Multiple Intelligences and Your Child
Remember when your children were little, I mean really little, like under the age of 2. Everything they did was new and interesting to them and they were completely enamored with, well...everything. Sitting or standing up, cruising around the table, taking those first steps, these are all events we can recall, but do you remember what your child thought of books? or building blocks? or counting numbers?
Take a look at what your children like to "play" with. Children who have a propensity to enjoy having books read to them, or to pretend that they are reading to you may gravitate towards Verbal-Linguistic endeavors later on. Likewise, children who spend a lot of time playing with building blocks may have tendencies towards Spatial intelligence. And how about children who like to dance and play while listening to music? Well, most children like to jump around while listening to music, but how about those children that exhibit the ability to clap or tap a beat, these children may be more Musically-oriented than other children.
These indicators can be very subtle and may easily change as your child is exposed to other types of intelligence, but as parents we are the first line of "offense" in assessing and nurturing our children's abilities. It cannot be overstated how very important it is that we work to help cultivate a fun, yet supportive learning atmosphere for our children as they grow.
