In 2004, a group of my colleagues and I started designing and implementing a summer training program for children in the field of information technology. We benefited greatly from the research and experience of Dr. Faten Abdel Latif, who later became the Dean of the Faculty of Kindergarten in Alexandria.
The method of training in this program was based on the existence of goals set by the children themselves with their trainers to implement them through a project at the end of the training program, the child learns what he wants to learn from computer programs to achieve the goals set for himself, whether a website, video or interactive program, to enter after that a contest where everyone is a winner.
The program has had a great impact on many children, impressing us with their amazing and creatives achievements.
My daughter joined in 2006 in this program and she hadn’t turned four yet, and I had high hopes for the impact this program could have on her, but it did not achieve what I hoped!!!
My wife and I made several other attempts over the following years, and although my daughter was an excellent user of technology, she wasn’t and did not want to be creative or productive.
We were very disappointed .. All our dreams for her were technological.
Four years ago, I was reading about the theory of multiple intelligence. I had an idea to implement a new program based on that theory. First I’ll you a little about the theory of multiple intelligence, and then I’ll share experience of what we have done based on that theory.
Multiple Intelligence Theory by Howard Gardner was reached in 1983 at Harvard University, and then there was a lot of development and addition, that theory reversed the scales of measuring the talents of the child, after only 3% of children were gifted or had higher intelligence than their peers according to old theories. That theory appeared to say that 97% of children are smart, and the remaining 3% have other kinds of intelligence that we haven’t yet discovered.
There is linguistic intelligence, the ability to use language, communication, persuasion and brainstorming, and the ability to differentiate between words, and the ability to express rhetorically, and this type is currently used in my work to uncover talents capable of making content.
There is logical intelligence, which has to do with mathematical reasoning. Whoever has it has the ability to deduce, devise, find abstract relationships, and solve problems. I use this kind of intelligence in my work to find special people to be programmers or those who can improve the results of advertising campaigns.
There is social intelligence, which qualifies the gifted person to understand the motives and desires of others, so they can work and manage a team successfully. In my work, I use this intelligence to identify people who are able to manage electronic communities, such as managing Facebook pages.
There is also musical intelligence and the owner of that ability has a specific taste in musical styles and rhythm and the ability to compose music and sing. He has the ability to use his entire body or parts of it in full compatibility with his mind to have a perfect harmony between what his mind wants and what the movement of his body implements. There are other intelligences, such as spatial intelligence, and personal intelligence as well.
We come back to the experience that we have had after studying this theory, and study the tests, and the training programs based on it. My wife and I designed a different training program for our children and nephews, the training program is based on the idea of multiple intelligences, and we searched for coaches who believe in the idea and love what they are creative in so that they can convey their passion to our children.
Finally, I found that my daughter’s passion is painting, namely oil painting.She’s now talented in it thanks to God, and she is being creative in the digital world to benefit from her basic passion, and she has a brand that she seeks to publicize. I was struck by her creativity, which exceeded my expectations.
During her junior high school exams, she had health problems that prevented her from studying and doing any effort. However, as soon as I talked to her about the idea of a friend of mine who wanted to do it for people with special needs, I found her excited and she offered me great ideas and told me stories of famous influencers on Instagram and how they could be helpful.
The important question, how many Mohamed Salahs were lost in the masses of people who hate their jobs? How many Ahmed Zewails were buried in a routine job?
God is fair, and I think from the manifestations of His justice that each of us took his share of a kind of intelligence, and the less a certain kind of intelligence the more the other kind.
If your child has a low traditional IQ, be sure they have a different kind of intelligence.Work hard to find out what it is.