Saturday, July 7, 2012

Helping the audio learner


Helping the audio learner

Children have different learning styles: audio, visual and kinesthetic. The Montessori Method of learning and teaching caters to all these styles, but when you are helping your child learn at home, you will probably want to tailor the way you approach it.
Audio learners learn best by listening and talking. This means that when you are at the stage of demonstrating and explaining a new task or activity to your child, your instructions and explanations are very important. You should always make sure that you explain every step of a new process to your child clearly and using the proper words, but it’s extra important with the audio learner.
Older audio learners take in spoken information very easily. Ways that you can encourage them to learn facts and new pieces of information is by using tapes and CDs, as well as through conversation. Audio learners often like to talk to themselves when studying, so you shouldn’t insist that homework be done in absolute silence. (You will have to encourage them to whisper to themselves rather than talking aloud too much talking can distract other people). An audio learner study space should be quiet, although music without words (e.g. classical music or instrumental easy listening) is OK and can help the audio learner focus.
If you can find them, songs and rhymes can be a great way to help your Montessori audio learner remember things like times tables, the letters of the alphabet and other things that need to be memorized by heart even the periodic table when they get to high school

Monday, July 2, 2012

Study Tips for Audio Learners

Study Tips for Audio Learners
Some people are auditory learners: people who learn by hearing. They might read something or do it, but it’s not real for them until they hear it. They might read a textbook chapter four times and not get it, yet understand after one explanation from the teacher.
Like other learning types, auditory learners can be in conjunction with other types, and it has subtypes that aren’t acknowledged by most treatments of the topic. Auditory learning is, however, one of the primary learning types, roughly equal with visual learners for its pervasiveness.
1. Discuss
Some audio learners might find discussion better than strict listening or speaking, with it as a combination of the two. Pick discussion-based classes when or if you have a choice. See if you can find classmates willing to discuss what you learned in class, or friends who will chat about concepts you need to know to help you learn them well.
2. Listen
Heed what others say. Take very close notice to whatever the teacher says in class, and when possible, study from others’ speech. See if you can find classmates who learn better by speaking; maybe one will be willing to speak loudly enough for you to hear.
3. Read
Read your lesson out loud. Pay attention to what you’re saying; hearing yourself say it can stimulate learning. Especially do this if you only have something written to work with, like a book. Reading aloud while researching for a paper might also help you best process it. It needn’t be loud; the only one who needs to hear you is you, unless you’re helping a listener study.
4. Record
If your teacher allows it, bring a tape recorder to class. Record your teacher if possible, and if not, you can always record yourself reading your material. You can listen to this in the car or when convenient, though you’ll probably have the best results if you listen to it for the second time within 24 hours. Listen to the recording as many times as necessary. If your teacher rambles, make your own concise recorded versions of the notes so you’re studying just what you need.
5. Resay
When listening to or reading something, deliberately resay it in your head. Don’t just be a sieve—catch what’s said and deliberately think that thing. For example, if your Spanish teacher says at one point that acabar de plus and infinitive verb means “to have just finished” doing that action, think that to yourself as if you’re in the middle of trying to translate it.
6. Watch
This isn’t strictly a visual method. Find a film documentary or TV program talking about what you’re trying to learn. This can help auditory learners with a secondary learning type of colored visual or, if you end up making your own videos for watching to study, kinesthetic. Can’t find a show on your topic? Check online; the myriad of free videos on the Internet might have what you’re seeking.
7. Yo-yo
This will primarily help those auditory learners who also learn well from motion. Yo-yos produce a buzzing sound while twirling on the string. It might be enough white noise to help you study, especially if you’re kinesthetic; chances are, if you’re yo-yoing, you’ll be walking, too.
Auditory learners have the advantage in most classrooms. They learn the most from lecture, and many teaching styles cater to this learning style. That doesn’t mean that all do, nor that auditory learners won’t still have to work to learn. It’ll just be a bit easier for them, sometimes, then for others.
But they still have to work.

Friday, June 29, 2012

The way to be a good auditory lear ner

 
 The way to
be a good auditory lear
ner

In adult education, one of the important aspects would be to determine your learning style as the methods of learning that we adapt would have to tally with the learning style that you are most comfortable with. Among the different learning style auditory learner will be a person who learns best through listening or when there is an auditory input from the background. They tend to love lecture sessions as they can comprehend it better than reading a book or else by looking at a picture or a diagram.

As with any other
learning style, unless we actively engage in the same, the resulting learning would not be effective. Therefore, in order to be a good auditory learner, you have to adapt various ways which will make use of your ability without disrupting the other learners whom would be comfortable with another type of learning style.

