Multiple intelligences test

To find out in which way your child is gifted, answer these questions. True or false:

1. Your child can memorize poetry.

2. Your child notices when you are sad or happy.

3. Your child often asks questions like “When did time begin?”

4. Your child seldom gets lost.

5. Your child is especially graceful.

6. Your child sings in key.

7. Your child often asks questions about how thunder and lightning work, what makes it rain and so on.

8. If you change a word in an often-read story, your child corrects you.

9. Your child learned to tie shoe-laces and ride a bicycle easily.

10. Your child enjoys acting out roles and making up plays.

11. On a car trips your child often remembers landmarks and points

them out, saying, “This is where we were when ….”

12. Your child likes to listen to different instruments and can easily

recognize them by sounds they make.

12. Your child draws maps well and depicts objects clearly.

13. Your child mimics physical movements and expressions.

14. Your child likes to store toys into categories by size and colour.

15. Your child can connect actions with feelings – saying, for example, “I did it because I was angry!”

16. Your child likes to tell stories, and tells them well.

17. Your child comments on different sounds.

18. When someone is introduces for the first time, your child may

say, “She reminds me of so-and-so.”

12. Your child is an accurate judge of what he or she can and can’t

do.

Answers: questions 1, 8, 17 – linguistic intelligence;

questions 6, 12, 18 – musical intelligence;

questions 3, 7, 15 – logical-mathematical intelligence;

questions 4, 11, 13 – spatial intelligence;

questions 5, 9, 14 – bodily- kinaesthetic intelligence;

questions 10, 16, 20 – knowing oneself;

questions 2, 10, 19 – knowing other people.

If you answered “true” to all three questions for one type of intelligence, your child is strong in that area.

What makes one person more intelligent than the other?

What makes one person a genius, like Albert Einstein, and another person a fool? Are people born intelligent or stupid, or is intelligence the result of where and how you live? These are very old questions and the answers to them are still not clear.

We know, however, that just being born with a good mind is not enough. In some ways, the mind is like a leg or an arm muscle. It needs exercise. Mental exercise is particularly important for young children. Many child psychologists think that parents should play with their children more often and give them problems to think about. The children are more likely to grow up bright and intelligent. If, on the other hand, children are left alone with nothing to do, they are likely to become dull and unintelligent.

Parents should also be careful what they say to young children. According to some psychologists, if parents are always telling a child that he or she is a fool or an idiot, then the child is more likely to keep doing silly and foolish things. So it is probably better for parents to say very positive things to their children, such as “That was a very clever thing you did” or “You are such a smart child.”