Multiple Intelligences
HOW TO IDENTIFY MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES IN CHILDREN
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- Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence expresses ideas and feelings as well as problem-solving through the use of the body. Children who excel in sports or are good at creating things with their hands can be defined as possessing this type of intelligence.
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- Interpersonal intelligence relates to the ability to perceive moods, feelings and the needs of people. If your child is able to empathise and advise others or is a natural leader, they might embody interpersonal intelligence.
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- Intrapersonal intelligence is to have a heightened self-awareness and use that knowledge to apply it in your daily life. Children with this intelligence typically march to the beat of their drum and are realistic in their abilities.
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- Linguistic intelligence predominantly uses words as self-expression, be it verbal or written. Children that are great storytellers or have an uncanny memory for information that most people find hard to retain, might be inclined linguistically.
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- Logical-Mathematical intelligence found in children have amazing reasoning skills, understand numbers and are able to use them effectively. They tend to have an innate sense of curiosity and do exceptionally well in strategy games like chess.
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- Music intelligence can range from remembering songs with ease to responding to music through emotions. Some ways to investigate this intelligence is if the child is able to tell if the music is not in key, can pick up an instrument fairly well or are very rhythmic in their behaviour.
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- Naturalist intelligence proves existent if the child excels at classifying plants and animals as well as understanding natural phenomenon. They are usually animal lovers and take to nature well. They show sensitivity to climate or animal concerns and tend to speak out or about these topics.
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- Spatial intelligence is the way children perceive things visually. They remember the finer details in things that most of us miss and enjoy television, movies and videos as well as have a keen interest in performing arts. Children with spatial intelligence unconsciously doodle can absorb information through illustrations.
HOW TO DEVELOP MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES IN CHILDREN
It is imperative that we provide children with opportunities to access information as well as give them an outlet to showcase their skills. Only then will they be able to deep-dive and cultivate different topics of interest which may develop multiple intelligences.
You might want to try various activities that focus on honing all 9 multiple intelligences This will help guide the child into discovering which intelligence they would like to develop upon.
Let us look at some examples of activities below for each intelligence:
- Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence
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- Acting or drama classes
- Playing with building blocks or Legos
- Designing props or creating costumes
- Interpersonal intelligence
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- Working in groups on a project
- Teaching or mentoring other students
- Playing with puppets to express themselves
- Intrapersonal intelligence
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- Journalling or blogging
- Creating scrapbooks
- Setting out goals and ways to achieve them
- Linguistic intelligence
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- Storytelling
- Poetry reciting
- Joining a debate team
- Logical-Mathematical intelligence
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- Math games like Monopoly
- Conducting experiments
- Coding
- Music intelligence
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- Penning own lyrics
- Listening to different genres of music
- Taking up an instrument
- Naturalist intelligence
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- Caring for a plant or animal
- Participating in recycling, beach clean-ups or climate awareness drives
- Researching plants or animals
- Spatial intelligence
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- Photo taking
- Using virtual reality software
- Studying maps to connect a location