Yesterday I finally got my copy of Ability Development From Age Zero by Shinichi Suzuki. It was such a captivating book that I read it end to end in one night and then I read it all over again this morning!  Actually it is pretty thin book but very fascinating! It is wealth of knowledge in 96 pages. If there were to be compulsory reading for parents, I would vote for this book!

Suzuki was a music teacher in Japan. Who believed that ability is not inborn, rather it can be cultivated, developed and flourished. He used his methods to help children across the world learn music. Suzuki is the founder of Talent Education Method . He applied the methods that children use to learn their mother tongue to music, and it worked.

Suzuki advocated that all children have unlimited potential and possibilities. If they can learn their mother tongue by the age of 5, they can very well learn anything. How a child will grow and what abilities he would have, is dependent on how he was raised. A baby uses his survival instinct to absorb information from his environment; at an age of 5 months he is already picking information that will help him understand music or prepare for a fight with a future spouse. Therefore the environment provided at home is crucial. Children from happy households are able to concentrate more on ability development. According to him, the best way to develop an ability in a child, is for parent to develop that ability and then instill an eager want to learn in the child.

Following poem is inspired by his works.

Dear Adam you are a wonderful life force

Don’t let the world tell you what you can or cannot do

Ability is not inborn; it is cultivated and nurtured in you

If you can learn a language, you can learn any skill

All you need is an open mind and a strong will

Appreciate the beautiful life force that you are

Be thankful for the possibilities, my little star

Every child grows in the way he is raised

You can do anything – you will be amazed!

A thousand notes and more- you can memorize

You can read many  books and then summarize

You can play with numbers, add, subtract or factorize

You have unlimited potential-do you even realize!

Adam, my dear son,  you are a wonderful life force!

You are beauty, you are pure joy, you are my source

you make me want to believe, you make me want to pray

With so much  warmth and love- you make my day

I hope that I can show you how to love  and be loved; to inspire and to be inspired

I pray that I can develop you into a beautiful human being that can be admired

I hope that I reflect inwards and fix my  own flaws and that I will never scold you

I pray that on this journey  of our lives I will always love you, hug you and hold you

And if I ever falter- remind me that no two children should ever be compared

Every Child comes with unlimited possibilities; Every child must be loved and cared

Remind me that every child brings hope; that every child has that wonderful life force

And that happiness helps develop ability and a happy child will learn anything in due course