HOW TO IDENTIFY MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES IN CHILDREN
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Acting or drama classes
Playing with building blocks or Legos
Designing props or creating costumes
Interpersonal intelligence
Working in groups on a project
Teaching or mentoring other students
Playing with puppets to express themselves
Intrapersonal intelligence
Journalling or blogging
Creating scrapbooks
Setting out goals and ways to achieve them
Linguistic intelligence
Storytelling
Poetry reciting
Joining a debate team
Logical-Mathematical intelligence
Math games like Monopoly
Conducting experiments
Coding
Music intelligence
Penning own lyrics
Listening to different genres of music
Taking up an instrument
Naturalist intelligence
Caring for a plant or animal
Participating in recycling, beach clean-ups or climate awareness drives