I love words. I love how they sound, how they interact, and how they bring your thoughts to life. I love words so much that every time I write something, whether it be a paragraph, a text, or an email, I ask my husband, “Will you listen to this?” And every time, he replies, “Just let me read it.” Even after 21 years of him responding this way, I keep asking because I want him to hear me read my words with the inflection, tone, and pace that was in my mind when I wrote them.
But you see, Jim is not primarily an auditory processor, so when I read that paragraph or email aloud to him, it basically sounds like the “wah wah” of Charie Brown’s teacher. Jim wants to read my paragraph himself because he does his best learning and absorbing of new information through visual input. It gives his mind a chance to look at the words and process them thoroughly to understand what they convey. (And let’s be honest—after 21 years of marriage, he can already sense my inflection and tone on his own!)
As an adult, my husband can easily advocate for himself and attempt to take in as much new information as possible in the manner in which he learns best. However, children do not always have this same opportunity or even know how to communicate their learning preferences.
“Children do not always have this same opportunity or even know how to communicate their learning preferences.”
As a director of children’s ministries overseeing birth through sixth grade, I am constantly faced with how to organize classrooms and plan lessons in order to best communicate the truth of God’s Word to each child. Hanging on my office wall is a print of Psalm 71:18 (NIV):
“Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, my God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your mighty acts to all who are to come.”
This verse reminds me that all children deserve the opportunity to learn about God’s power and great love for them. Not just the compliant children, or the ones that eagerly respond to my preferred way to teach, but all children.
As parents, teachers, or children’s ministry leaders, how can we make sure that we share the good news of God’s Word in a way that enables all children to learn in the most impactful ways possible?
When I was an education major and first grade teacher in the early 2000s, we studied all about visual, auditory, and bodily-kinesthetic learning styles.[1] Although from a research perspective, the legitimacy of targeting one best learning style for each student has been questioned over the years, style preferences are still evident when I observe the adults and children around me.
“As parents, teachers, or children’s ministry leaders, how can we make sure that we share the good news of God’s Word in a way that enables all children to learn in the most impactful ways possible?”
When Jesus instructed the expert in the law in Matthew 22:37, He said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” Children’s ministry author and speaker David Rausch builds on this when he writes about the importance of engaging the heads, hands, and heart of children when we teach God’s Word so that they “develop a faith that is steady, nourished, and able to endure the weight of life.”[2]
So what does that mean for you? You might not be a schoolteacher or employed in children’s ministries. But you may be a parent or grandparent. You may volunteer in the preschool classroom on the second and fourth Sundays of each month. For all of us, it is important that in our children’s ministries and in our homes, we provide an assortment of approaches for children to hear, see, and experience the truths of God’s Word! 
What might this look like in your family and ministry? Here are some ways to utilize different learning modalities when teaching God’s Word to children:
Visual
- Project a slideshow or video to provide graphic input that corresponds with your spoken teaching
- Draw a prayer or response to a Scripture passage
- Follow along in an age-appropriate Bible while you read aloud
- Introduce high-quality children’s books to support a given topic/lesson idea
- Post monthly memory verse and lesson main ideas on classroom bulletin boards
Auditory
- Sing or say the books of the Bible rhythmically to increase memorization
- Read or retell Bible stories
- Memorize Scripture and recite it aloud
- Share appropriate stories and examples from your own life to strengthen lesson application
- Converse with children to build relationships and increase connections
Bodily/Kinesthetic
- Dramatize Bible stories by asking children to wear costume pieces and “act” out the story
- Utilize stations so that children can move around the room as they complete lesson activities
- Stand or sit to answer yes/no questions
- Move to various parts of the room to answer multiple choice questions
- Roll or toss a ball. The child that catches it answers a question from the lesson
- Hide the words to a memory verse on note cards around the room. Children find the cards and put them in order.
While we cannot meet the individual learning preferences of every child with every activity, when we provide Sunday lessons or family devotions that incorporate visual, auditory, and bodily/kinesthetic modalities, we enable the children in our care to better comprehend the love of God and respond to the good news of Jesus! (And just in case you are wondering, I’m still going to ask Jim if I can read this article aloud to him before I send it in—just to help him strengthen his auditory learning!)
[1] See George Tsongranis, “How We Learn Best: An Overview of VAK Styles,” University of South Florida, January 15, 2026, https://www.usf.edu/continuing-education/lifelong-learning/news/2025/vak-overview.aspx.
[2] David Rausch, Feeding Faith: A Children’s Ministry Recipe for Rescuing a Lost Generation (St. Louis: Go Tell It, 2026).
