What is meant by multiple intelligences ?

Conceived by Howard Gardner, multiple intelligences are different ways to demonstrate intellectual ability. Each person demonstrates his or her intelligence in each area to differing degrees and in different ways. Thus far Gardner's work suggests nine intelligences. He speculates that there may be many more yet to be identified. The areas of intelligence now identified are:

VISUAL/SPATIAL
Children who learn best visually and organizing things spatially. They like to see what you are talking about in order to understand. They enjoy charts, graphs, maps, tables, illustrations, art, puzzles, costumes - anything eye catching.

VERBAL/LINGUISTIC
Children who demonstrate strength in the language arts: speaking, writing, reading, listening. These students have always been successful in traditional classrooms because their intelligence lends itself to traditional teaching.

MATHEMATICAL/LOGICAL
Children who display an aptitude for numbers, reasoning and problem solving. This is the other half of the children who typically do well in traditional classrooms where teaching is logically sequenced and students are asked to conform.

BODILY/KINESTHETIC
Children who experience learning best through activity: games, movement, hands-on tasks, building. These children were often labeled "overly active" in traditional classrooms where they were told to sit and be still!

MUSICAL/RHYTHMIC
Children who learn well through songs, patterns, rhythms, instruments and musical expression. It is easy to overlook children with this intelligence in traditional education.

INTRAPERSONAL
Children who are especially in touch with their own feelings, values and ideas. They may tend to be more reserved, but they are actually quite intuitive about what they learn and how it relates to themselves.

INTERPERSONAL
Children who are noticeably people oriented and outgoing, and do their learning cooperatively in groups or with a partner. These children may have typically been identified as "talkative" or " too concerned about being social" in a traditional setting.

NATURALIST
Children who love the outdoors, animals, field trips. More than this, though, these students love to pick up on subtle differences in meanings. The traditional classroom has not been accommodating to these children.

EXISTENTIALIST
Children who learn in the context of where humankind stands in the "big picture" of existence. They ask "Why are we here?" and "What is our role in the world?" This intelligence is seen in the discipline of philosophy.