Seven Times Smarter: 50 Activities, Games, and Projects to Develop the Seven Intelligences of Your Child

Chapter OneWhat Is Smart?A Word about Multiple Intelligences and How Kids LearnHave you ever caught a glimpse of your kid as you peeked in his bedroom door and wondered, "What's he doing? He looks so weird!" Air-dancing to a commercial jingle, using the bed as a trampoline, or talking to three people who aren't in the room.Did you think:a. What the hell? b. We need to see a shrink. c. This kid is so smart! d. All of the above.The best answer is c. That's right. Many of the puzzling things that kids do are actually signs of intelligent life.Smart kids:–Repeat lyrics, poems, jokes, and stories word for word –Whistle, hum, sing jingles, gurgle, gargle, babble –Tap fingers, sticks, or toys rhythmically on a surface –Draw on the bathroom mirror in the steam –Take toys apart –Make collections –Create and entertain imaginary friends –Make up games with special rules –Skid or sock-dance on the kitchen floor –Perform tricks on bikes, skates, or skateboards –Prowl the radio dial, prospecting for diversions –Build with blocks or other objects and knock them down –Ask why and how things work –Mimic the sounds of animals, machines, or unusual voices –Rearrange and redecorate their environment –Want to hear the same story over and over –Make up dances to music on the radio, TV, or CDs –Mix potions–sugar water or soapsuds whipped into a froth –Befriend and care for younger children and animalsYou probably have dozens of these "smart" pictures of your kids, but you might be thinking, "Who knew? I thought he was being a pain!" Researchers are discovering that many of those curious behaviors are clues to the special ways that kids are smart. If you learn to recognize the clues, you can help them get even smarter.What Are the Seven intelligences?What comes to mind when you hear the word intelligent? Be honest. Geek? Brain? Nerd? Do you picture a guy with glasses who can split an atom but can't get a date? Or a bookish bore who corners party guests to share the latest on cybermassage? Does intelligence just mean school smart? Absolutely not. Your own experience tells you that there's much more to being smart than talent in the classroom.For example, you probably know lots of successful adults who never made the dean's list. Maybe they were even dropouts, but now they're great at what they do. Like the mechanic who can diagnose your car's disease before the engine's cool. Or the therapist who saves a family from self-destructing. Or the tenor who brings tears to your eyes. These people are brilliant, too, no matter what their report cards said.And history books are crammed with famous names that never made the honor roll. Isaac Newton, Leo Tolstoy, and Winston Churchill all failed at some point in school. Thomas Edison was dismissed by his teachers as too addled to learn anything. And Albert Einstein didn't read until he was seven–you'd have found him in the low group for sure. All these people went on to make major contributions in science, politics, or literature despite their poor performance in class.So it shouldn't surprise us that there could be a whole bunch of intelligences that people use to succeed. That's exactly what Howard Gardner proposed in his theory of multiple intelligences. According to Gardner, intelligence isn't the single IQ number we were raised with, but a mosaic of abilities located in many different parts of your brain. These intelligences are interconnected but they also work independently. Perhaps most important, they aren't static or predetermined at birth. Like muscles, they can grow throughout your life if they're nurtured and strengthened. Meaning that in the right environment, people get smarter.Gardner says that humans have at least seven distinct intelligences or ways of knowing. They include verbal/linguistic, visual/spatial, musical, kinesthetic, logical/mathematical, interpersonal, and intrapersonal intelligence. Simply put, we're word smart, picture smart, music smart, body smart, logic smart, people smart, and self smart. (Gardner recently suggested an eighth intelligence–naturalist.) Let's see what these intelligences look like in kids.visual/spatial intelligencePeople with a high degree of visual and spatial intelligence seem to have eyes "on steroids." They have a keen sense of observation and the ability to think in pictures. They can create masterpieces or find solutions to problems in the physical world, often without lifting a finger. The chess champ Boris Spassky, the crossword master Will Short, Walt Disney, the artists Alexander Calder, Louise Nevelson, and Faith Ringgold, and the architect I. M. Pei are all superstars in the visual/spatial world.Picture-smart kids like to play with blocks; build with LEGOs or Erector sets; make forts with branches or boxes; create images with paint, clay, or computer programs. They like to design posters, arrange flowers, and rearrange furniture. Visual kids can find a face in a crowd. They're puzzle makers and picture hangers.When they grow up they might be happy as architects, artists, automobile designers, animators, set designers, engineers, landscape gardeners, skywriters, computer graphics designers, plumbers, air traffic controllers, cartoonists, interior designers, museum curators, or photographers.verbal/linguistic intelligenceIn our culture, linguistic intelligence is both common and coveted. We