Wake-up!

Your child is

KNOWING YOUR CHILD’S MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES

BY RANGASHREE SRINIVAS

Your seven-year-old daughter’s teachers at school are complaining about her. The child has some difficulty following the lessons taught; her classwork is often incomplete. But she draws

beautiful diagrams; her project work is imaginative. At home, you know that she likes science. She brings you an illustrated encyclopaedia with pictures of fiery volcanoes, surging seas and interesting pot-bellied ants and asks you to read aloud to her. She cannot bear to see a mosquito squashed. She cannot tolerate the fact that dirty water is going untreated into the sea.

You feel that she has an intelligence innate in her that makes her appreciate the world outside. What is this intelligence and is it enough for her to get by in academics? How should this intelligence be tapped? Are schools (and parents too) progressive enough to treat each child as a unique individual, and adapt

themselves accordingly to satisfy her needs?

It is therefore important that both you as a parent and her teachers

understand the multiple

intelligences (MI) present in every child,

learn to identify the dominant ones and tap

them appropriately. Howard Gardner, the father of the Multiple Intelligence theory, visited India recently renewing an interest in MI and how it

An intelligence is the ability to solve problems, or to create products, that are valued within one or more cultural settings.HowArd GArdner, FrAmes oF mind (1983)

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The MI theory suggests that an individual possesses intelligences in several areas as against the traditional idea of a single intelligence. An intelligent person has been recognized so far only by her linguistic (language) abilities or logical (mathematical) abilities as these are considered to be important for academic advancement. Thus, only the student who achieves high scores in class is considered intelligent. Another child may just be ‘talented’ in the area of her achievement – ‘She is a good dancer; let us send her for the inter-school dance competition.’ ‘He is a good cricket player; but he needs to concentrate now on improving his grades’ and so on.

Worse still, in some schools only the academically well-performing students are given the opportunity to participate in co-curricular activities when there could be others more suited for this. For instance, it is the class topper who gets to deliver the school’s morning assembly speech. It is the girl who scores a 100% in math who gets to automatically represent her school in the inter-school quiz competition.

In contrast, the MI theory recognizes at least eight different intelligences that have to be considered while creating an ‘intelligence’ profile of a person.

MI theory strives to provide educators and parents with a tool to recognize and nurture the different abilities of the child. It redefines the word ‘intelligent’ or ‘smart’. It brings in new thinking towards nurturing excellence, creativity and genius. It emphasises that all children can learn and that it is the adults who need to know how to teach them.

THE 8 INTELLIGENCES IN THE MI FRAMEWORK Chitra Ravi (Founder and CEO, EZ Vidya), who has worked under Gardner on Project Zero at Harvard University, gives some pointers to parents to spot intelligences in their children.

1.Linguistic intelligence is the capacity to use languages, to express oneself, and to understand other people. Poets specialise in linguistic intelligence. But any kind of writer, orator, speaker, lawyer, or a person for whom language is an important 8

will impact the world in the years to come. In the 30 years since he first propounded the theory of MI, further research has been done, not just by him, but by several other scholars and practitioners around the world.

WHAT IS MI? Gardner developed this theory based on his observations of hundreds of people from different walks of life, under everyday circumstances. His study also included stroke victims, prodigies, autistic individuals, and the so-called ‘idiot savants’. According to Gardner,

All human beings possess all eight intelligences in varying amounts, with some, more dominant than others. Each person has a different intellectual composition. We can improve education by addressing the multiple intelligences of our students. These intelligences are located in different areas of the brain and can either work independently or together. These intelligences may define the human species.

word smart

number smart

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Verbal-Linguistic intelligence Best suited to be a writer, poet, journalist, teacher, lawyer, librarian, marketing consultant,

newscaster, politician

musical intelligence

Best suited to be an audiologist,

composer, conductor, disc jockey, music critic, sound editor, music teacher, music therapist, musician,

recording engineer, singer, songwriter,

speech pathologist

Bodily-Kinesthetic

intelligence Best suited to be an actor, athlete,

carpenter, computer games designer, crafts person, dancer, sports therapist, forest ranger, jeweller, mechanic, personal

trainer, surgeon

interpersonal intelligence

Best suited to be an

administrator, communications

manager, customer service representative,

human resources manager, marketing specialist,

nurse, politician, psychologist, religious

leader, social worker, teacher, trainer

naturalist intelligence

Best suited to be an animal health technician,

anthropologist, astronomer, botanist, environmental

lawyer, farmer, forest ranger, gardener,

geologist, landscaper, meteorologist, nature

photographer, veterinarian,

water conservationist, wetlands ecologist, wildlife expert

Visual-spatial intelligence Best suited to be a

3d modelling & simulation, architect, artist, film animator, graphic artist, interior decorator, photographer, mechanic, navigator, pilot, sculptor, strategic planner,

surveyor, urban planner, webmaster

sHow tHem tHe moon And tHey wiLL reAcH For tHe stArs!

Best suited careers for an intelligenceThe MI profile of your child can guide him in choosing a suitable

career path.

mathematical-Logical intelligence

Best suited to be an accountant, mathematician,

statistician, economist, detective, computer analyst, computer technician, computer programmer, database designer, engineer, network analyst, physicist,

scientist

intrapersonal intelligence Best suited

to be a career counsellor, consultant, criminologist,

healer, futurist or trend predictor, personal counsellor, philosopher, programme planner, entrepreneur, psychologist, researcher, small business, owner, spiritual counsellor,

theologian, therapist, writer, wellness

counsellor