Psychologist Howard Gardner has identified the following distinct types of intelligence in his Multiple Intelligences Theory (“MI Theory”) in the book “Frames of Mind.” The types of Intelligences that he has identified are intrapersonal (ability to recognize and understand one’s own feelings) and interpersonal (the ability to recognize and comprehend other people’s feelings), logical, linguistic, visual (spatial), kinesthetic (movement), and musical. My purpose in this brief article is to help parents identify their child’s strengths, and conversely to recognize areas which need encouragement in order to be developed. For the purposes of this article, and demonstration of the tendencies of each type of intelligence, they are listed as they relate to gifted and talented children. Of course, we adults can benefit from analyzing our own intelligence “strengths” and “weaknesses”!
1. Linguistic (verbal) Intelligence: Children with this kind of intelligence enjoy writing, reading, telling stories or doing crossword puzzles.
2. Logical-Mathematical Intelligence: Children with lots of logical intelligence are interested in patterns, categories and relationships. They are drawn to arithmetic problems, strategy games and experiments. This type of intelligence, together with Linguistic Intelligence, were previously thought to be the only types of intelligence there were, and thus, all early I.Q. tests were based solely on these two types. Recently, the tests have been expanded to show ability in the other types of intelligences.
3. Bodily-Kinesthetic (Movement) Intelligence: These kids process knowledge through bodily sensations. They are often athletic, dancers or good at crafts such as sewing or woodworking. These are “hands on” learners.
4. Spatial (visual) Intelligence: These children think in images and pictures. They may be fascinated with mazes or jigsaw puzzles, or spend free time drawing, building with Legos or daydreaming. Hand/Eye co-ordination is a spatial intelligence tendency. People can be athletic dancers, for example, yet not possess hand/eye co-ordination, as the latter is related to the visual ability to judge distance, which is a spatial intelligence function. An adult who is great at math, may not love nor be great at geometry, as geometry is special intelligence.
5. Musical Intelligence: These children are always singing or drumming to themselves. They are usually quite aware of sounds others may miss. These kids are often discriminating listeners.
6. Interpersonal Intelligence (Also called Social Intelligence): Children who are leaders among their peers, who are good at communicating and who seem to understand others’ feelings and motives possess interpersonal intelligence. Interpersonal intelligence is characterized by ability in varying social situations. These people discern how to resolve conflicts.
7. Intrapersonal Intelligence(Also called Emotional Intelligence): They are very aware of their own feelings and are self-motivated. Frequently, this ability is manifested in a person together with Interpersonal Intelligence, and people often refer to the combined abilities as “Emotional Intelligence”, and is a hallmark of predicting future success. Studies have shown that people who lack training in the emotional, or social, intelligences, rarely rise to the level of success that people manifesting these abilities do. Major employers are beginning to look for these skills in their interviewing processes! More detailed information about “Emotional Intelligence” can be derived through the book by Dr. Daniel Goleman, titled Emotional Intelligence.
8. Naturalist Intelligence: Naturalist – the ability to discriminate among living things (plants, animals) as well as sensitivity to other features of the natural world (clouds, rock configurations). It is also the ability to identify and classify patterns in nature. People who love the outdoors, camping, fishing, hiking and exploring and learning about the earth and space exhibit naturalist intelligence. This type was added by Gardner after his initial publications of the types of intelligences.
MI Theory teaches parents and educators to look for signs of innate precociousness in children and then to help develop them. There is evidence that the two intelligences that indicate the highest probability of future success in life are the two social, or emotional intelligences. All parents are encouraged to teach their children the emotional intelligence skills. Just because a person is not born with innate aptitude in a particular area, does not mean that it can not be taught. It is suggested, rather, that the child will be happiest doing that which they have innate aptitude doing, and also adding a curriculum to teach children the social/emotional intelligence skills.
When asked for advice on how parents could rear successful children, Gardner replied that we should not try to make our children good at what we ourselves were good at, or what we ourselves were not good at. Gardner says that our job is to help our children become who they are supposed to be, not what we think they should be. Some parents find it difficult to follow this course.
Because of the importance of emotional intelligence skills, I will add a brief description of the skills involved in “emotional intelligence”. It is important, when looking for a mate, to look for a mate who possesses these emotional intelligence skills, as they are then better equipped to work through whatever marriage brings!
The five key elements of emotional intelligence are:
1. The ability to recognize your emotions as they happen.
2. Manage your emotions (soothe and shake them off)
3. Motivate yourself.
4. Recognize and empathize with the emotions of others.
5. Handling relationships with people, especially those “different” than you.
So, how are you doing in the “emotional intelligence” quotient?? Can you see how it would be helpful to your children for them to learn these things?
By Janeen J. Detrick
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