* Bodily-kinesthetic: using one's body to solve problems and express ideas and feelings. Actors, athletes, and dancers use their whole bodies in this way, much the same way that craftspeople, sculptors, and mechanics use their hands. 
         * Interpersonal: perceiving the moods, feelings, and needs of others. It includes salespeople, teachers, counselors, and those we have come to call the helping professions.
         * Intrapersonal: turning inward with a well-developed self-knowledge and using it successfully to navigate oneself through the world. 
         * Linguistic: using words, either orally or written, in an effective manner. This intelligence is associated with storytellers, politicians, comedians, and writers.
         * Logical-Mathematical: understanding and using  numbers effectively, as well as having good powers to reason well. Exemplars are mathemeticians, scientists, computer programmers, and accountants. 
         * Musical: relating in a wide range of ways to music. This can take many forms, as a performer, composer, critic, and music-lover. 
         * Spatial: perceiving the visual-spatial world in an accurate way, so as to be able to work in it effectively. The people who do this cover a wide range of fields that, upon first glance, do not seem to have much in common. Compare, for example, hunters, sailors, engineers, inventors, and surgeons to interior decorators, architects, painters, and sculptors. 

         I have seen limited reference to another intelligence: Naturalist, which is described as being able to recognize plant or animal species in the environment. This one is not included in the two Gardner books I list it here for your perusal, but it was added after this original research.

         Howard Gardner’s books on this topic are Frames of Mind and Multiple Intelligences: The Theory in Practice.

         In addition, Thomas Armstrong continues the work in his Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom. To get a sense of your child’s areas of strength, go to www.familyeducation.com, where you can find a page entitled Test Your Child’s Talents, which is based on Armstrong’s book. 

         This column has been incorporated and expanded in Teach Your Children Well: A Teacher’s  Advice for Parents.