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Early childhood educator Kylie de Vos explores the theory of multiple intelligences and provides parents with activities that can help strengthen their child’s unique intellect.

how is your child smart?

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hen defning children as “intelligent”, society tends to place a premium on their aptitude in mathematics and linguistics. According to a contemporary theory, however, children who do not excel in these areas are still intelligent, just in a different context. It is believed that there are, in fact, many ways that a child can be intelligent, and no one way is better than another.

Dr Howard Gardner, professor of cognition and education at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education, believes that a child’s intelligence can’t be summed up by an IQ score. He recognises that each child has multiple intelligences that can be strengthened if supported, or weakened if disregarded. According to Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelligence (MI), everyone possesses, to varying degrees of competence, approximately eight intelligences: kinaesthetic, linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, intrapersonal, interpersonal, naturalistic and visual-

spatial. Each intelligence represents a child’s preferred approach to processing, interacting with and learning information.

Gardner’s theory has made a signifcant impact on education worldwide, with many schools incorporating it into their curricula to accommodate individual needs and strengths in the classroom. Teachers who use the MI theory understand that not all children learn the same material in the same manner. To help children attain knowledge, teachers place equal importance on each intelligence by incorporating instructional activities and learning opportunities that tap into every child’s unique intellectual profle. Parents who recognise their child’s intelligences are at an advantage. They can offer encouragement and enrichment so that their child can strengthen his or her more prominent intelligences, and help develop the intelligences that are weaker. This can be accomplished by providing the child with a variety of activities that stretch their skills and abilities.

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