In the past few of months I have, in the weekly journals, put a large emphasis on autonomy and how important it is that our children realize their potential through their own actions and ponderings. But why is autonomy so important? Our job then as educators and adults in children’s lives is to find what motivates them to feel successful. In his book “The relevance of education” Bruner talks about the importance of the environment and experiences on the development of what he calls “knowing. Bruner suggests that we need to provide children with experiences that are both open ended, so that children are in charge of what happens next, and motivating, so that children will want to continue digging deeper. But in order to know what motivates children we need to find out what interests them and how they learn best. I believe that when people realize their abilities at an early age, they grow up confident with a feeling of success and accomplishment and in their security of self-worth they become good citizens. Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences theory gives us a tool to approach education in an individualistic way, sensitive to children’s ways of knowing. Gardner suggests that each person has an intelligence profile which consists of a combination of strengths in each of seven to ten intelligences. He proposes: “While we all share these intelligences as part of our human birthright, we differ from one another, for both genetic and environmental reasons, in our particular profile of intelligences at any historical moment.” I would like to dig a little deeper into to Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences theory and in doing so, encourage you to think about your child as you read through these eight of the Intelligences suggested by Gardner. Remembering that your child’s profile is constantly changing with new experiences, ask yourselves: What comes easy to your child? What does your child struggle with? What interests your child? How can you support your child at home? Multiple intelligences as a support for autonomy. Our new infant, Anand’s, sister partially agrees: “We sort of have a map in our body- with genes in it, that’s what makes us who we are.” Asha, 4 yrs.

Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence: This has to do with a strong ability and talents in body movement (gross and fine motor) and coordination between brain and body. Musical Intelligence: The affinity of music and strong musical ability, recognizing and creating melody, having perfect pitch and being quick to learn to play music for instance. Interpersonal Intelligence: Having a great insight and understanding of other people, their mood, temperaments, motivations and intentions. Intrapersonal Intelligence: Having a strong sense of self and own feelings and needs, then being able to use this knowledge of one’s self to guide his own behavior. Logical-Mathematical Intelligence: Strong problem solving skills, a solution to a problem can be constructed before it is articulated. Logical- Mathematical intelligence is often responsible for Aha! Moments. Linguistic Intelligence: A strong ability to communicate, not just verbally and symbolically but also through manual signs. Spatial Intelligence: The ability to solve navigational problems for example reading maps and creating mental maps, often evidenced by the ability to work puzzles. Natural Intelligence: The ability to tell apart different species of plants and animals as well as other things in nature such as clouds, rocks mountains and so on. Gardner suggests that natural intelligence of being able to distinguish between things in nature is evolutionary important for our survival. Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences:

It can be hard for us to interpret some of the intelligences described by Gardner in very young children because of how the brain develops. We at the Co-op hope to construct the environment and experiences we offer our children in a way that supports all the intelligences in an effort to support all of them, no matter where their strengths may lie. Interpersonal intelligence: Offering opportunities for children to collaborate and learn from each other. In the infant room this might look like practicing being gentle to each other, taking turns with materials and noticing each other’s feelings. Interpersonal intelligence: Offering opportunities for children to collaborate and learn from each other. In the infant room this might look like practicing being gentle to each other, taking turns with materials and noticing each other’s feelings. Body/ Kinesthetic intelligence: Providing opportunities to use the body, move around, balance, as well as manipulate things. Providing ways to “learn on the move” is especially important in the younger classrooms. Body/ Kinesthetic intelligence: Providing opportunities to use the body, move around, balance, as well as manipulate things. Providing ways to “learn on the move” is especially important in the younger classrooms. Allowing children to challenge themselves physically, whether that means throwing a ball or climbing a hill and anything in between is another way to support their kinesthetic intelligence.

Mathematical/ logical intelligence: Providing problem solving materials that have a cause and effect components. An example on the left: Pulling on the strings will make the balloons shake. Providing materials which encourage measurement and counting such as blocks. Linguistic intelligence: Offering a variety of books, read for children, verbal story telling and “wonder out loud”. Exposing children to different verbal languages,such as Spanish, as well as encouraging sign language using gestures is another way of supporting the linguistic intelligence

Natural intelligence: Exploring nature both in it’s context outside as well as taking it’s components inside the classroom. Exploring nature with all our senses; touch, smell, taste, hearing and sight. Intrapersonal intelligence: Facilitate identifying children’s own feelings and needs by verbalizing what we see. Allowing children to feel their feelings, including happiness, sadness, excitement, indifference as examples. Labeling feelings from early in childhood helps children identify them and become aware of them as they experience them. Spatial intelligence: Providing blocks, puzzles, mirrors, visual art materials. Working with maps and mazes in the older classrooms.

Musical intelligence: Offering exploration of the different components of music: Pitch, Melody, Rhythm, Dynamics (loudness), Tempo, Timbre, Silence and Sound through singing, exploring instruments and listening to music. I see Gardner’s multiple intelligences theory as an invitation to support the development of the “whole child”. This is especially important in the younger class rooms where children are developing the skills and intelligences they will use later in their learning. By supporting all the intelligences we are supporting each child in development of their own intellectual profile which helps them feel successful and confident in their way of “knowing”. By providing items that have interesting sounds when you bang them on something we are supporting the children in their exploration of timbre (sound quality).