Let us now see some of the measures that can be taken by an auditory learner to enhance their learning through better use of their skills.

• Following obtaining permission from your lecturers, record the lecture sessions and tutorial classes for later reference. This can be an effective method of recalling the learning that took place and for auditory learners; it might be a very important study method.

• Take an active role in the learning process and lead the way in asking questions as well as to respond to questions directed at the class by the tutors.

• Volunteer yourself for classroom activities in order to gain the better auditory input.

• Participate actively in class discussions and form a group with fellow students whom you think are also auditory learners which would gain through the same experiences as you do.

• Read aloud the material, assignments…etc in order to comprehend better.

• Make available background music while studying without disturbing the others who study with you whom might not be gaining anything from such measures.

• Discuss your strengths and preferences with your teachers and formulate a plan of action in order to gain better from the learning activities through the auditory means. Such discussions may promote the teachers to provide more auditory reinforcement while the learning activities are going on as well.

• If it is useful, integrate singing or rhythmic wordings to assimilate more auditory input in the learning process.

When these elements are integrated in your learning activities, you would reinforce the auditory learning abilities within you and thereby would be able to learn better than without such reinforcement. At the same time, it should be remembered that, there can be other measures that a person can adapt in order to be a better auditory learner which at times be unique to a particular person.

Monday, June 25, 2012

the Function of Auditory Memory?

the Function of Auditory Memory?
The function of auditory memory is to aid in learning through information storage and information recall. Sound information is processed by the brain and stored so that it can be used later. There are three different types of memory based on auditory information processing: echoic, short-term, and long-term.
Echoic auditory memory is a small part of short-term memory. Information is heard, processed, and stored. This information creates an echo in the brain. The echo allows the information to only be stored and recalled for about three to four seconds after the sounds have been heard.
Short-term auditory memory begins with echoic memory. When there is sound information that needs to be retained, it is captured into short-term memory. By mentally repeating the information, it becomes part of short-term memory to be recalled as needed in a short period of time. Children learn phonics in this manner. The sounds are heard, they echo through the brain, and after repetition they become grouped into short-term memory.
When information needs to be permanent, auditory memory is long-term. Long-term memories are grouped in the brain so they can be recalled. For example, children learn to speak by hearing the phonetic sounds that make words. These initial sounds are processed and grouped as echoic memory. By repeating the sounds, they move to short-term memory and from there, the sounds are grouped into long-term memory so they can be recalled to form additional words.
Auditory memory deficiencies can cause problems, particularly for children. Language relies on a child’s ability to grasp what they hear. Reading skills can be delayed from auditory memory deficiencies. Recalling letters, numbers, and words involves different areas of the brain even though all this information is auditory. A deficiency can be in one of those areas or all of them.
For example, if a person with an auditory memory deficiency struggles with recalling a series of words, multiple tasks may be difficult to accomplish. Even though only one area poses a problem, childhood learning as well as adulthood learning is affected. Professional and personal aspects of life require the ability to recall information to complete tasks.
Although most adults have finished school and do not need to sit through classroom instruction, auditory memory is still used. Adults rely on instructions given by employers. They also rely on information given by family members for certain tasks, such as activities. Phone numbers are processed through hearing and grouped into short-term memory along with other information that belongs to a series.

Sunday, June 24, 2012

the Difference Between Visual and Auditory Memory?

the Difference Between Visual and Auditory Memory?

Visual and Auditory memory  are both different categories of the broader concept of memory, the recollection of information. Memory is categorized in both broad and specific manners, and understanding each concept independently helps to truly comprehend the disparity between visual and auditory memory. Generally speaking, visual memory, as the name suggests, refers to the recollection of visual information, whereas auditory memories are the recollection of things that were heard.
Visual memories may be formed by the actual perception of a visual stimulus as well as from more imaginative sources. This encoding of stimuli occurs over time frames ranging from momentary, such as the blink of an eye, to longer term, such as the recollection of watching a movie. Of course, these memories may further be altered across time spanning months or years as well.
This particular subtype of memory is able to be stored due to the parietal and temporal lobes. These lobes are a part of the cerebral cortex, the outer layer of the brain involved in most "higher thinking" cognitive processes. The temporal lobe is located on the lateral aspect of the cortex and can be thought of as in the same region as the ear. The parietal lobe is above, superior in anatomical terms, to the temporal lobe, spanning the side and top of the cortex.
Due to the complexity of neurophysiological processes, the exact mechanism of storing visual and auditory memory is not easily articulated or understood. The same holds true for the storing of auditory, or echoic, memory. Echoic memory generally can only be retained for about three to four seconds, which is a relatively short amount of time. Other recollection of sounds, such as what a person was saying during a particular memorable event, is more attributable to episodic memory and other longer-term forms of auditory memory.
Therefore, visual and auditory memory differ specifically as smaller parts of a bigger mnemonic scheme. The difference is primarily the sense that is utilized to acquire the information in addition to the neural storage pathway. In visual memory, the eyes are used to sense reflected light, and the temporal and parietal lobes store the corresponding images. The auditory system is ear based and translates sound waves into particular vibrational patterns that are then interpreted in different ways by the brain to come up with specific sounds. If this sound is of any particular significance, it may then be stored as auditory memory in the brain and recalled for various reasons on both conscious and subconscious levels.



