Kinesthetic Giftedness

Seminar

About Us Home Teaching Philosophy Social Cause Blog

Home

Teaching Philosophy

Social Cause

Blog

Articles Learning Styles Einstein-Giftedness Key to Acceleration Social Prodigy Visual Spatial Learners Kinesthetic Giftedness Schools Choosing Schools Asian Or Western Education After School Tuition HomeSchool or School Homeschool Curriculum Homeschooling for the Schooled Universities are PG rated Educator's Roles Great Educators Matter Educator's Role in Education Educators' Perspective The Educator, The Destroyer Special Needs EducationPathSpecialNeeds Autistic and Gifted Overcoming Dyslexia Executive Function and Disorders Age Appropriate Education and the Price of Childhood Parenting Adolescent Parenthood Parents matter in education Brighten the Corner

Learning Styles Einstein-Giftedness Key to Acceleration Social Prodigy Visual Spatial Learners Kinesthetic Giftedness

Einstein-Giftedness

Key to Acceleration

Social Prodigy

Visual Spatial Learners

Kinesthetic Giftedness

Schools Choosing Schools Asian Or Western Education After School Tuition HomeSchool or School Homeschool Curriculum Homeschooling for the Schooled Universities are PG rated

Choosing Schools

Asian Or Western Education

After School Tuition

HomeSchool or School

Homeschool Curriculum

Homeschooling for the Schooled

Universities are PG rated

Educator's Roles Great Educators Matter Educator's Role in Education Educators' Perspective The Educator, The Destroyer

Great Educators Matter

Educator's Role in Education

Educators' Perspective

The Educator, The Destroyer

Special Needs EducationPathSpecialNeeds Autistic and Gifted Overcoming Dyslexia Executive Function and Disorders

EducationPathSpecialNeeds

Autistic and Gifted

Overcoming Dyslexia

Executive Function and Disorders

Age Appropriate Education and the Price of Childhood Parenting Adolescent

Education and the Price of Childhood

Parenting Adolescent

Parenthood Parents matter in education Brighten the Corner

Parents matter in education

Brighten the Corner

Services All Gifted Services Parents' Seminar All Gifted High School Resources Kindy/Primary Recommended Books Recommended Books for Primary School

All Gifted Services

Parents' Seminar

All Gifted High School

Resources Kindy/Primary Recommended Books Recommended Books for Primary School

Kindy/Primary

Recommended Books

Recommended Books for Primary School

School MathQuiz Literacy K-12 Reading Adult Reading Numeracy Singapore Primary Mathematics Algebra for Primary School Students Math Adaptive Test Math Portal

MathQuiz

Literacy K-12 Reading Adult Reading

K-12 Reading

Adult Reading

Numeracy Singapore Primary Mathematics Algebra for Primary School Students Math Adaptive Test Math Portal

Singapore Primary Mathematics

Algebra for Primary School Students

Math Adaptive Test

Math Portal

Press Press Pamela Lim Pamela Lim Pamela Lim - Bio Entrepreneur in Pamela Lim

Press

Pamela Lim Pamela Lim Pamela Lim - Bio Entrepreneur in Pamela Lim

Pamela Lim

Pamela Lim - Bio

Entrepreneur in Pamela Lim

Contact

High School Learning Management System

Just before the race, I instructed my son to do eleven strokes per minute if he wanted to go faster and win the International competition, so he altered his stroke and brought back the medal. Many kinesthetic learners has this "perfect rhythm" in them, and I found out that this ability is common among athletes.

My oldest child can tell you how many beats there are in a minute without a metronome, so when the coach needs him to do a certain number of strokes per minute or the music teacher needs a precise number of crotchets in a bar, using "faster" or "slower" will confuse him.

He needs them to be specific to deliver what they require him to. Kinesthetic intelligence is the giftedness in movements and rhythms.

Kinesthetic learners do not function well in school environments, because they need to move around to think, and are often labeled hyperactive. Therefore, when faced with such students, many teachers will ask their parents to check if the kids have ADHD. Sounds familiar? I sent my other son to a pretty good kindy when he was four-years-old, and the teachers were a helpful lot. One teacher reported him walking around the classroom when she was teaching the continents and oceans. She thought he learned nothing since he was just walking around the classroom, visiting the reading corners, picking up books, shifting here and there. She was shocked when he could regurgitate all that she taught when they had to do the worksheets.

He even went around coaching his classmates who were one year older. I often wonder if she had chained him to the chair, would he learn or remember as much. I knew he needed to move to think. But this kind environment is not to be found in a formal school setting, he had much trouble explaining why he had to go to the toilet often because he just could not sit on the chair for that full period without dozing off, he couldn't think and function without moving his feet and shifting his body.

In the end, like every good educator, the teachers and principals told me to check if he had ADHD.

After a good sum of money spent, one psychologist confirmed he had ADHD after a few questionaires, and another psychologist did a thorough test and said he could focus and had no attention deficit. We were asked to put him on Ritalin, anyway, to 'test if it works'.

As a parent, I do not believe that my son is a lab rat, so I refrained from putting him on drugs, to the dismal of his teachers who branded me an irresponsible mother. But I was determined to empower him to work in classrooms again without drugs.

When he started university studies at twelve, I was given the chance to observe him in lecture theatres. Unlike primary schools, universities neither limit the number of toilet visits nor forbid walks to refresh. Every 50 minutes, he will move to a new lecture theatre or tutorial room, and he would grab that opportunity to find a Subway or Coke, which energizes him.

It occurs to me that the working world, just like the university, allows freedom to walk and pace about, so putting him on drugs just so he can operate in the classroom seems wrong.

Read the story of Gillian Lynne with Kinesthetic Intelligence , an excerpt from Sir Ken Robinson's Book: The Element .

Strangely, this need to move can be viewed as an intelligence and gift or a disability depending on the environment and how we want to read things. For me, to be different is a gift and every gift can be a two-edged sword: if we choose to focus on its negatives, the problems become bigger and bigger, but if we focus on the positives and spend time nurturing that gift, it becomes easier to teach the child to assuage the pain of being different and release him to learn how to behave in an acceptable way.

So the next time a child is prescribed Ritalin, we should really think hard if we want the drug to act as the chain that puts him on the seat, killing his gift at the same time, or take the more painful route of teaching him to exploit his own gifts and learn to blend into his environment at the same time.

Quote:

"ADHD is the prime example of a fictitious disease"

~ Psychiatrist Leon Eisenberg , the Father of ADHD

I am not sure if the disease is fictitious, but the over usage of drugs on our children is worrisome. Today, one out of ten ten-year-olds is on Ritalin, and one wonders the coins in whose pockets are jiggling.