We hear a lot these days about different ways kids learn. What is interesting is that the learning styles seem apparent so early on. I didn't really realize this until years later, but my first born showed signs right away that he was an observer. He was taking it all in from the sidelines. I remember him as a baby intensely and almost emotionally watching the "piano man" play at the Nordstrom's in Fashion Square. He stared intently at his Baby Mozart video, and he loved the music his "fish tank" crib toy played. At about age 20 months I thought it would be a great idea to take him to his first "mommy and me" music class. He cried the whole time and never seemed fully comfortable even as the months went on. This left me wondering why he was so miserable. He adored music! Why would he not like a class that involved singing and dancing with others? The answer, of course, is he loved music on his own terms and still does. To this day he will tell me he doesn't want to do choir or anything of the sort, because he does not want to sing in front of other people. He has a deep appreciation of music, and he enjoys listening to it (and even singing along) alone in his bedroom. He enjoys watching others make music, too, as long as he can stand back and get lost in the crowd.
My second born is the complete opposite of this. His way of learning is to try something, and to get right in on the action. He goes to the same music class I brought my eldest to, and he has always felt comfortable. He likes to watch, yes, but he also enjoys singing along. He interacts with the other kids and feels comfortable making music with other people. Of course this reaction makes for an easier class-going experience than the first scenario with my older son, and yet what I have come to realize is neither reaction is wrong. They are just different. These learning styles and personalities in group settings are likely to stick with my kids throughout school. Discovering early on what makes each child tick is helpful for the school days ahead.
Now that I am due any day now with my third, I am wondering what his reaction to music and the world around him will be!
Debbie Akers, a northeast Phoenix mom of three young sons, is a member of the Arizona Republic's Parent Advisory Panel.
Amazing, isn't it? I have
Amazing, isn't it? I have one child (8) who can memorize anything. His thinking is so intriguiging. He has automatically ascribed a gender to all numbers (3 is a girl, 6 is a boy, etc.)and each gender has a color (red for boys, white for girls). He has always loved story and complex themes like those in Les Miserables and is facinated with situational ethics...yet, he struggles to gleen the feelings of others through their body language. I hear him sometimes, memorizing "rules" of body language that he learned about the hard way, or had someone explain to him. Meanwhile, my other one can't seem to remember sh*!, yet he is very tuned in to others, much more so than would be expected for a boy. I watched him finish a snack with his cousins and announce that he's "done". Then, his much more competitive, same aged cousin, says, "you didn't win - you didn't finish first". My son matter of factly, said, "I did finish first". Seeing his cousin start to get aggitated, my son says, "oh yeah...it's a tie...come on, let's play". If that had been my older son, he would have gone toe to toe, with the cousin. My younger son, meanwhile has an afinity for music that scares me (his dad played Classical and Jazz guitar). Although cute now, I fear for his sensitive, artistic soul. And, my kids look VERY much alike physically, yet exhibit vastly different strengths.
This is why I'm such a proponent of Howard Gardner's, "Multiple Intelligence Theory" and schools that design their curriculum in accordance.
Multiple intelligences is an educational theory, first developed by psychologist Howard Gardner, that describes an array of different kinds of "intelligences" exhibited by human beings. Gardner suggests that each individual manifests varying levels of these different intelligences, and thus each person has a unique "cognitive profile." The theory was first laid out in Gardner's 1983 book, Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, and has been further refined in subsequent years. It is actually a theory that has to do with how giraffes adapt to differing environments.
The theory was proposed in the context of debates about the concept of intelligence, and whether methods which claim to measure intelligence (or aspects thereof) are truly scientific. Gardner's theory argues that intelligence, as it is traditionally defined, does not adequately encompass the wide variety of abilities humans display. In his conception, a child who masters the multiplication table easily is not necessarily more intelligent overall than a child who struggles to do so. The second child may be stronger in another kind of intelligence, and therefore may best learn the given material through a different approach, may excel in a field outside of mathematics, or may even be looking through the multiplication learning process at a fundamentally deeper level that hides a potentially higher mathematical intelligence than in the one who memorizes the concept easily. The theory suggests that, rather than relying on a uniform curriculum, schools should offer "individual-centered education", with curricula tailored to the needs of each child.[1] (This includes working to help students develop the intelligences in which they are weaker.)
Gardner identifies kinds of intelligences based upon eight criteria. His eight criteria for describing something as an independent kind of intelligence (rather than merely one of the skills or abilities included in a kind of intelligence, or a synonym for, or combination of other kinds of intelligence) include:[2] [3] case studies of individuals exhibiting unusual talents in a given field (child prodigies, autistic savants);
neurological evidence for areas of the brain that are specialized for particular capacities (often including studies of people who have suffered brain damage affecting a specific capacity); the evolutionary relevance of the various capacities;psychometric studies; and the existence of a symbolic notation (e.g. written language, musical notation, choreography). Gardner originally identified seven core intelligences: linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal and intrapersonal. In 1999 he added an eighth, the naturalistic intelligence, and indicated that investigation continues on whether there is an existential intelligence.
"Only a life lived for others, is the life worthwhile" - Albert Einstein