Have You Heard All the Teach Suzuki Podcast Episodes?

Teach Suzuki Podcast

The Teach Suzuki Podcast has been busy in the past month. Here are the latest three weekly episodes of the regular podcast:

The Million Dollar Lesson: The Million Dollar Lesson is a tool designed to teach the child (and the parent) about appropriate lesson behaviors. Some teachers and parents may have difficulty accepting this teaching tool, and this episode looks at various viewpoints and offers some caveats about how to use the tool effectively. This episode also provides links to several suggested books and other tools about parenting that might provide help to a parent.

Personality Styles: This episode discusses the four personality styles identified by Hippocrates centuries ago. Along with identifying the personality style of parents and their children, this episode will explain how a mismatch between styles may stir up problems in home practices, home and family situations, and in the studio between teacher and student.

See, Hear, Feel: This episode discusses the three most common learning styles and how knowing these styles will help parents and others improve communication within families, the workplace, and in the music studio.

Reflections

There have been several "Reflections" episodes published as well. These shorter weekly episodes of a few minutes' length are designed to present a short thought or reflection about some aspect of the Suzuki philosophy or quote from Dr. Shinichi Suzuki. The purpose of these reflection episodes is to encourage parents and teachers to consider how a small change in some area of our thinking or behavior might have a large impact on the happiness of our children, our home situation, our workplace environment, and our families. Here are the most recent episodes:

Whisper the Hopes of Your Heart: This episode discusses Dr. Suzuki’s advice to a parent to pray once a day for his or her child to help the parent remember the joy and hope that the parent had upon the child’s birth. Would such advice brighten up your feelings about your child?

The Best Gift: This episode discusses raising children to become truly civilized human beings. Are you giving your child the “best gift” you can.

Convenience: Is “convenience” a factor in our teaching and parenting? Is this appropriate? What is your attitude about parenting, teaching, and the "convenience" factor?


Until next time,

Happy Practicing!

----- Paula -----

© 2016 by Paula E. Bird

Waking up the Whole Brain

Recently I had an unusual experience and made an interesting discovery with one of my students. I would like to share the process with you.

If you recall my post about the 5 practice questions (click here to read it), I have worked hard with one particular student to help him become more engaged in his learning and practice sessions as well as improve the quality of his preparation for his lessons. I say that I have worked hard, because after spending a very long time with this student, I have not been able to measure progress. It is as if there is some sort of disconnect in this student's ability to evaluate his own performance and execution. He does not seem to hear himself when he plays and seems unable to determine how to fix things.

For a long time, I thought it was just a matter of not having the necessary information to practice correctly. And so, I gave him that information. We discussed practice tips and strategies. We practiced these types of skills at his lessons. He would finish each lesson with some forward motion and progress, and then at his next lesson, we would begin anew the same cycle of problems.

I thought too that it might be a matter of not practicing enough, and so I addressed this issue with how my student planned his practice sessions and how much time he spent in those sessions to accomplish the assigned tasks. I did see a small amount of improvement. Many of his classmates came alongside him to offer help, collegial support, and ideas. Again, some progress, but not the progress I was looking for.

So, despite all my usual tricks, nothing really seemed to be making the connection with this particular student. Until last week when something magical happened. Before I tell you what it is, however, I need to pause a moment and tell you another brief story.

My husband has been ill for a long time now. It all stemmed from the accident that I had in May 2014, when I crushed my right shoulder. Although I was determined to heal completely and did so quickly, my sweet husband suffered in a different way, as men often do. They call it PTSD or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Although I was the person who had the traumatic event, my husband went into a protective mode in his mind, which then grew to affect other areas of his life.

We have been grappling with all of the problems that come with PTSD, but my husband works with a terrific gentleman who has pioneered several techniques to address the PTSD problems. One of those techniques caught my attention. The subject (my husband) would hold a vibrating disc object in each hand, which the therapist controlled with gentle, alternating vibration to each hand, while my husband would discuss upsetting memories. The purpose of the alternating vibration in each hand was to "wake up" each brain hemisphere and keep the whole brain working during the entire memory process.

Fascinating, yes? I listened to my husband's story about this technique, and I recalled that the brain hemispheres were activated by the opposite hand; e.g., the left brain hemisphere with the right hand, and vice versa. Please understand that this a general discussion, and not a technical one. I do not profess to be an expert in these matters, but as a teacher I have been aware of these ideas and have experimented with different teaching techniques over the years. Now back to my student.

