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.