Real World Multiple Intelligences

While the Multiple Intelligence Theory indicates that children can be intelligent in ways other than what can be measured on IQ tests, does that help gifted children?

Many schools carry out testing of their student body to identify children who are gifted or who are potentially gifted by testing their aptitude and cognitive abilities. At present, these IQ tests measure the child’s mathematical and verbal, perceptual abilities, or cognitive strength. Pencil and paper tests such as the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales SB5 (partially named after psychologist Alfred Binet who designed the first IQ test back in 1906) have been administered and improved for years, and are quite good at doing what they say they will do - dividing the child’s tested mental age by the chronological age and arriving at a quotient that represents the child’s knowledge of the world around him or her (although that exact quotient process is not used today).

However, does scoring well on the IQ test take into consideration a child’s athletic ability, or musical prowess, or the ability to get along with others? Can the child be ‘intelligent’ in ways other than the ones measured on an IQ test? The Multiple Intelligence Theory indicates that children can be intelligent in many other areas; however, for testing and academic purposes, these intelligences are not tested, and as a consequence, these children have not been identified and are not as challenged as they should be in the real world classroom with differentiated instruction.