Friday, June 22, 2012

Reading & Auditory Processing

Reading & Auditory Processing

Reading Requires Phonological Awareness

Phonological awareness is a fundamental reading skill. It is the understanding that language is made up of individual sounds (phonemes) which are put together to form the words we write and speak. This is a fundamental precursor to reading. Children who have difficulty with phonological awareness will often be unable to recognize or isolate the individual sounds in a word, recognize similarities between words (as in rhyming words), or be able to identify the number of sounds in a word.
Many poor readers have a specific weakness in phonological processing even though their other processing skills (auditory and language processing) are strong. This is because hearing distinct phonemes (so that they can be recognized as text on a page), particularly so-called blends such as |bl| or |spr|, require processing at up to 40 sounds a second. This is far more demanding that the processing required for spoken language -- hearing words as whole sounds not broken down into phonemes.
Phonological processing for reading requires these specific skill
·         Auditory discrimination: the ability to recognize differences in phonemes (sounds). This includes the ability to identify words and sounds that are similar and those which are different.
·         Auditory memory: the ability to store and recall information which was given verbally. An individual with difficulties in this area may not be able to follow instructions given verbally or may have trouble recalling information from a story read aloud.
·         Auditory sequencing: the ability to remember or reconstruct the order of items in a list or the order of sounds in a word or syllable. One example is saying or writing "ephelant" for "elephant."
·         Auditory blending: the process of putting together phonemes to form words. For example, the individual phonemes "c", "a", and "t" are blended to form the word "cat".
Auditory processing related reading difficulties often linger for a lifetime because these essential cognitive skills are typically not addressed at school. They are deep seated auditory processing disorders that cannot be corrected by word lists and other conventional methods.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

The advantages and dis advantages of audio learning


The advantages and dis advantages of audio learning
The advantages that can be gained from auditory learning include well-developed listening and presentation skills, and the disadvantages of this learning method include auditory distractions and difficulty with detailed written material. Auditory learners excel in interactive approaches to learning that involve storytelling, role-playing and dialogue. This style of learning also facilitates passive learning activities, such as listening to a lecture while driving or exercising. The challenges that are experienced by auditory learners include processing large amounts of detailed written information or instructions. Greater sensitivity to sound also exists for auditory learners, sometimes making it difficult to concentrate in noisy environments.
Auditory learning methods include listening to and verbalizing information. Listening to a lecture and discussing the information in a study group is one example of this learning style. Engaging in storytelling activities that reinforce material is a common learning method. Auditory learners typically solve problems by working through issues out loud. The advantages of this learning style when studying a new language include greater mastery of pronunciation and the understanding of spoken language through the use of videos, dialogue and role-playing activities.
Other advantages of the auditory learning style are the abilities to multitask and to learn in enjoyable ways. Without a great need to read or write down information, an auditory learner can listen to a lecture while driving to work. People who use this learning style can also listen to instrumental music while studying without experiencing much distraction. Creating musical tunes assists this type of learner with memorizing new information. Speaking concepts into a recorder allows the auditory learner to quickly process new ideas that can later be typed out for class assignments.
The challenges of the auditory learning style include processing visual information. Auditory learners typically are slower readers than visual learners. Processing detailed written information might be more challenging for people who learn in this manner, and they might require explanations or discussion. Courses that convey information in the form of graphs and other visual illustrations are sometimes more challenging for auditory learners. When learning a new language, the task of learning how to write a new alphabet or mastering details such as accent mark placement are often more challenging for people who use this learning style.
Other disadvantages of auditory learning are related to sensitivity to both the presence of and the absence of sounds. A learner who is accustomed to hearing and discussing information might have difficulty with silent activities such as test-taking or online learning, which might involve long periods of reading and writing. The presence of some sounds also can be problematic; studying in a noisy coffee shop or while listening to vocal music is sometimes distracting for people who use this learning style.