Musical Thinking?5 Simple Steps to Teaching Kids How They Think
The Quick Start Manual
Millions of children face challenges with inattention, impulsivity, cognitive inflexibility and disorganization, yet strategies and solutions to address them are elusive. We expect kids to alter their behavior when we say things like, “Just slow down,” “Think it out,” or “Use your creative problem-solving skills,” only to see the children look up bewilderingly. We often get caught in the trap of telling them what to do without telling them how to do it. This results in children who become disorganized thinkers, using trial and error to try to meet the expectations of teachers, parents and those whom they love.
Musical Thinking—5 Simple Steps To Teaching Children How They Think: The Quick Start Manual, is Dr. Lynne Kenney’s creative response to empowering children to take charge of their learning and behavior by teaching children how their brains work, not simply what to think.
“Before we teach our students how to analyze content, we actually teach them how to analyze what their brain is doing to learn.”
—Lynne Kenney, PsyD
Applying the research of J.P. Das, Nacho Arimany, Peter C. Brown, Adele Diamond and more, Dr. Kenney developed Musical Thinking—5 Simple Steps To Teaching Children How They Think. By introducing The Musical Thinking Quartet - “The Love Notes”, Cognitive Conversation Cueing Cards, Poems and over 25 colorful, reproducible pages, Dr. Kenney shows educators, clinicians and parents how to use Musical Thinking to teach children:
1. How their brains build “neuronal highways.”
2. How their brains are constructed via The Thinker, The Caveman & Boots.
3. How using rhythm, tempo and timing can empower children to encode, retrieve, and better inhibit their thinking and behavior.
4. How using cognitive cueing can make several core executive functions including attention, memory, cognitive flexibility and inhibition less of a mystery and more transparent.
5. How engaging the children in their own learning by introducing “The Love Notes” can empower children to learn and behave better for a lifetime.
Musical Thinking is a collaborative approach based in cognitive science that will delight, engage and amaze the children with whom you work. Begin empowering the children in your classrooms, clinical practices and homes by teaching them HOW their brains learn, not simply what to think.
Lynne Kenney, Psy.D., is a mother of two, an international educator, and a pediatric psychologist in Scottsdale, AZ. Dr. Kenney is co-author with Wendy Young of Bloom: 50 things to say, think and do with anxious, angry and over-the-top-kids and author of The Family Coach Method. Her next book, 70 Play Activities For Better Thinking, Self-Regulation, Learning and Behavior will be available Fall 2016.
Dr. Kenney has advanced fellowship training in forensic psychology and developmental pediatric psychology from Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School and Harbor-UCLA/UCLA Medical School. In her BrainSmarts presentations to over 4000 clinicians, parents and teachers, Dr. Kenney integrates neuroscience, kinesiology and music research to enhance executive function, social-emotional and academic skills with motor movement. Dr. Lynne’s cause-related program, Play Math, helps children ages 6-12 learn their math facts with playground balls and hula-hoops for better algebraic thinking.
