What kind of smarts does your child have?

Especially during the early years, children must have the chance to explore on their own. Whether you're fostering what biology specifically endowed or awakening new interests, allowing your child to freely dabble in many pursuits -- rather than specialize in one or two -- will help her learn where her strengths and weaknesses, her likes and dislikes, and her passions and indifferences lie.

Look beyond traditional "smarts"
Helping your child utilize his own special strengths and skills may mean looking beyond what the policy makers and society typically consider "smart." Or as developmental psychologist Howard Gardner has put it, you shouldn't be trying to determine how smart your child is; rather, you should be trying to determine how your child is smart.

Gardner wrote an influential book called Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. In it, he contends that intelligence isn't a singular entity that can be measured only with paper and pencil. Rather, he says, we each possess many different kinds of intelligence, in various combinations and to varying degrees. To date, he has recognized nine different intelligences, all of which he's identified through a rigorous scientific process. For our purposes, though, the important point is that Gardner describes an intelligence as the "ability to find and solve problems and create products of value in one's own culture."

Although Gardner intended his work for the field of developmental psychology alone, an interesting phenomenon happened: educators pounced on the idea. Why? Because for generations they've witnessed multiple intelligences in the children with whom they've worked. Although our society most values the linguistic ("word-smart") and logical-mathematical ("number-smart"/reasoning) intelligences -- the two intelligences measured by IQ and other standardized tests -- teachers could see that many of their students had other gifts, other ways of "learning and knowing." Below, in no particular order, are brief descriptions of the intelligences Gardner has identified.

Gardner's nine intelligences
1. Linguistic
As indicated, people who are strong in linguistic intelligence are "word smart." As children, they may have demonstrated an early love of words, and they often grow up to be the poets, writers, disc jockeys, and public speakers in our society.

2. Logical/mathematical
People who are strong in this intelligence are governed by reasoning. They are the scientists, mathematicians, engineers, computer programmers, and bookkeepers among us.

3. Visual/spatial
People with a strong spatial intelligence understand how objects orient in space. They are able to visualize and have a strong sense of direction, design, and/or colour. Career choices may include architect, artist, navigator, or interior decorator.

4. Naturalist
According to Gardner, this intelligence is built into the human nervous system and involves categorization and classification. It is the intelligence that determines sensitivity to one's environment. In natural surroundings, it allows people to recognize and discriminate among flora and fauna. In urban settings, someone with a well-developed naturalist intelligence would be adept at identifying such things as car models and sneaker brands.

5. Existentialist
People who question why they exist and what their role is in the world have a highly developed existentialist intelligence. The most recent intelligence to be identified by Gardner, it is closely related to the field of philosophy.

6. Interpersonal
Interpersonal intelligence allows us to understand and relate well to others. Psychologists, counselors, nurses and child-care providers are examples of people who are strong in interpersonal intelligence.

7. Intrapersonal
People who are strong in this intelligence know themselves well -- both their strengths and their weaknesses. They are usually self-reliant, independent, and goal-directed. Many entrepreneurs fall into this category.

8. Musical
A fascination with sound and with the patterns created by sound indicate a strong musical intelligence. Gardner believes this is the first intelligence to develop and that, if fostered, it can lead to a lifelong affinity with music.

9. Bodily/kinesthetic
People who are strong in this intelligence solve problems or create with their bodies or body parts. Actors, dancers and athletes possess strength in bodily/kinesthetic intelligence, as do surgeons and craftspeople.

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Excerpted from A Running Start: How Play, Physical Activity and Free Time Create a Successful Child by Rae Pica. Copyright 2006 by Rae Pica. Excerpted with permission of Marlowe and Company, an imprint of Avalon Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced except with permission in writing from the publisher.