When I encounter a student who has difficulty engaging or connecting with his or her learning, I have often suggested that they speak aloud or pick up a pencil and write something in the music. These suggestions are designed to "wake up" the evaluating left brain hemisphere, because speech, logic, and reasoning are the province of the left brain. So during this student's lesson, I began again to offer my usual suggestions to help him wake up and start evaluating his own playing.

"What do you think you should do here? What do you think the problem is?" I asked. Notice that I used open-ended questions designed to engage him in conversation and thinking. Using "what" or "how" questions work wonders in doing this.

After fumbling an answer and not being able to pinpoint what or where the problem was, I helped him here. Then I tried another technique and suggested that my student write down a particular notation in his music, hoping that the act of writing would wake up his left brain more.

And my student obligingly picked up a pencil and wrote in his music with his left hand! That is when it hit me that he was left-handed and that he was really a right-brained student. Everything about him was about impulse, spontaneity, naivety, feeling, emotion, intuition, fun; he had little concept of time constraints and really lived in the moment. Oh boy, I thought, he is a classic right brain thinker. What I did not think about before that moment was that he was almost completely reliant on his right brain.

After witnessing the pencil use with his left hand, which I knew would continue to activate the right brain, I decided to try something related to the story my husband had told of his therapist's technique. My iPhone has a fun app called AppZilla, which has a bunch of little apps within it. One of the apps is a massager. I turned on the massager vibration and put it in my student's right hand. At first, he actually felt his heart rate increase due to fear. He held it for about 30 seconds. Then I asked him to play the part of his music that he had been struggling with. He sailed through it. I began to think that we were onto something here.

A few days later, he performed for the studio seminar class. His was a simple assignment: play the scale routine as assigned to all of my students, which has been an assignment that my student has struggled with since his first lesson with me. My class watched him struggle once again to be able to play the scale, and I watched until the point when I knew that my student had reached "the bottom" and was unable to continue. I walked over to him and handed him my iPhone set to the massager vibration. The class was unaware of what we were doing or why I was handing him my phone. They could not hear anything, and my student and I did not say anything.

After about 20 seconds, I took the phone and walked away. My student then played the scale just fine. The class was shocked. "What magic was that?" Someone asked. "What did you do?" they wanted to know. My student and I then explained what we were experimenting with.

Followup, my student's next lesson was very different. He sailed through his etude at a very fast tempo, without the constant stumbling and corrections (if any) that I was accustomed to hearing. I asked him about his practice sessions outside of the lesson, and he said that he was using the vibration technique to help him.

Isn't that an amazing story? Especially if we have come across another successful teaching tool?

On a final note, when my husband was working with the therapist on this technique, the therapist stated that he did not think it would take my husband long to get to this whole brain state since he was a musician, and musicians generally use all of their brain. However, this student was not using all of his brain and apparently was not accustomed to using his left brain much at all, judging from his reports of the types of difficulties he has with some school subjects. We are also using my Peterson Body Beat pulsating metronome to gain the same vibration effect as the AppZilla massager.

I am pretty excited about this new idea and look forward to other ways that I might be able to use it. I have met several dyslexic students in the past few years, and I am always looking out for additional ways to help students learn.

Does anyone else have any similar experience like this? I hope that this idea may help someone else in their teaching or practicing journey.

NEW! Fingerboard Workbook Series! (Interview)

Diane Allen
http://www.myviolinvideos.com

In this post, I would like to introduce you to my friend and Suzuki colleague Diane Allen from Central Oregon. Diane has recently published a series of fingerboard workbooks, which she has developed and successfully used in her studio for over 20 years. I am excited about the possibilities of this new series. I was fortunate to get an advance copy of all the workbooks, and I know exactly which students I want to begin working on this series. I wanted to give Diane a chance to discuss her new workbook series in more depth. First, let me introduce Diane to you.

PBird: Diane, welcome to "Teaching Suzuki." You are a regular reader of the blog, I know, from the frequent comments that you make. Tell us a little about your experience as a Suzuki teacher. How long have you been teaching?

Diane: Yes Paula! I love your blog. You are such a prolific writer. You make blogging look easy! (I know it’s not.)

workbook 1 for violin

I’ve been teaching for 25 years. Life as a Suzuki Violin teacher has been an amazingly rich and rewarding experience. When a student gets through the beginning steps of just learning how to hold the violin and bow as well as play some songs, it’s just short of miraculous. Around the time Minuet 1 comes along I start looking for the magic -- the moment when a student connects with their violin music and their musicality shines through. It always brings a tear to my eye! And that’s just the beginning.

