How Teaching and Visual Aids Help Teachers and Students

Today is an era of digitization. As early as two years, children are exposed to smartphones and internet. They tend to grasp and understand what they see much better that what they hear. Likewise, the process of teaching - learning depends upon the different type of equipment available in the classroom.

Visual aids such as flash cards, storyframes, story boards as well as other supports, in preschool/kindergarten lessons can help your little learner pick up new concepts, get a jump start on literacy lessons and make new connections.

Even if a student is unable to understand the spoken word, the visual aid may help them to better absorb information. The biggest advantage of using teaching aids is that it can help make the difficult into something more understandable. They provide a change from just listening, and pictures typically stimulate interest more easily than words.

Because visuals enable you to appeal to more than one sense at the same time, the students' understanding and retention level is increased. They tend to concentrate much better and participate in the class. Also visual aids improve the independence and self-esteem of all people with learning difficulties.

A recent study concluded that people who use visual aids are 43% more persuasive than those who don't. The study also established that visuals can improve:

•           Communication effectiveness

•           Student’s perceptions of the presenter

•           Teacher’s confidence

There are also numerous studies conducted by educational researchers that show that the average teacher who uses visual aids will come across as better organized, more reliable, more vibrant, and more influential than a teacher who does not use visual aids.

Make it bright and colourful:

Your child's preschool/kindergarten teacher may use visual cues to help the kids understand their classroom better. At this stage, the classroom atmosphere is unfamiliar to these little kids. On the look of the class, make sure it enlightens and wakens them up to their new school space. Visual aids such as classroom rhymeboards or numberschart can help kids to recognize new vocabulary.  

Emotions:

Recognizing and expressing emotions are difficult for the preschooler. That said, an accompanying visual aid can add another layer to the learning. By using a poster that features faces showing different feelings or individual pictures of kids who are clearly happy, sad, angry or frustrated can help preschoolers to recognize and point out specific feelings during emotional times. You can also get creative and create personalized emotions of the child using customizable expressions cards.

Encourage Social Behaviour:

It's not always easy for preschoolers to remember how to treat everyone kindly all of the time. While preschoolers/kindergarten kids are gaining skills when it comes to making friends and understanding that other people have feelings too, it's also perfectly normal for a young child to have trouble sharing or taking turns. Photos, or drawings and illustrations, of kind acts such as helping a friend who is hurt or sharing a toy can serve as lessons on pro-social behaviors.

Importance of Teaching Aids:

No child today enjoys a class where there seems to be one-way communication. Activities, fun, audio-visual aids are all different factors that play an important role in Teaching- Learning process. Here are a few advantages:

1) Motivation

Teaching aids motivate the students so that they can learn better. They show more interest when they have aids they can touch, feel and look at.

2) Clarification

While children may come up with various doubts, through teaching aids, the teacher can clarify the subject matter more easily using such aids.

3) Increase the Vocabulary

Teaching aids helps to increase the vocabulary of the students more effectively. When they see a word quite often, they tend to learn it quicker.

4) Classroom Live and active

Nobody likes a sleeping classroom. Teaching aids make the classroom live and active. They encourage participation. Kids are more likely to participate better in a class making use of visual aids.

5) Direct Experience

Teaching aids provide direct experience to the students. They don’t just see the aid but can also engage in activities using those aids and leaves them with a lasting impression.

Written by Fathima Khaja