Multiple Intelligences

We all have some intelligence that comes more naturally than others. For some of us speaking and writing comes with ease, while some of us are great at socializing and getting along with different kinds of people and for some of us we have a flair at the numbers and resolving problems. Each of us has our own unique strengths and abilities. It’s the same with children too. Every children has their own strengths and these strengths can be used to harness the potential of the child.

Traditionally, those who are good at mathematics or language or those who have exceptional grades are the ones considered “Intelligent” and the ones that are not good or rather don’t score well or not good at math are considered “Not Intelligent”.

Dr. Howard Gardner, a psychologist, and professor of neuroscience from Harvard University developed the theory of Multiple Intelligences (MI) in 1983. According to the theory of Multiple Intelligences, there are eight (and a new one added to it recently that makes it 9) different ways of being intelligent. Intelligence is not about what we know, but how we learn.

We all use all eight under different circumstances, favoring some over others and creating an individual “intelligence profile” that is unique to each of us. The eight bits of intelligence reflect different ways of thinking, solving problems, and learning. In an MI view, everyone has all of the intelligence; it’s just that each person has his/her own unique MI profile.

Bits of Intelligence:

Here is a brief about the eight different ways of being Smart, The ninth Intelligence has been recently added.

Once we acknowledge that there is more than one way of being intelligent, we start accepting each child as uniquely intelligent. When the measurement and comparison to the scale of intelligence are removed, an effort will be made to identify the child’s unique strengths. And that will boost the child’s self-esteem and self-confidence immeasurably.

The moment we consider a child good in music at par with a child good in math, at par with a child good in sports, at par with a child good in making friends and dealing with others – we open up a new avenue of opportunities for children to succeed.

The teacher’s approach towards the child and the child’s approach towards learning change, when children are accepted as intelligent.

Today’s world demands multiple skills from successful people. Early exposure to all intelligence’s automatically leads to a more comprehensive development of the child.

Multiple Intelligence Skills for Children