Do you know or wonder about how to best teach your children? Does your child pay attention to you when you speak? Does he or she like to learn by doing things, saying “I’ll do it myself.” Does your little one learn a lot from story time, or TV whether it’s Noggin, Dora, or Thomas? Do you have a cute shirt he or she is attracted to?
In purchasing a toy, deciding the next activity, or a learning program for your little one, consider his or her learning ability. From cognitive research, Harvard’s Howard Gardner identifies different ways of learning from his theory of multiple intelligences. And you may have heard of this already:
1. Visual-spatial: The child is very much aware of their environment. Likes: mazes, jigsaw puzzles, drawing, daydreaming, pictures, video, diagrams, maps, charts. Consider the Island of Sodor. 
2. Bodily-kinesthetic: The child uses his or her body. Likes: dancing and other body movement, fixing things, building blocks, making things, touching, role playing like cooking.
3. Musical: The child is sensitive to the sounds in the environment, like the birds outside or the train from a distance. Likes: music, musical instruments, songs.
4. Interpersonal: The social child who likes group games, and has many friends. He or she has empathy for others. Likes: telephone, attention from the teacher, interaction. Imagine: Ring Around the Rosies
5. Intrapersonal: The independent one who learns on his or her own. Plays alone at times and is okay with it. Likes: quiet time, space, reading alone, diaries.
6. Linguistic: This child uses words effectively. Likes: reading, listening, speaking, telling stories, poetry. Into trivia and reading together.
7. Logical-mathematical: The child recognizes the challenge, and then solves it by to seeing patterns and exploring relationships. Likes: classifying, categorizing
8. Naturalist: The child is nature smart. He or she is aware of and appreciates the environment. Likes: flowers and animals and asks about nature, like the weather, or how the worm turns into a butterfly.
While little, enrich your child’s mind and develop his or her learning skills by keeping all these in mind. Remember too that you need not rely on props in order for your child to learn. All you need to do is observe him or her and see what activities the child is into the most. Listen to the conversations at play time and pay attention to the type of questions asked. What works and doesn’t work for him or her? Then spend some time to think about your approach.
Music and Bounce LLC is registered by Music Together LLC to teach the Music Together® early childhood music and movement program in the surrounding areas of Pittsburgh, PA. The classes provide a musically rich learning experience that touches the multiple intelligences mentioned by Gardner. This is done in a playful, non-formal, developmentally appropriate manner.
What do you think of the information in this article?
Resources:
Garner’s Multiple Intelligences
Learning Modalities: Pathways to Effective Learning
September 18th, 2009 → 6:14 am
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