Newsletter Archive

JUNE 2008

Your Learning Style and Job Success 
 
Just as people have different aptitudes (some excel at math while others excel at writing or music, for example) they also have different learning styles. Although anyone can benefit from understanding how he or she learns best, people with Asperger's and NLD can use this knowledge to great advantage when organizing tasks and learning new systems or procedures at work.
 
There are lots of free online tests for determinging your style - one of my favorites is at www.LdPride.net (click on "Learning Styles" in the red bar at the top of their home page). Typically learning styles are divided into three categories: visual, auditory and tactile/kinesthetic.
 
Visual learners do best when information is presented in words, diagrams or pictures, and often recall information in the form of pictures in their minds. At work, visual learners can use detailed notes, flow charts, outlines, color-coding and visual reminders like photos or icons to understand a new process and to organize tasks.
 
Auditory learners prefer to hear information such as in a lecture or group discussion. In the workplace, auditory learners benefit from listening to spoken instructions or recorded information, talking through a procedure or problem with a colleague, or talking themselves through a process (in a private area so as not to disturb co-workers!).
 
Tactile/kinesthetic learners are literally "hands-on." They absorb material best by participating in demonstrations, making models or learning in the field (for example by operating machinery). Writing sequential information on cards and then placing the cards in the correct order can help tactile learners remember procedures and priorities at work.
 
Some people prefer a combination of styles. Auditory/visual learners, for instance, might listen to instructions first and then create a flow chart of information. Tactile/visual learners might participate in a demonstration and then create pictorial cues of what needs to be done.
 
I've had coaching clients use information about their preferred learning style to change the way they approach assignments at work and also to request changes in the way that new material is presented. For some, learning style was incorporated into formal accommodation requests (e.g. asking for written directions) and for others it was stated to a supervisor as a preference ("I learn best by hearing how the process works").  
 
 
© 2008 by Barbara Bissonnette, Forward Motion Coaching