PBird: You mentioned to me that you had been using your workbook series in your studio for over 20 years. Something that I really relate to is that the workbooks approach the fingerboard mapping issue by using all the learning styles: visual, aural, and kinesthetic. Please tell us how you came to develop your workbook system.

Diane: Two profound experiences that occurred during my college years were the impetus of writing the Fingerboard Workbook for the First Position. The first stemmed from my studies with Burton Kaplan. He introduced me to fingerboard visualization through his book The Complete Music Sight-Reader Series. Until that time I was a “blind” violinist. I could imagine how the notes sounded and had great muscle memory. Learning to visualize the notes on the fingerboard completed what I had been missing. It truly enhanced my violin playing in a BIG way. The charts that you’ll find in The Fingerboard Workbook Series are not that much different than his.

The second experience came from attending a weekend workshop about neurolinguistic programming. In the middle of the workshop I had an epiphonal moment. We had been working with different learning channels: visual, aural, and kinesthetic (eyes, ears, touch). I suddenly had a complete flashback of my entire school career and everything fell into place. Why I played the violin. Why in grade school I felt dumb. Why in high school I would always chew on the crunchiest foods possible when reading. Why Burton Kaplan’s fingerboard visualizations filled the gap. I’m predominantly an aural and kinesthetic learner. My visuals were quite weak.


PBird: How are your visual skills now?

Diane: My visuals now? Fantastic! I’ve since done some specific therapies. But let’s save that for another blog post. I co-mingled my neurolinguistic programming information with Burton Kaplan’s charts. While Burton Kaplan introduced me to using fingerboard charts, he only used them as a visual reference. In the fingerboard workbooks you will use the charts to aid you visually, aurally, and kinesthetically.

PBird: Would you describe what the fingerboard workbook series is? How are the workbooks organized?

Diane: The Fingerboard Workbook Series: Map the Violin for Good Map the Viola for Good is exactly what the title implies. It’s a workbook series that teaches where the notes are on the fingerboard in a way that really sticks. First position all the way through eleventh position is covered. Think of the workbooks as a catalog of all the possible combinations within an octave hand frame. Students will first identify notes, plot them on a fingerboard map, and then experience them by singing and playing.

The most common reaction students have with filling out a workbook is that of making many connections. Instead of having the light bulbs go off over your head, plan for fireworks!

PBird: How would you incorporate the workbook in your teaching situation? Do you have a system for when you introduce the workbook series or a particular position workbook? How long does it take a student to typically finish a particular workbook?

Diane: Most beginning violin books begin with teaching a specific finger pattern: 0 1 23 4. That would translate to mean:

• a whole step from the open string to the first finger
• a whole step from the 1^st to 2^nd fingers
• a half step from the 2^nd to 3^rd fingers
• a whole step from the  3^rd to 4^th fingers

Workbook 1 for viola

As soon as students lower the 2^nd finger to C natural on the A string, I start them with The Fingerboard Workbook for the First Position Map the Violin for Good. In the Suzuki literature that would be Etude [song #12 in violin book 1]. My experience is that students typically finish the workbook by the time they get to Gavotte by Lully in Suzuki Volume 2 [#10]. Just in time to learn 3^rd position! Learning all the new notes introduced in Suzuki Violin Volume 2 is pretty smooth sailing with the background my workbooks provide.

Although I’ve used The Fingerboard Workbook for the First Position: Map the Violin for Good for 20 years, all the other workbooks in all the other positions are brand new. Therefore I haven’t incorporated the new books into my teaching style yet. I do have some ideas though.

PBird:   I hope you will share your ideas with us in future posts. Who can use the workbooks now?

Diane:

• violin students
• viola students
• violin students learning viola
• viola students learning violin
• parents
• music education majors

I have had students age 5 – 65 effectively use the workbooks. Parents love the workbooks because it gives them an enormous amount of background. It keeps them out of the dark and in touch with their child’s violin playing. When they hear a note that sounds “off,” they will now have the tools to help troubleshoot.

PBird: What kind of student or parent reaction do you typically have about the workbooks?

Diane: I’ve had a mixed reaction with students and always a positive reaction with parents. Some students sail through and thoroughly enjoy the workbooks. Some drag their feet but I stick to my guns because I know the results are well worth the effort.

PBird: I notice that your website for the fingerboard workbook series is quite resourceful. Tell us more about the site.

