and see, then bridges to the numbers and symbols they stand for. If one explanation doesn't land, Jabba tries another route.
It's deliberately not a type you pick in a setting. Jabba isn't built to put your child in a box, but to have several ways in to the same thing, so the right one can be found for this topic, today. He goes one small step at a time, gives hints instead of answers, and you follow along in the parent overview, where you can see what makes things click.
What parents ask most
Do learning styles exist?
Children have real preferences, but research doesn't find that they learn better when teaching matches their preferred style. The preference is real, the effect on learning isn't evidenced. That's why fixed types are rarely a good plan.
Is my child visual or auditory?
That's probably the wrong question. Ask instead what worked today, and what the topic needs. Geography needs maps, whoever's looking, and pronunciation needs sound.
So what works instead?
More than one sense at once, methods that fit the material rather than the child, active practice rather than passive reading, little and often rather than a lot at once, and tasks at the right level. That holds for almost all children.
Does calling my child a type do harm?
It can. A child who's been told they're "not a reader" can use the label as a reason not to try. Boxes risk turning into ceilings.
Sources
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A tutor with more than one way in
Let your child see, hear, speak and move, so the right way in can be found for this topic, today.
Set up your child