Understand Your Child’s Nature to give the Right Career Guidance

Parents today are so concerned with getting their child to excel in school that they don’t even bother to consider what their child’s unique qualities are. At the same time, many are interested, but don’t know how to go about doing so. If you wish to give your child the best career guidance, it is imperative that you acknowledge his uniqueness and help him work on his strengths. Here are a few ways to understand your child’s nature:

What is Multiple Intelligence?
Multiple Intelligences is a theory proposed by Howard Gardner, an American educator at Harvard University, who claims that there is more than one kind of intelligence. In fact, he states that there are eight types of intelligences (called Multiple Intelligence, or MIs). These include:

1. Bodily Intelligence: the ability to move with grace, use body language effectively, play sports, and understand things through hands-on activities.

2. Interpersonal Intelligence: the ability to communicate effectively with others, participate in social gatherings, listen to people attentively and understand their view point, and respect others, feelings.

3. Logical Intelligence: the ability to think in numbers and symbols, classify and label things, organize and sequence things, and ask questions in logical manner.

4. Linguistic Intelligence: the ability to read and write well, spell words correctly, discuss and debate effectively, and use quotes, sayings or phrases while speaking or writing.

5. Visual Intelligence: the ability to think in pictures and images, to paint, sketch and draw, to create models, and imagine and visualize things.

6. Musical Intelligence: the ability to easily learn and play different musical instruments, differentiate between pitch, tone and rhythm, and recognize different instruments in a song.

7. Intrapersonal Intelligence: the ability to spend time alone, express strong beliefs and inner values, discuss life tissues, and know one’s own strengths and weaknesses.

8. Naturalistic Intelligence: the ability to take care of pets and wild animals, collect and organize things, and enjoy spending time being in nature and doing outdoor activities.

It is important to note that your child possesses all eight types of intelligences, although in varying proportions. Some Intelligences will be stronger than others, which helps to explain why some children do remarkably well with learning languages, but lack the ability to work well with numbers. Or, why some may be gifted athletes although their socializing skills are weak.

Sometimes parents become concerned because their child lacks in a particular area, and get obsessed with improving that one area while ignoring the others. However, keep in mind that each intelligence has tremendous value in school as well as the workplace, and rather than the parents becoming pre-occupied with why their so struggles in English class (and forcing him to make unreasonable achievements), they would be better off recognizing his other talents and nurturing them. As a life coach for your children, you have the challenge of bringing out the best in them. If you observe a particular talent within your child, you should do everything you can to cultivate it and give him the right career guidance. On the other hand, you should have reasonable and fair expectations from your children when you see them lacking in any particular talent.

There are a number of online tests that can help you find your child’s true nature. The Multiple Natures Test is one of the most accurate career guidance tools that will not only identify your child’s strengths and weaknesses, but also help you understand him better.