In Their Own Way: Discovering and Encouraging Your Child's Multiple Intelligences

by Thomas Armstrong

Book Overview

Does your child have a favorite subject, activity, or hobby? Children learn in multiple ways, and educator Thomas Armstrong has shown hundreds of thousands of parents and teachers how to locate those... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1585420514
• Release Date: August 2000
• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.3" x 0.8" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

In Their Own Way

excellent. informative. as a homeschool parent I agree with many of his suppositions.

Seven intelligence Types

The Education Products Information Exchange shockingly reported, 80% of the content in school textbooks was known by students before they studied. If the content was known then education meant time consumption and rising tides of mediocrity. A national education reaction was expressed in the book "Nation at Risk" providing the following recommendation: 1) rigorous grading 2) more standardized tests 3) better textbooks 4) and adherence to English, Math, Science, Social Sciences, and Computer Science. The core curriculum was designed for students to compete against other nations but considered boring by students. What does 500 million standardize test mean? First, standardized implies keeping someone out. Standardize tests force sterilization of alleged defective individuals. In 1930, standardized tests were used to keep immigrants out of the U.S. One should be asking themselves, "Is formal testing the best way to determine competency?", "What do these tests measure?" and "Do these test encourage fault finding rather than discovery of strengthens?" Business maximums absolutely focus on strengthens rather than weakness to survive. Businesses manage weakness. What doesn't the educational system do likewise? Standardizing tests are faulty in their construction, represent poor subject selection, and faulty in research design. 500 million standardize tests means significant defect! Learning Disability implies a specific neurological disorder. Interestingly, no biological neurological correlation has been proven indicating learning disorder students have a problem. So no biological proof exists that these student's brains are different. Diagnostics do not access the students learning style. Instead, the learning disability diagnostics are used to pick and pry for weakness administered by certified qualified experts. These qualified experts do not have comparable academic qualifications such as Phds in professional psychiatry or psychology. Yet the experts are making professional assessments about the student education capabilities. Experts diagnose to the following disabilities: dyslexia, hyperactivity, dysfunctional auditory, sequential memory, attention deficit, reading difficulty, math block, underachievement, and overachievement. Learning Disability is revolutionary in scope, 50% of the students are labeled with a certain degree of learning disability, including overachievers. Perhaps these students just learn differently and the mere suggestion that one model for learning applies to all students is irrational. For example, Norman Geschwind, observed those "dyslexic" students, "probably a mythical made-up term", have: unusual drawing and artistic skills, a strong mechanical aptitude, and above average special dimension capability. A learning diagnostic revolution has permeated the education system. Students are required to sit for long periods of time and decode long complicated instructions. Teachers talk too much, 1/5

Should be required reading

If you ever thought your child might have ADHD, or any other learning disability, you must read this. If you are a pediatrician, it's likely you've been pressured by schools into diagnosing patients with ADHD. Please read this before you do. Teachers/educational specialists can really learn from the masterpiece:"In Their Own Way". The brilliant author, Thomas Armstrong, Ph.D., inspires us to "respect the garden of childhood" and not slap a "flawed label" such "attention deficit hyperactivity" on kids. Many kids have been branded as "underachievers", "learning disabled", simply have a nontraditional style of learning, Armstrong says. Each child has his own unique combination of multiple intelligences in learning, which must be honored and nurtured." We should not be putting these kids in remedial groups or writing them off as underachievers. Instead, he suggests: "We should use better teaching strategies appropriate to the real needs of the kids, based on their multiple intelligences." Better yet, Dr. Armstrong gives concrete teaching strategy suggestions parents and teachers can follow. He also lists learning materials, books, games,internet sites, and computer software to foster the eight intelligences. If we believe Dr. Armstrong, nurturing kids is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Children rise to the highest level of our expectations. Parents and teachers can have hope. A generation of "ADHD labeled" kids or "learning disabled" kids need not be thought of as patients needing lifelong medication or remediation, but as potential Stephen Hawkings, just waiting to be nurtured properly. It is our responsibility to help these souls find their own way. It is our future.

A light in the tunnel of failure

I read this book while on a 3 hour bus ride to St Mary's City with my son's 4th grade class. I was so overjoyed to have found something that provided a glimmer of recognition for my son's abilities. He was labled ADD and after several years of fighting it I was finally starting to say "Well, he is very bright, BUT he has ADD." Well, now I will say he is a Kinesthetic, Spatial and partially linguistic learner. He is bright and capable and he just doesnt fit into the traditional teaching styles, along with another 80% of the population. There is nothing WRONG with him. This book can help so many people regain confidence in themselves, their children and loved ones. Confidence that our tradtional school sytem has systematically destroyed in hundreds of thousands of bright, wonderful children by trying to force them to learn in a way that is not only unatural for them, but also, many times, impossible. This book helped me to understand my son, myself,and even my husband. Now I have some of the tools that can help me reach them. ADD may exist, but 99% of it is in the eye of the beholder.

A MUST for any parent with a "learning disabled" child.

Mr. Armstrong helped us find our child's learning style and our 12 year blossomed from an insecure, discouraged and failing student to a confident, enthusiastic young person who now finds joy in learning. This book shows that any child CAN learn, and shows the reader how to make it happen.