Michael needs movement in order to learn. His preferred learning style consequently puts him at risk in many school and youth group classes. Students in this group may have low visual and  auditory skills. Many of them fail if they are taught in any other way.

Often these learners cannot sit still, especially if they are engaged in activities that do not include manipulating materials. (Writing does not qualify for tactile/kinesthetic learners who need movement, as well as things they can touch, feel and manipulate.) If these students are not actively involved in what’s going on, the teacher has lost them. They are not usually attentive to visual or auditory sections of the lesson. If students’ learning styles and instructional methods are mismatched, kids tend to be frustrated and stressed, precursors to behavior problems. What middle-school boy wouldn’t rather be seen as a discipline problem than as a dumb kid?

As an indication of how teens are feeling, look beyond facial expression to their general body language. The whole body of a tactile/kinesthetic learner is an index of emotion. A leader will have no trouble telling if a guy is bored. It’s as if his brain enters a rest state--nothing there! (Discerning girls can be more challenging; they can be bored while keeping their eyes open and performing adequately.)

More guys than girls remain tactile/kinesthetic learners throughout their lives, while girls are more auditory. This may provide a partial answer to the questions: Why aren’t more boys excited about learning about their faith? Why do so many of them leave church when parents no longer require them to attend? Much teaching leaves the tactile/kinesthetic students--usually boys--without a successful outlet for demonstrating their learning powers.

Youth leaders must look for ways to involve the strengths of all learners in every class period or learning experience. Evaluate every lesson. Is there an opportunity for auditory learners to shine? You’ll probably have twice as many visual learners and tactile/kinesthetic learners as auditory earners. Does your methodology reflect this? If not, add or adjust activities, and aim them at accomplishing the learning objective through each student’s learning strengths.

What Has Changed Since 1991?

Much has changed since this article first appeared in YouthWorker Journal. At that time I was doing a seminar titled the “20-40-40 Rule.” At that time 20 percent of our kids had an auditory preference; today it’s 15 percent. The 40 percent who prefer tactile/kinesthetic learning has dropped to 35 percent. No surprise the big gain has been in visual learning. Now, according to the Brain-Friendly Strategies by Judy Willis (ACSI, 2007), 50 percent of our teens have this preference.

This makes sense. Since my article was first published, teens have had increasing exposure to technology: text messaging, PowerPoint, computers, video games, Wii; everything is visual. Visual training starts early. Even though pediatricians say children younger than 2 should not watch TV, 90 percent of them regularly watch TV, DVDs and videos. One-third of kids ages 3 to 6 have a TV in their bedrooms.

Some educators have wondered if our kids are losing the ability to mentally visualize, because everything is visualized for them. When there are no images, our kids have a quick boredom trigger.

When I first wrote the article, I never mentioned color as an enhancer for the visual learner. Who knew! One advertiser tested adding color to ads and gained a 34 percent improvement in response rate, and people responded faster. Color is not just something that catches the eye; it actually affects our emotions. Twenty percent of the optic nerves don’t go to the eye; they go to the pituitary gland. Kids actually have a glandular response, an emotional response, to color.

If you’re thinking about painting your youth areas, research colors. Red separates the boys from the girls: Boys prefer a yellow-based red (rust, brick); girls prefer a blue-based red (burgundy, maroon). If you’re painting a whole wall red, go with the yellow-based. About 80 percent of your kids will pick blue as their favorite color--not a bad choice for a church because blue carries moral weight for Christians. Stemming back to 431 A. D. when the Catholic Church chose to dress images of Mary in blue, the color carries the qualities of respect, goodness and responsibility. A dark, rich blue is a great color for a youth room wall; but know, too, the downside is that in a blue room, time seems to pass more slowly.

Since I wrote the original article, education has become more fun. New research needs to be considered, tested and evaluated. The goal remains the same and is beautifully stated by Dallas Willard: “That our young people may live their lives like Christ would live their lives if He were they.”