Diane: The website has a few functions:

• to introduce folks to the books and act as a storefront to make purchases
• to provide free information in the form of videos and charts
• to offer a subscription to 10 mini fingerboard lessons and a monthly newsletter

I very much want to meet your readers! I will be doing a live streaming video event where they can either watch and/or participate. All they have to do is watch and type in their questions. I’ll then answer the questions, offer a demonstration, or find some fun way to help the learning. Part of the session will include a drawing to win a workbook! Your readers will want to become email subscribers to stay informed about the events and become eligible for the drawing.

• Tuesday 8/16 @ 7:00 am Pacific Time
• Sunday 8/21 @ 3:00 pm Pacific Time
• www.fingerboardworkbookseries.com
• The link to subscribe form can be found at: http://eepurl.com/c0PwQ .

PBird: Thanks, Diane, for visiting with us. I really look forward to using these workbooks in my studio and at the university. Thanks so much for taking the time to put all this material together. These workbooks look terrific!

Diane: Thank you Paula! For hundreds of years people have been trying to find where the notes exist on the fingerboard. It’s time to put an end to this problem!


PBird: Thanks for taking the time to visit my blog today and talk to my readers and me about your new workbook series. I'm excited about the teaching possibilities. I am sure that my readers will want to find out more about this.


Visit the Teach Suzuki Resource Store to purchase the workbooks. Click here.

I am also looking forward to seeing you next week in Bend, Oregon, at my masterclass on Wednesday, August 10 at 1:00 p.m. at the Cascade School of Music, 200 NW Pacific Park Lane. See you then!

Teaching With Style

I've enjoyed the messages I've received about everyone's various perceptual learning styles. I think I'm mostly visual, but I have a very strong aural and kinesthetic perception as well, and I work to strengthen all the areas equally. Today I wanted to talk about how I teach to the student's basic perceptual learning style, whichever it is, and how I also teach in ways that strengthen the student's weaker styles.

Visual students seem to have the most difficulties playing by memory and learning to play by ear. Visual students can play by memory, but they are easily distracted by visual interruptions during a performance. Any movement by the audience -- someone turning program pages, someone dropping the program, someone shifting in his or her seat -- can immediately distract the visual style performer and cause a memory slip. I have often found this to be my own particular problem, which is why I sometimes close my eyes during performances by memory. I strengthen my aural memory by adding in extra listening to my repertoire before performances. I also practice visualization during the "twilight" time, which is my name for those last minutes before actually falling asleep. I mentally practice performing my piece while I am in this relaxed, almost dream-like state. I can feel myself playing the piece, and I think that this strengthens my kinesthetic sense. I also go through specific exercises with my visual students to help them develop the five various kinds of memory, which I will discuss in a later post.

Visual learners typically learn to read music rather quickly, and there are some students that almost learn how to read music without my guidance. Sometimes rhythm can be a challenge, but when I present the visual learner with rhythmic charts that show the proportion between notes, the issue may clear up. {Teaching rhythm will be another topic for another day.] Visual learners also respond well to hand signals and cues or cards. They need to look at something when listening to music or playing by memory. I recall one young student playing an entire piece while staring at the piece. I told her that she did a fine job, and all that was left was to memorize the piece. She then told me that she had played the entire thing by memory. I understood then that she may have been "looking" at the piece, but she wasn't "seeing" it. Looking at the piece just gave her a place to rest her eyes so she could concentrate on playing by memory. It's an interesting trick and one that I haven't been able to master myself.

Since visual learners have the hardest time learning to play by ear, I start working on this skill very early in the Suzuki books. My students' parents are already following a daily listening regimen, but I find that my visual students need my specific guidance in the area of learning how to play by ear. I ask the student to look away from me, or we use a blindfold. Then we play the "mystery game." I play the A or E string and ask the student to tell me what I played. I ask the student to match the pitch I just played on their own violin. Usually the kids get this right away. Then I might play F# on the E string. I'll ask the student on which string they think the note is. They usually get this one too. Then I'll play a combination of 2 notes with "Mississippi Hotdog" rhythm, such as A then E string, and ask the student to imitate what I played.

I work at this at every lesson. I help the student learn to differentiate between pitches that are "steps" (seconds), "skips" (thirds), or the same note played twice. What fascinates me is that the student's finger may be correctly in place to answer my queries, and yet the student will not play. Somehow the student's body knows what the note is, but the student's mind is refusing to let go and just experiment. Those students who do finally let go and experiment with all the possible notes, learn the quickest how to play by ear.

