A Mental Exercise To Increase My Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence

I understand that it must be a matter of subjectivity for the reader to focus on a single type of intelligence while perusing Armstrong’s (1994) book, Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom.

In my case, it has been the bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, most probably because I feel the need to increase my own.  Unfortunately, my school teachers were not aware of the multiple intelligences theory.  Even if they were, they would certainly not have decided to speak to my bodily-kinesthetic intelligence.  Just the same I admired children whose bodies performed more amazing functions than mine.

This is the reason why my reflection on Armstrong’s book must be centered on bodily-kinesthetic intelligence as a subconscious exercise for me to increase my own.  Still, I agree with the author that all types of intelligences are equally important.  Moreover, I trust the fact that all intelligences are important enough to be studied individually and in depth.  The various types of intelligence may also be understood in greater depth through the study of a single type of intelligence.

It was Gardner (1983) who changed our views about intelligence forever when he proposed in his famous book, Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, that there are actually seven kinds of intelligences as opposed to the singular type of genetic intelligence that had built the foundation of the Stanford-Binet IQ Test.

According to the theory of multiple intelligences, it is possible for a child to be a genius in terms of interpersonal intelligence, and a nerd in logical-mathematical intelligence, and yet fail in school because his or her greatest strength lies in a high level of bodily-kinesthetic awareness and the teacher of the pupil does not know how the child must be taught with special reference to his or her principal abilities.

Armstrong states that children with a higher than usual degree of bodily-kinesthetic intelligence should be taught spelling by associating it with movement.  As an example, “a teacher might try to connect sitting with consonants and standing with vowels (Willingham, 2004).”  Indeed, Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences has led not only to new ideas like the ones put forth by Armstrong, but it has also led to a revolution in the study of intelligence.