When it comes to how toddlers learn anything, most toddlers learn through imitation, repetition and, most importantly, play. A toddler’s learning style for football is no different.
Within this guide, we are going to learn what learning style actually means when it comes to a toddler, how to figure out how your toddler learns best and how our toddler football classes will support them.
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What Does “Learning Style” Actually Mean for a Toddler?
Each child is different but the learning style for those at the toddler stage means that they learn best through imitation, repetition and play. Children’s learning styles can differ, with some needing to be hands-on, others needing to watch you do it first and then others needing to listen to the instructions but, it is often important to engage multiple senses as this creates a sensory-rich environment that, research has shown, is important for learning:
“Research consistently demonstrates that sensory-rich environments literally enhance neural connections, supporting language development, cognitive skills, and literacy. When young children engage multiple senses including touching, tasting, smelling, and listening, they then process tremendous amounts of information that aids language and communication understanding. It’s like receiving multiple data streams that all contribute to world comprehension.”
– The Science Behind Sensory Play: Why It Matters in Early Childhood Development
But, it does need to also have an element of play. Play makes it more interesting for your toddler and they will be more likely to want to join in and do it again and again. These are all elements that will help them to learn new skills, from tying their shoelaces to kicking a ball through some cones.
Do Toddlers Have a Fixed Learning Style?
Not exactly. Your toddler might very well have a learning style that works best for them – visual, listening, touching etc – but they would most benefit in their learning by being in a sensory-rich environment where their senses are engaged and where they can first see you or a coach do it and then try themselves.
If it engages their senses and their body – touch, listening, movement etc – and it is fun, invoking play that they would choose to do themselves, this will greatly help them to stay engaged and keep wanting to do the activity.
How Can You Spot the Way Your Toddler Learns Best?
There are ways that you can see if your toddler learns best in one particular learning style. The best way to figure it out is to simply watch them and notice how they take to certain activities. Within this section, we will look at ways you could spot your toddlers preferred learning style:
Visual Learner
- Do they enjoy looking at picture books?
- Are they good remembering places you visited?
- Do they enjoy puzzles, drawing, or building with blocks where they can see the structure?
- Do they notice small details that others miss?
- When learning something new, do they prefer watching someone do it first?
- Do they like things neat and tidy so they can see clearly?
Auditory Learning
- Do they love listening to you tell stories, music, or rhymes?
- Do they remember song lyrics or nursery rhymes easily?
- Are they good talkers and enjoy explaining things?
- Do they follow spoken directions well?
- Do they sometimes talk or hum to themselves while playing or concentrating?
- Do they seem to learn best when things are discussed first?
Kinesthetic/Tactile Learning
- Do they learn best by doing things themselves, rather than watching or listening?
- Do they love hands-on activities like playing with dough, sand, water, or construction toys?
- Do they fidget or find it hard to sit still for long periods?
- Do they remember events based on what they did there?
- Do they use lots of gestures when they talk?
- Do they need to touch objects to understand them?
Asking yourself these questions as you watch them go about their day-to-day will help you to see if they gravitate towards one learning style more than another.
Which Learning Tendencies Show Up on the Football Pitch?
How your toddler best learns will show up during their football training. We want all of the children who come to Socatots to learn in a way that suits them.
In the table below, we will look at how football can help you spot what type of learner your toddler is and how you, and their coach, can support them:
| Learning Style: | How it shows up on the pitch: | How to support it: |
| Visual | Hangs back at the edge, watches other children or the coach before joining in, and often nails the movement once they finally try it. Silence or stillness here is processing, not reluctance. | Give them time and resist pushing them to join in before they are ready. Narrate what’s happening so watching feels like taking part. |
| Listener | Responds to words, rhythm and names, likes a countdown or a song, and often repeats instructions back to themselves. Can become overwhelmed/frustrated if/when a session is purely visual. | Pair actions with simple, consistent phrases, such as stop, foot, go. Use their name and clear verbal cues. Songs and counting turn a drill into something they can grasp quicker. |
| Kinesthetic | Dives straight in, learns by doing rather than watching, and would rather chase the ball ten times than be told how to once. May miss verbal instructions in the rush. | Let them try first, then refine it. Keep instructions to one short cue mid-movement. Channel the energy into repetition-based drills rather than asking them to wait and listen. |
| Tactile | Needs to feel things, wants to hold the ball, touch the cones, sit on the equipment. They learn through their hands and body more than their eyes or ears. | Give them the ball to explore before drilling with it. Build in touch-based tasks, and accept that handling the kit is how they learn best and not a distraction from it. |
How Do Toddler Football Classes Support Different Learners?
At Socatots, we have learnt that toddlers learn best through play so all of your training is taught through games. Parents are involved in all the classes as an individual coach for your toddler so you can watch and learn how they best learn new football skills. If you feel that your toddler learns best in a certain learning style, all of your coaches will listen and take this on board when they are next teaching your toddler something.
As there are a variety of children in each class, all with different learning styles, it makes the importance of having the parents/carers there, as individual coaches, even more important. If your toddler hasn’t taken something in as well as they could, you are there to show them in a way that works best for them.
Understanding Your Toddler’s Learning Style in Football
All toddlers learn in different ways and you can help to discover the way your child learns best during their football classes. One of the most important aspects of learning for young children is that they stay engaged and want to do the activity over and over. And you achieve this by making the activity fun.
This is what we do at Socatots. Our football classes all contain games, child-friendly music and, most importantly, you, the parent/carer, will be there with them every step of the way.