There are many ways that people communicate and learn. In this month’s series so far, I’ve shown you some ways to communicate with visual spatial learners and talked about ways to communicate with verbal linguistic (aural) learners, and touched on some ways to communicate with kinesthetic/tactile learners. This week, I’m going to touch on how to communicate with reading/writing learners, as well as give a short synopsis of the eight intelligences and how they fit into the four learning styles.

Pure reading/writing learners represent about nine percent of the population and favor written communication. Academics tend to favor this learning style.

This is probably the easiest learning style to approach — too bad it is such a small percentage, right? Anyway, Here are some ways you can appeal to the reading/writing learners in your target audience:

• Provide written material that emphasizes your salient point. Books, manuals, blog posts — these are all great ways to communicate with reading/writing learners.
• Provide written statements with all illustrations. This way, your reading/writing learners will have the option to gain the information you provide in a way that suits them best.
• Include written exersizes in your presentation. Get people to write out important information, as well as their own take-aways.
• Provide flashcards for key ideas in your programs. Any way that you can incorporate words into your educational materials will help your reading/writing learners engage more effectively.

All the learning styles I’ve discussed this month are related to the eight intelligences:

1. Verbal/linguistic – manipulation of words and languages
2. Logical/mathematical – ability to collect, organize and analyze data
3. Visual/spatial – formation and manipulation of mental models
4. Bodily/kinesthetic – processing information through the senses
5. Naturalistic – recognizing and classifying plants, animals and minerals
6. Musical – understanding, creating and interpreting musical pitches, timbre, rhythm and tones
7. Interpersonal – ability to interpret and respond to the moods, emotions, motivations and actions of others
8. Intrapersonal – the ability to know oneself

If you can add techniques, modalities and strategies in your business that speak the four learning styles and the eight intelligences, you’ll more effectively reach and impact your target market.

What’s Up for Own Your Awesome Fridays this Month

June is Effective Communication Month, so for the four Friday’s in June, I will be sharing some tips on how to communicate with people of different learning styles. When you can include communication styles in your presentations, programs and products that speak to the various learning styles, you will be a more effective communicator and educator. I will start with the top three learning styles that most people are familiar with and end with the lesser known learning styles.

• June 5: Communicating with Visual Spatial Learners
• June 12: Communicating with Verbal Linguistic Learners
• June 19: Communicating with Bodily Kinesthetic Learners
• June 26: Communicating with Other Learning Styles ⇐ This Week

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