Multiple Intelligences: Tapping into how your child learns best

Parents know that children each have unique interests. Some love sports and other physical activity and seem antsy when they can’t run free. Others whistle or hum, or tap out a beat on any available surface as they work. Some keep collections of everything from action figures to stickers. Others can wile away the hours watching ants at work.

What might come as a surprise is that the areas that interest children are also those that characterize their learning styles. For example, when learning to read and write, the ant-watcher may want to read books about nature and write stories about backyard adventures. The collector may take to labeling all of the items in the house with index cards bearing their names. The budding musician might take a more oral approach to language, making up silly songs from rhyming words. Active kids might clap or stamp out the different syllables of words or twist and turn their bodies into the shapes of letters as they learn.  [top]

Understanding your child’s intelligence

In his 1983 book Frames of Mind, Harvard professor Howard Gardner expanded the definition of what it is to be smart by outlining seven forms of intelligence (the eighth, naturalist, was added in 1999). Gardner and advocates of his theory believe that these intelligences can be nurtured and strengthened, or ignored and weakened. Gardner says that most people have all eight intelligences, although tendencies may be stronger in one or two areas. Additionally, almost all people have the ability to develop every one of the eight kinds of intelligences to a reasonable degree. What is unique is how the eight intelligences are expressed in each person. They include:

Verbal-linguistic—Sensitivity to the meaning and order of words. Children with this intelligence tend to use an expanded vocabulary and usually like to tell jokes, riddles or puns. They also like to read, write, tell stories and play word games.

Logical-mathematic—The ability to handle chains of reasoning and to recognize patterns and order. Children with this intelligence enjoy working with numbers, want to know how things work, ask a lot of questions, collect items and keep track of their collections.

Musical—Sensitivity to pitch, melody, rhythm and tone. Children with this intelligence listen to and play music, sing, hum, move to the rhythm, and create and replicate tunes.

Bodily-kinesthetic—The ability to use the body skillfully and to handle objects expertly. Children with this intelligence play sports and love to be physically active. They tend to use body language and like dancing, acting or other movement activities. [top]

Spatial—The ability to see in pictures and images, to understand the order of things (particularly objects and images) and to take what is learned and create something new. Children with this intelligence excel at art. They doodle, paint, draw and build with blocks. They enjoy looking at maps and doing puzzles and mazes. They can take things apart and put them back together again in new and creative ways.

Naturalist—Recognize and classify the various plants and animals of an environment. Children with this intelligence spend time outdoors observing plants, collecting rocks and catching insects; they are attuned to relationships in nature.

Interpersonal—The ability to understand people and relationships. Children with this intelligence have many friends, tend to negotiate between them and to be excellent team players.

Intrapersonal—The ability to use one’s emotional life to understand oneself and others. Children with this intelligence control their feelings and moods and often observe and listen. They are aware of their personal abilities and often do best when working alone.

(Source for definition of eight intelligences: www.scholastic.com)

At the following link, http://www.familyeducation.com/topic/front/0,1156,21-12410,00.html, parents can complete a series of surveys to learn more about their children’s intelligence(s).  [top]

Multiple intelligences in the classroom

Teachers are becoming more aware of various learning styles and are trying more and more to teach in ways that appeal to a spectrum of learning styles. For example, a kindergarten teacher might develop a unit on ocean life (naturalist bent), asking children to:

• Crumple colorful tissue paper for vegetation and cut out paper sea animals to create a classroom display (spatial).

• Read from the classroom library that is filled with a variety of fiction and non-fiction books on sharks, jellyfish and the adventures of deep-sea divers (verbal-linguistic).

• Listen to a tape of Baby Beluga by Raffi and then sing the song together as a class (musical).

• Play a guessing game in which they take turns acting out the part of various sea animals (bodily-kinesthetic).

Another example could be a fourth grade unit on the Revolutionary War in which students might read aloud a passage on Washington crossing the Delaware (verbal-linguistic) and then team up to act out the passage using such props as brooms for oars and newspaper hats (bodily-kinesthetic). Students with a musical bent might be encouraged to provide sound effects or sing a patriotic tune. Students with a logical-mathematical bent might engage in charting how long the trip likely took based on a variety of data, such as distance traveled, time of year, water temperature, etc.  [top]