I experienced something similar when I went back to church a decade ago. During my youthful formative years, I used my music training to sight read from the church hymnals. Now many churches do not use hymnals, and in the case of my own church, we read the words of the songs on a screen with not a single note in sight. I tried listening to the song through one time, but I still had trouble mastering the new material. Then I tried singing along from the first moment the song was played by matching the pitches as they occurred. I found that by the second verse I could actually sing the song. I see something similar in the way that students "experiment" with finding the notes of a new song by using their ear. Those students who let their fingers do the playing seem to figure out how a new song goes much, much quicker than a student who stands frozen and balks at putting down any finger.

Aural learners easily learn music by listening. They have no trouble playing by ear and quite often progress very quickly in the Suzuki world. They have an easier time learning to read music if they can sing or say note names or rhythms. They can quickly memorize music if they listen to recordings. In fact, aural learners may have difficulty memorizing a piece if they are only looking at the written part. These students may need lyrics for certain passages. Although an aural learner can respond to verbal cues, it may be distracting. I find it better to use some other sound as a cue rather than actual words: tongue clicks, finger snaps, or soft vocal sounds ("sh, sh, sh" or "tst," "tst," "tst"). To strengthen an aural learner's visual sense, I demonstrate new material for the student without actually playing the notes. I show my fingering or my bowing without making a sound. The student can only use his or her eyes to figure out what I am doing.

Because aural learners learn very quickly to play by ear, I find it crucial to teach them how to read music at a very early stage in the game. There is a tricky window of opportunity here, and if I miss it because I have poorly timed when to teach the student to read music, then I will miss altogether the chance for the student to learn to read well. For example, I have had new students come to me from another teacher who may have delayed the reading stage until the student was well into book 3 or even book 4. Unfortunately, this is way too late for an aural learner, who probably learned how to play by ear early in book 1. Now the student needs only to hear something one time, and they have the piece fairly well on the road to being learned. They never learn to use their eyes well. I try and correct this difficulty by giving the student other music that has no recording. We play duets or easier etudes -- easier anything! -- just to get the reading practice going. So whereas I might hold off on teaching a visual student to read until the playing-by-ear skill is developed, I teach an aural student early. [When to teach music reading is another post for another day.]

Kinesthetic learners may find it easier to learn a piece by coming up with a dance or other physical routine that fits the music. Sometimes it helps to have the student stand in different places for different parts of the piece. Kinesthetic learners may also enjoy learning to conduct simple beat patterns or even direct the flow of the pitches, moving the hand up when the note pitches ascend and down when the note pitches descend. I have read that kinesthetic learners may benefit from using the Kodaly method when learning notes. Any kind of motion would be useful, even walking around the room. When working with a kinesthetic learner, I can make adjustments by physical touch alone.

Because the kinesthetic learner's muscle memory is so strong, I find it imperative that this student work very carefully in order to learn the correct fingerings and bowings from the very first notes. If the kinesthetic student learns a piece with incorrect fingers or bowings, the student may have a tough time unlearning the mistakes. In some songs, I might suggest that the kinesthetic learner actually learn the piece or passage with "separate hands" by using pizzicato for the left hand notes (plucking the notes on the strings without using the bow), and then learning the bowing by moving the bow up and down in the air without the violin before trying to put the bowing and the notes together. Pieces like Minuet 3 (#15 in Suzuki book 1), Musette (#2 in book 2), and The Two Grenadiers (#7 in bk 2) are examples of such kinesthetic repertoire swamps.

To summarize how I teach to the student's other styles in order to strengthen them, I basically find ways to cut off the student's primary perceptual learning style. If it's a visual student, I find ways to eliminate sight from the equation. If my student is aural, I eliminate sound. If my student is kinesthetic, I eliminate touch and use simple, one-word verbal cues. My goal is always to develop a completely well-rounded student who is strong in all perceptual learning styles.

I first learned about the perceptual learning styles theory through an article by Cheryl L. Cornell ("How Best do They Learn?), published in the American Suzuki Journal in the summer of 1998. at the time, Cheryl was the Director of Northwest Missouri Talent Education in Maryville, Missouri, teaching violin and viola. I have always wanted to contact Cheryl to thank her for the wonderful article she wrote about the three perceptual learning styles. I have relied on the information that Cheryl wrote for many years now. I found the information very valuable and useful as a teacher, and I hope that you do too.

Don't forget to vote in one of the polls here on the site, usually to the right of the blog post. If you have some polls you would like to suggest, please leave me a comment.

Do You Have ***"Style"***?

