Learning Styles: The Musical Child

Musical children learn best through rhythm and melody. These kids respond naturally to music at home and at school. They may be excellent singers or play a musical instrument competently. They usually know many tunes from memory and can be heard whistling or humming them as they carry on with their daily routine.

They are sensitive to environmental sounds, like a siren passing by or the ticking of a clock. They may have a hard time remembering simple verbal instructions that you give to them.

If you want this child to learn something new, you’re best off to sing it to them, or chant it rhythmically while clapping time to the beat. Recorded music can be brought in to elicit interest in virtually any subject at school, such as songs of the Civil War when learning about U.S. History, or records like “Multiplication Rock” when studying math facts.

Advertisers have known for years that people remember things better when they are set to music. This is especially true for the musical child, who needs to set his foot to tapping, in order to get his mind in gear.

Thomas Armstrong, Ph.D. is an award-winning author and speaker with twenty-eight years of teaching experience from the primary through the doctoral level, and over one million copies of his books in print on issues related to learning and human development. He is the author of nine books including Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom, In Their Own Way, Awakening Your Child’s Natural Genius, 7 Kinds of Smart, The Myth of the A.D.D. Child, ADD/ADHD Alternatives in the Classroom, and Awakening Genius in the Classroom. His books have been translated into sixteen languages, including Spanish, Chinese, Hebrew, Danish, and Russian.