all talk. But very few of us can wield phrases like a magic wand or, if necessary, a sword. Verbal/linguistic intelligence is the generator for words and language. It includes sensitivity to the structure, meaning, and use of language, both written and spoken. Authors like Gertrude Stein, Langston Hughes, Alex Haley, and Oscar Wilde and politicians like Barbara Jordan, Hubert H. Humphrey, and Benjamin Franklin were remarkable for their verbal intelligence.Word-smart kids talk early and often. They collect new words and love to show off their vocabulary. They like jokes and tongue twisters. These children play story tapes over and over until they've memorized long passages from their favorite authors. Don't wait too long to introduce them to Shakespeare, Maya Angelou, and Douglas Adams.A child who's linguistically smart might become a novelist, teacher, broadcaster, talk-radio host, advertising writer, tour guide, lawyer, librarian, public relations specialist, thesaurus designer, textbook editor, grant writer, speechwriter, interpreter, or comedian.musical intelligenceMusical intelligence combines the ability to recognize tonal patterns, pitch, melody, and rhythms with a sensitivity to the emotional or expressive aspects of sound and music. Megastars in this area of intelligence include Beethoven, the Beatles, Charlie Parker, Kathleen Battle, Frank Sinatra, and Yo-Yo Ma.Kids who are music smart like to sing. They hum, change the lyrics in a familiar song, or repeat words in singsong patterns. Tapping, finger snapping, and head bobbing are clues to this strength. Musical intelligence can be seen in very young children. You've probably seen at least one diaper-clad dancer at a family gathering–apparently the only one who hears the beat.If you nurture musical intelligence in children, they might pursue careers as composers, musicians, singers, choir directors, audio mixers for films or albums, disc jockeys, vocal coaches, music critics, speech pathologists, ethnomusicologists, or music therapists.kinesthetic intelligenceJust open the sports section of your newspaper or glance at the dance reviews to find out who scored big in kinesthetic intelligence. Kinesthetic intelligence fuels our ability to use the body skillfully or to express ideas and emotions through movement. It also includes the ability to handle objects deftly and make things. The work of Michael Jordan, Josephine Baker, Babe Ruth, Jesse Owens, Michelle Kwan, Merce Cunningham, and Marcel Marceau reflects exceptional strength in this intelligence.Body-smart kids are movers and touchers. They know the world through their muscles. They enjoy building models, sewing, finger crocheting, learning sign language. They're great cheerleaders and they know when to stick or slide in baseball.Kinesthetic kids might be drawn to careers as dancers, athletes, choreographers, potters, weavers, welders, auto mechanics, computer repair persons, carpenters, electricians, physical education teachers, actors, drama coaches, dance therapists, yoga teachers, laser technicians, stroke rehabilitation therapists, magicians, physical therapists, or airplane mechanics.logical/mathematical intelligenceThis is the intelligence that people typically associate with "brains." It governs inductive and deductive thinking, working with numbers and abstract patterns, and the ability to reason. Albert Einstein, George Washington Carver, Benjamin Banneker, Marie Curie, and Jacques Cousteau all displayed a well-developed sense of logic and math.Logic-smart kids love word puzzles like the one about the farmer crossing the river with the chicken, the fox, and the bag of corn. Numbers are alive to them, like characters in a book. They relish mental math–estimating, measuring, calculating. Picture the main character in Good Will Hunting and you'll get a glimpse of their world. While other kids are growing bread mold for the science fair, they're inventing a solar-powered homework machine. They speak computer fluently and never met a gadget they didn't like.When kids with this strength grow up they might work as mathematicians, astronomers, inventors, traffic engineers, marine biologists, logicians, forensic scientists, epistemologists, urban planners, accountants, insurance adjusters, population or census consultants, ecologists, financial experts, stockbrokers, computer systems analysts, oceanographers, seismologists, astrophysicists, or water pollution specialists.interpersonal intelligenceThis intelligence involves the gift of seeing things from the other person's point of view. It guides a person's ability to understand, work with, and communicate with people and maintain relationships. Martin Luther King Jr., Florence Nightingale, Harriet Tubman, Cesar Chavez, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Sigmund Freud were exceptional in understanding the feelings, motives, and thoughts of other people.Kids who are people smart make and keep a wide variety of friends. They're the peacemakers on the playground and no birthday party would be complete without them. But they're not always the center of attention. They're good observers, too, perching on the sidelines but taking everything in. They like to read biographies to find out what makes other people tick.Children with this quiet passion might become rabbis, genealogists, priests, teachers, salespeople, therapists, receptionists, social workers, child-care providers, mediators, advocates, convention