Tactile-Kinesthetic Learners

Making up about 5% of the population, tactile and kinesthetic learners absorb information best by doing, experiencing, touching, moving, or being active in some way.

  • Enjoy feeling, discovery, and action
  • Remember by using tools, building models, and manipulating things
  • Learn through emotions, touch, movement, and space
  • Enjoy demonstrations of concept demonstrations
  • Master skills through imitation and practice
  • Benefit from hands-on teaching techniques
  • Find it difficult to sit still for long periods of time
  • Remember who did what in the past, rather than what they said or how they looked
  • Prefer to stand, walk about or use large motor muscles when learning
  • Learn well from field trips and excursions
  • Tend to collect things
  • Do not have good handwriting
  • Are weaker at spelling
  • Talk fast, using hands to communicate
  • Benefit from role-playing and simulations
  • Enjoy having background music while studying or working
  • Good at sports
  • Take frequent breaks when studying
  • Think in terms of physical action
  • May play a musical instrument
  • Enjoy exploring the environment
  • Participate in martial arts, dance
  • Can grasp concepts when abstract theories are combined with practical experience
  • Enjoy science experiments, construction games, arts and crafts
  • Could be considered hyperactive
  • More relaxed and open to learning in a beanbag than a hard chair
  • Good internal compass for finding their way around
  • Get restless during long lectures
  • Comfortable touching others as a gesture of friendship
  • Prefer participating actively rather than watching video or reading from a book
  • Learn more effectively when free to move
  • Studies effectively laying on floor or bed, fidgeting, tapping fingers, or touching objects

Suggestions for Tactile-kinesthetic Learners

  • Create a model
  • Demonstrate a principle
  • Practice a technique
  • Participate in simulations
  • Engage in hands-on activities
  • Study in comfortable position, not necessarily sitting in a chair

Preferred Test Styles for Tactile-Kinesthetic Learners

Multiple choice, short definitions, fill-in-the-blanks

Worst Test Type

Long essay tests

Possible Career Paths

Dancers, personal trainers, physical education teachers, actors, firefighters, athletes, mimes, martial artists, yoga teachers, personal coaches