Your Child’s Unique Genius

As parents, we sometimes can’t see the wood for the tree’s, no matter how much we are doing and the big question is, what does the future hold for them??  I would like to remind you of a dyslexic’s strengths. These include being creative, fast problem solvers, excellent trouble shooters and very intuitive,  and after coming across Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences, it definitely gives you a strong indication of the direction you child can go.

A little bit about Howard Gardner, he is an American psychologist and one of the world’s foremost authorities on human intelligence. His theory is that there is no one correct definition of intelligence. The notion of IQ is worse than useless since it only really measures one specific skill and that is the ability to crack codes. For Gardner, intelligence is actually a set of separate abilities we all have in different measures. No one intelligence is of more worth than another, as they have all developed through evolution to keep us alive.

To get an idea of what your child’s predominant intelligences are, and where his particular skills and interests lie, answer the questions below :

Bodily/kinetic

• Do you take part in competitive sport?
• Do you find it difficult to sit still for long periods of time?
• Do you have your best ideas when you are walking?
• Have you ever been in a fight?
• Do you enjoy rough and tumble games with your parents?
• Do you like to be cuddled?

Inter – personal

• Can you count and name ten or more close friends?
• Do you class yourself as an extrovert?
• When working in groups, do you act as the group leader, or as the one who gets others involved?
• Would you say, generally speaking, that you like people?
• Do you find social situations easy?
• On your first day at school, did you feel reasonably confident?

Intra – personal

• Would you class yourself (or have others ever classified you) as a deep thinker?
• Do you prefer to be on your own?
• Are you shy?
• Do you have an interest in philosophy/ psychology?
• Do you prefer to take a while to mull over things before you make a decision?
• Do you keep a diary and hide it?
• Do you have only a very few close friends?

Visual/spatial

• Would you ever visit an art gallery out of choice?
• Do you recall your dreams easily?
• Can you think of an image you would never want to see again?
• Do you have posters or paintings on display in your home?
• Have you changed the lay out of your room, or painted any pair of it this year?
• Do you have your hair cut more than three times a year?
• Have you bought yourself new clothes this month?

Musical

• Do you have significant collection of CD’s (over ten is significant for a child)?
• When you are working, do you prefer to have music on?
• Do you own a musical instrument? (It doesn’t matter if you can’t play it)
• Can you identify more than five different genres of music?
• When listening to music, do you ever think of ways in which it could be improved?
• Do you ever find yourself miming a musical instrument?
• Do you find the tunes to songs easy to remember?

Logical /mathematical

• Do you enjoy solving problems involving numbers?
• Have you ever done a Sudoku puzzle?
• Can you accurately estimate the height or weight of something just by looking at it?
• Do you have a good sense of direction?
• Do you class yourself as being good at maths?
• When you have a big piece of work to do, are you able to break it down into smaller parts to make it seem easier?
• Do you have a fairly good head for money?

Linguistic /verbal

• Do you enjoy crosswords?
• Do you keep a diary?
• Have you read more than two works of fiction this year?
• Do you find the words of songs easy to remember?
• Would you class yourself (or would other class you) as articulate?
• Do you enjoy writing stories, and are they received?
• Do you enjoy consulting a dictionary?

Now total up the number of times your child answered ‘yes’ for each intelligence. You should have a score out of seven for each area. The top two, three, even four scores will indicate what your child’s predominant strengths are. They may also provide the techniques with which he’ll find it easiest to learn.

For more information on Howard Gardener click on https://howardgardner.com/biography/