managers, genetic counselors, hotline counselors, lobbyists, personnel managers, or negotiators.intrapersonal intelligencePeople with strong intrapersonal intelligence are introspective with results. They develop self-knowledge, particularly a sensitivity to their own values, purposes, and feelings. This insight makes them independent, confident, goal-oriented, and self-disciplined. Emily Dickinson was a perfect example of a self-smart person. During a life of extreme seclusion she wrote almost fifteen hundred poems, one of which begins, "This is my letter to the World/ That never wrote to Me." Jane Goodall, a pioneer in observing chimpanzees, needed a lot of intrapersonal intelligence to create a life in the wilds of Africa and successfully share her findings with the world. So did Thoreau during his time on Walden Pond.Kids who are self smart can work happily alone and contribute confidently to a group. They may begin keeping diaries when they're very young and do so all their lives or remember and record their dreams. Children with this strength are curious about their ancestors and may spend hours poring over family albums. As readers they're drawn to autobiographies, philosophy, and stories with a spiritual quality.Their intrapersonal intelligence might lead them to careers as philosophers, researchers, archivists, theologians, animal behaviorists, anthropologists, archeologists, or medical ethicists.the seven intelligences go to schoolWith all these ways of being smart, why do so many kids feel dumb? One big reason is school, which can be a crushing experience for any kid, unless they have strong linguistic and mathematical intelligence. Many schools focus so intently on producing good readers and mathematicians that they routinely dismiss the other five intelligences, even though research shows that studying music or art helps kids improve in all their subjects.A prime example of this bias is the way students with visual/spatial intelligence are dismissed. Parents wince, like they've been handed the consolation prize, if their child's teacher says, "She's very artistic." But visual intelligence can unlock reading, math, or science for many kids. Ignore it and you're asking them to navigate through school blindfolded.Likewise, a child with extraordinary interpersonal intelligence may be dismissed as a social butterfly, when she should be encouraged to run for president of the student council. Intrapersonal intelligence is even less appreciated. The quiet child with a rich inner life may win a trip to the school psychologist's office or just get lost in the crowd.Another problem is that far too many schools ask kids to sit still, keep quiet, and perform repetitive tasks in rooms devoid of art, music, and human comfort. In effect, to learn with their brains tied behind their backs. Or worse, in suspended animation. When kids don't respond well, the explanation usually involves some deficiency in the child, the parents, or both. You'll hear: "He's not trying." "There's no support at home." "She can't focus." "Maybe there's a learning disability." But just for a moment, imagine yourself in that environment, six hours a day, five days a week. How well would you perform?In Growing Up inside the Sanctuary of My Imagination, the award-winning writer and artist Nicholasa Mohr recalls her struggle in school. A bright child, her bilingual outbursts regularly earned her a seat in the corner.I would sit on a chair facing the wall, looking for discolorations in the paint, a crack in the plaster, or shadows on the surface. In this way I used my eyes and imagination to adjust these imperfections by making them take on other visual forms. On that wall I remember a variety of scenes, trees and waterfalls, part of a schooner sinking in the sea, and the profile of a horse. I was able to meditate upon these images and sit under the waterfall or walk in the woods. Although I was still embarrassed and angry at the teacher, this game helped ease my punishment. At the same time, I enjoyed sharpening my sense of fantasy.I think kids know the ways that they're smart and they struggle to give us clues, seeking our validation and guidance. Yet day after day we damage them by failing to notice and respond. Sometimes we're blinded by our hopes and fears–"He has to do well on his SATs." Sometimes we don't recognize intelligence when we see it–"Oh, yeah, she's been drawing like that since she was two. It's good, huh?" When we overlook their gifts, kids feel confused and even ashamed. They don't just hide their talents–they bury them. Which means they may never get a chance to feel and act as smart as they are.a word on how kids learnYou may be thinking at this point, "Of course I want smart kids, but I don't know the first thing about teaching. Should I hire a seven intelligences tutor?" Happily, it's much easier than that. Learning is a natural human activity, especially for children. After decades of research about how children learn best, here's what we've discovered:–Children learn through play. It's the work of childhood. –Children learn through hands-on experiences. Seeing, touching, tasting, smelling are the strongest modes for early learning. –Children master communication by having conversations. –Children learn by trying to solve real problems. –Children find exploration and investigation intrinsically rewarding. The driving force is "What if . . . ?" and "I wonder. . . ."