When I ask whether you have "style," I'm referring to your learning style. Everyone has a favorite style in which to process new information. We might be visual, aural, or kinesthetic.

Visual folks rely more strongly on their eyes. Aural folks rely on their ears. Kinesthetic folks rely on their sense of touch. You may know which style you are, but if you don't, think about the language you use. Often our word choices reflect our learning style preference. Visual folks say things like, "I see" or "it's crystal clear." Aural folks say things like, "I hear you" or "it sounds alright to me." Kinesthetic folks say things like "I get it" or "I have a gut feeling." Me? I actually practice changing my word choices on purpose. Sometimes I use visual language, sometimes I use aural or kinesthetic. I want to be a well rounded teacher, so I work on all of my possible learning styles.

Why does it matter what learning style you are? By understanding your own personal learning style, you can also structure your learning or practicing environment to learn new things quicker or to learn previous material more thoroughly. As a teacher or parent, it is helpful to understand what learning style your student is as well as your own style in order to communicate more effectively between you.

Visual learners need to see what they are learning. They need to look at the music on the page or the way the fingers should be placed on the fingerboard. They have a tendency to mistrust verbal instructions and an even stronger need to look at the music rather than play something by ear. They can memorize music, but they may have a hard time performing from memory because any visual distraction might disturb the performance. In a classroom situation, I can pinpoint the visual learners the first time I give out bowing instructions. They immediately ask me or their neighbor to repeat the instructions, or they turn around or lean over to look at what their neighbor has written. I help visual learners practice repeating instructions or verbal cues under their breath in order to learn how to "hear" them. It really works!

Aural learners need to hear what they are learning. They don't need to look at something. In fact, if you demonstrate something to them, they may not even "see" what you are doing. Instead they will describe what they hear you are doing. For example, I had a young boy who used way too much bow and sounded very sloppy and messy. I tried to demonstrate this for him. I played a passage with two different styles: (1) I played with concentrated bowing and very clean, then (2) I played with huge messy bows. The student heard that I was louder and scratchier with the second example. I realized that he was describing sound and not the visual cues I had given him (I was pretty obvious about it too, using monster bows in example 2). I then played the examples again, but I left my bow up in the air. I went through the bowing motions, but I made no sound whatsoever. The student immediately figured out that I was using smaller bows with number 1 and shorter bows with number 2. Mission accomplished!

Kinesthetic learners need to feel what they are learning and to involve their bodies in the process. Kinesthetic learners have historically been the more challenging of the learning styles, at least in the public school system, which has historically been geared more toward visual learners. In years past, when a parent complained to me that their child was getting behavior referrals from the child's school, I understood that the school wasn't handling the child's kinesthetic needs very well. A kinesthetic child needs to use his or her body in the learning process. Such a child finds it difficult to sit still and just take in instructions. They need to interact in some way. If only children were allowed to mark their school books, many of our kinesthetic "behavior issues" might disappear. I have taught kinesthetic children to read music or instructions by having them underline or circle words in their music or theory books. The action of writing or drawing helps to calm the kinesthetic need for physical activity.

When I teach, I identify the learning style of both my student and his or her parent. I do that so that I can figure out where there may be difficulties in communication between the student and the parent when practicing at home. For example, a visual type parent may communicate with her aural type child by using language that doesn't "ring a bell" with her child. Perhaps the parent is pointing to something in the music, while the child is just looking away. The visual parent will then say something like, "look at me when I'm talking to you." That sort of thing amuses me. What does the parent really want from the child? Does the parent want the child to look at the parent or to hear what the parent is saying? Many times aural children don't "look" when they are listening. It doesn't mean that the child doesn't hear them.

There are problems with mismatches of other learning styles. Aural parents tend to talk at their child more, and visual students need to see the instructions more than they need to hear about them. Kinesthetic learners tend to move around; they have a hard time sitting still to look at things or to listen to what's being told to them, although I often find that kinesthetic learners have good aural skills too. I wonder if it's akin to how blind people have more developed senses of hearing and touch. Perhaps kinesthetic folks have higher senses of hearing and touch as well.

In a future post, I'll talk about specific ways to teach to the particular learning styles. For now, I will note that I identify the student's learning style, and then I strive NOT to teach to that style unless I need to get a point across quickly. Instead I think it's more important to strengthen the student's other senses as much as possible to help the student to become the best they can possibly be. My future posts will tell you how I do that.

Write me a comment and tell me what learning style you think you are and how you think that impacts your lifestyle or learning environment.