Musical intelligence - This intelligence manifests itself through an ability to appreciate, compose, or reproduce a piece of music. It includes sound discrimination, the ability to perceive musical themes, sensitivity to rhythms, textures, and timbre, and the ability to produce and/or reproduce music. A young child with special musical ability perceives different sounds in their environment early on and frequently sings to themselves.
Logical-mathematical intelligence - The central components of this intelligence are described by Gardner as a sensitivity to patterns, order, and systematization. It is the ability to explore relationships, categories, and patterns through the manipulation of objects or symbols, and to experiment in a controlled manner; it is the ability to deal with series of reasoning, to recognize problems, and to solve them. It is the intelligence characteristic of mathematicians and scientists. Gardner, however, explains that although scientific talent and mathematical talent may be present in the same individual, the motives that drive the actions of scientists and mathematicians are not the same. While mathematicians wish to create a consistent abstract world, scientists intend to explain nature. A child with special aptitude in this intelligence demonstrates ease in counting and performing mathematical calculations and in creating practical notations for their reasoning.
Spatial intelligence - Gardner describes spatial intelligence as the capacity to perceive the visual and spatial world accurately. It is the ability to manipulate shapes or objects mentally and, based on initial perceptions, create tension, balance, and composition in a visual or spatial representation. It is the intelligence of visual artists, engineers, and architects. In young children, the special potential in this intelligence is perceived through the ability for puzzles and other spatial games and attention to visual details.
Kinesthetic intelligence - This intelligence refers to the ability to solve problems or create products through the use of part or all of the body. It is the ability to use gross or fine coordination in sports, performing or visual arts, in controlling body movements, and in manipulating objects with dexterity. A child especially gifted in kinesthetic intelligence moves with grace and expression based on musical or verbal stimuli, demonstrating great athletic ability or refined fine coordination.
Interpersonal intelligence - This intelligence can be described as an ability to understand and respond appropriately to the moods, temperaments, motivations, and desires of other people. It is best appreciated in the observation of psychotherapists, teachers, politicians, and successful salespeople. In its most primitive form, interpersonal intelligence manifests in young children as the ability to distinguish people, and in its most advanced form, as the ability to perceive the intentions and desires of other people and to react appropriately based on that perception. Especially gifted children demonstrate very early an ability to lead other children, as they are extremely sensitive to the needs and feelings of others.
Intrapersonal intelligence - This intelligence is the internal correlate of interpersonal intelligence, that is, the ability to access one's own feelings, dreams, and ideas, to discriminate between them, and to make use of them in solving personal problems. It is the recognition of one's own abilities, needs, desires, and intelligences, the capacity to formulate an accurate image of oneself, and the ability to use that image to function effectively. As this intelligence is the most personal of all, it is only observable through the symbolic systems of the other intelligences, that is, through linguistic, musical, or kinesthetic manifestations.
The development of intelligences
In his theory, Gardner proposes that all individuals, in principle, have the ability to question and seek answers using all intelligences. All individuals possess, as part of their genetic makeup, certain basic skills in all intelligences. The line of development of each intelligence, however, will be determined by both genetic and neurobiological factors and environmental conditions. He further proposes that each of these intelligences has its own form of thinking, or information processing, in addition to its symbolic system. These symbolic systems establish contact between the basic aspects of cognition and the variety of cultural roles and functions.
The notion of culture is basic to the Theory of Multiple Intelligences. With his definition of intelligence as the ability to solve problems or create products that are significant in one or more cultural settings, Gardner suggests that some talents only develop because they are valued by the environment. He states that each culture values certain talents, which must be mastered by a number of individuals and then passed on to the next generation.
According to Gardner, each domain, or intelligence, can be viewed in terms of a sequence of stages: while all normal individuals possess the most basic stages in all intelligences, the more sophisticated stages depend on greater work or learning.
The sequence of stages begins with what Gardner calls the raw pattern ability. The appearance of symbolic competence is seen in babies when they begin to perceive the world around them. In this phase, babies show the capacity to process different information. They already possess, however, the potential to develop systems of symbols, or symbolic systems.
The second stage, of basic symbolizations, occurs approximately from two to five years of age. In this stage, the intelligences reveal themselves through symbolic systems. Here, the child demonstrates their ability in each intelligence through the understanding and use of symbols: music through sounds, language through conversations or stories, spatial intelligence through drawings, etc.
