Every child is different and therefore has their own skills, talents and interests.
For years, personal skills and competencies were directly related to the intelligence quotient but we now know that there are other types of intelligence.
What is the theory of multiple intelligences?
The theory of multiple intelligences arises from the hand of the psychologist Howard Gardner when se questions the existence of a unique and hereditary intelligence. During his investigations, he found that people with high intelligence do not achieve great goals in their lives and vice versa.
According to Gardner intelligence is the sum of different intelligences related to different abilities and capacities.
We all have eight different types of natural intelligences interconnected with each other. Each of them is located in a different area of the brain.
The development of these 8 types of intelligences is linked to environmental and cultural factors. Intelligences they are learned from experiences and relationships with others.
Gardner's 8 Intelligences
- Mathematical logician: is the ability to perform numerical calculations and formulate hypotheses through reasoning.
- Linguistics: implies the ability to Listening, speaking, reading and writing.
- Musical: is the ability to sing, analyze sounds, and play musical instruments.
- Spatial viso: implies the ability to orient yourself in space, draw, perceive visual details, etc..
- Body kinetic: is the competition for expressing oneself with the body, performing exercises that involve balance and eye-hand coordination.
- Interpersonal: implies the ability to understand others and work with them, cooperate, help them identify and overcome their difficulties.
- Intrapersonal: is the capacity to self-assess own abilities and difficulties, control thinking and set personal goals.
- Naturalistic: implies competition for establish relationships between groups of people or objects or between various species.
Educate according to abilities
At this point we see that the theory of multiple intelligences has important repercussions, especially in the educational field.
On the one hand we reaffirm that all children are not equal, that individual differences enrich and that current education has to move towards respecting those differencess.
On the other hand, it is clear that it is vitally important to allow our children to develop all their capacities so that they are freer and happier.