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April 2005
Connections: Music Brings it all Together
Mrs. Donna - North Canton
Squeals of delight are heard as parents swing their little ones in and out toward another baby and sing: "Swing all around, and I don’t care, today is MUSIC day, Stop!" Effervescing with enthusiasm, Mrs. Jo giggles: “That’s spatial intelligence to the MAX!”
Oh, the joy of learning! It’s contagious at WeJoySing. And no one gets more excited about music and its impact on child development than WeJoySing founder and nationally recognized expert in the field, Jo Kirk (although....only you surpass her when it’s YOUR precious little one we’re delighting in!). So, what causes this educator to nearly dance out of her shoes? What is this “spatial intelligence” anyway?
If you have participated in our infant or 13-24 month-old programs, you’ve heard us briefly mention Howard Gardner, neuropsychologist and author of Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. Gardner’s learning theory and research propose seven areas of human intelligence: linguistic, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, spatial, logical-mathematical, interpersonal, and intrapersonal intelligences.
 Because your knowledge and understanding directly impacts your infant’s development, over the next several months, WeJoySing will feature a series of articles exploring Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence Learning Theory and the stimulation of brain development.
Our hope is that this information will enhance your WeJoySing experience. Don’t worry, class will still look and feel like “playing” with your child, but you may see more clearly how shared music and movement activities enhance the intelligences.
Gardner lists music as its own separate “intelligence.” So, how is it that music also helps enhance the development of the other areas?
"Parent-child interaction through singing can be a potent focus for stimulating activity in all the nervous system networks, for stimulating the growth and retention of neuron interconnections within and between the brain’s two hemispheres, and thus contribute to the acceleration of all the intelligences identified by Gardner."1
Music helps bring “left brain” and “right brain” together! At WeJoySing, this happens in a joyful, playful atmosphere where parents and children can bond in a way like no other. Truly, the HeartStrings class brings forth all kinds of great connections!
So, tune in next month as we feature the exciting realm of “Spatial Intelligence.....to the MAX!”
"Sing"cerely,
Mrs. Jo
1. Thurman, Dr. Leon, HeartSongs: A guide to active pre-birth and infant parenting through language and singing. Music Study Services, April 1, 1986.
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