Superlearning: How It Can Help Your Child

Superlearning or suggestology (as it is sometimes called) is a special form of education that brings together music, relaxation, and rhythm to help children learn more effectively. The way it works is that children in a classroom setting lie on a floor or sit in their chairs in a comfortable and relaxed position, while music is played, and the teacher repeats the material to be learned in a rhythm that matches the background music. It could be spelling words, vocabulary terms, history facts, or math algorithms.

The most important thing is that children don’t have to concentrate on the material. Simply by letting go and relaxing, they’re apparently able to absorb this new information quickly, painlessly, and effectively. You can try some of these ideas at home, by playing music with a slow and musical beat. Baroque music in 4/4 time apparently works quite well while rhythmically repeating the material to be memorized as your child sits or lies down in a relaxed manner.

For more information, write The Society for Accelerated Learning and Teaching, Box 1216, Welch Station, Ames, IA, 50010.

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.