Tag Archives: meeting the needs of children

Some Children are Self Smart

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by Pat Lamb (Author of: Let the Children Come; Children, Come to Me; When the Stars Fall Down; Widening the Church Doors to Teach the Narrow Way; My Thinking Book. Available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, www.patlambchristianauthor.com)

Train up a child…

Some Children are Self Smart

         “Still water runs deep” is an expression that is often used to describe a child who may be quiet and perhaps shy and doesn’t mind being alone.  This may very well be the child who has a dominant intrapersonal intelligence.

         Seven intelligences have been defined.  People are born with dominance in three or four of these intelligences.  The intelligences are known as verbal/linguistic, logical/mathematical, bodily/kinesthetic, spatial, musical, interpersonal, and intrapersonal.  Other names for these intelligences are word smart, numbers smart, body smart, picture smart, music smart, people smart, and self smart.

         Intrapersonal or self-smart is the capacity to understand oneself. This person can understand his/her own personal thoughts and feelings and use that knowledge to plan and direct his/her life.  Intrapersonal intelligence involves not only an appreciation of self, but also of the human condition and is evident in psychologists, spiritual leaders, and philosophers.

         The children who possess this intelligence to a strong degree may be thought of as “loners”. They don’t seem to mind being alone for extended periods of time. Sometimes parents worry unduly about these children for fear they may become anti-social when they are simply thinking about life and its meaning. They are usually in tune with their inner feelings, values, beliefs, and thinking processes.  These children may be “wise beyond their years”, can usually motivate themselves, and have intuition.  Since they spend much time in simply thinking, they may have well thought-out opinions on many issues.  Others often go to them for advice.  However, some may think of them as distant resulting in a small number of friends.

         Teachers would do well to give children who have this intelligence opportunities to describe their feelings or the feelings of others when essays are assigned. Any essay topic that asks for an opinion is a subject to be enjoyed by these children.  There will be an interest in the personalities of great mathematicians when studying math.  A parent or teacher might ask for a description of the feelings of others as history is studied because they like to imagine how people felt in various circumstances. 

         Job skills the intrapersonal person is likely to possess include working alone, setting goals and obtaining objectives, appraising, planning, initiating, and organizing.  This person is likely to be a self-motivator.  Jobs that these individuals seem to fit are clergyman or religious worker, psychologist, therapist, counselor, or entrepreneur.  At some point in time, they may want to write an autobiography.  They may not always be good in jobs where quick action is required because they like time to reflect and think before making a decision.  

         I am amazed when I think about the varying personalities that God created.  He knew what would be needed to sustain a society and he gave each of us unique ways of thinking and acting to meet those needs.  It would be so nice if each of us learned to appreciate the differences in people rather than expecting everyone else to think and feel as we do.  Ideally, we would all work together and compliment the skills and abilities of one another.    

Parents Need to Understand the Interests of their Children

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by Pat Lamb (Author of: Let the Children Come; Children, Come to Me; When the Stars Fall Down; Widening Church Doors to Teach the Narrow Way; My Thinking Book. Available from Barnes & Noble, Amazon, or my website www.patlambchristianauthor.com)

Train up a child…

Parents Need to Understand the Interests of their Children

         Any parent of two or more children knows that each child is unique.  Just when you think you have caught on to what the first child is like and how to take care of that child, another comes along seemingly entirely different.  It keeps us on our toes to try to understand and meet the needs of each child.

         There is a great deal of research being done concerning how the brain works, how birth order affects a child’s personality, and how children are born with tendencies to like some things and dislike other things.  There was a time when educators were told that all children were like a blank page when they were born, and it was environment that affected their behavior.  Now we know that we are born with certain tendencies that, along with environment, affect our behavior.

         Those who study such things are telling us that there are seven intelligences and that each of us has three or four where we are stronger. We tend to develop in these areas more and disregard the areas where we are not strong. It is important to know the areas of strength in our children in order to better understand and teach them.

         These seven intelligences are classified as: verbal linguistic, logical/mathematical, visual/spatial, musical/rhythmic, body/kinesthetic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal.  A simpler way of saying them is: language smart, numbers smart, picture smart, music smart, body smart, people smart, and self smart.  In future columns, I hope to talk about each one individually.

         We have all heard comments about how talented someone seems to be musically.  People are also talented in each of the other areas.  When we look around and observe those we know, we will see that each person has talents.  The verbal linguistic person has a talent in learning language and writing.  The mathematical person has a talent in working with numbers.  The visual/spatial person is the person who can draw or paint pictures.  Dancers and sports lovers are the body/kinesthetic people.  An interpersonal person is the social person who is perceptive in working with others.  The intrapersonal person is the philosopher type who thinks deeply and is often very spiritual.  Most people do not concentrate in one area only, but they also have at least two or three other areas of interest.

         When parents can understand what the intelligences of their children are, they can better work with them in developing those interests.  It is futile to try to force a child to be something he/she is not “born” to do.  For instance, some people will never be good in sports or dancing.  Others may never be really great in music.  We can, however, learn to appreciate those areas and develop to a point in each of them, but we will excel in the areas of our interests.

         There is a great deal of information on the Internet about the seven intelligences.  One can simply Google “seven intelligences” and read about the studies done by several people.  Even if we don’t completely understand all about it, it helps just to know that each child has particular things in which they are interested and we need to ascertain what those interests are to better work with that child.