"I can't do it! I can't do it!" Abby Gough would sob each night as she stumbled and skipped her way through her second-grade reading homework. Her mom, Kristen, tried to help, but Abby's frustration would begin after attempting just a few words. Then the Littleton, CO, mom heard about a strategy that sounded worth trying -- she started a journal with her daughter. "I would ask her questions about her day -- 'Who did you sit with at lunch?' or 'What was your favorite thing you did at school?' -- and then leave it in her room with a pen. She'd write me responses and new questions and slip it back on my pillow."

That journal captured Abby's attention and it improved her reading skills. Why? Abby could be described as a "body smart" learner -- someone who absorbs information best when she uses her hands. "Abby is always creating things," her mom notes. "She has a bookshelf in her bedroom devoted to all her inventions."

Every kid has at least one dominant learning style, says Kristin Redington Bennett, Ph.D., assistant professor of education at Wake Forest University, in Winston-Salem, NC, and a mom of two. In addition to body smart (known as bodily/kinesthetic), common learning styles include word smart (linguistic/auditory), image smart (visual/spatial), and numbers smart (logical/mathematical). This "theory of multiple intelligences" was first proposed by Harvard professor Howard Gardner, Ph.D., in the 1980s and has become so accepted that today teachers often adapt classroom activities to the different learning styles. For example, a lesson on the Pilgrims might include building a model of the Mayflower, writing a play about the first Thanksgiving, drawing pictures, and making a historical timeline.

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