Identifying innate abilities

Updated on: Tuesday, March 08, 2011

While a few students sing their hearts out in one room, Prasanna Balamurugan prefers playing badminton with his friends. D. Rithisha is busy rolling out the dough, decorating it with chocolate chips and baking it in the kitchen of the same apartment where some of her friends are noisily playing the piano.

Musical instruments, paints and canvas, puzzles beside the pots of sprouting plants are some interesting tools kept in Hydra, a centre that seeks to guide children through a natural learning process.

The Multiple Intelligence Foundation has been conceived with the aim of identifying and nurturing the innate abilities among children with learning disabilities, to start with. “A group of children will be allowed to play with the tools and move around the centre after school hours to help us assess their innate talents,” says D. Chandrasekhar, founder-trustee of the Foundation.

The foundation has also been receiving technical guidance from Vidya Sagar.

Observing the children over a period of time, the teachers will assess them in eight different areas including linguistic, musical, mathematical, and interpersonal skills.

For instance, word books and word puzzles will help in assessing linguistic inclination, instruments to learn musical intelligence, canvas and paints will give a clue or two about spatial intelligence, a prominent trait among artists and architects; a mirror and cooking utensils to measure kinaesthetic, noticed prominently among dancers, sportsmen and gymnastics, and the garden to understand children's naturalist leanings, he said.
“Lifting self-esteem”

“Often, when children have learning disabilities the focus turns to their ‘poor academic performance', ” says says Usha Ramakrishnan, chairperson, Vidya Sagar. “But this centre provides them an atmosphere where their self-esteem will be lifted and they will make a discovery of their interests which will be nurtured through a natural learning process,” she says.

“Identifying the strengths of children and developing on them is the methodology we use,” says Ms. Ramakrishnan, adding that the initiative is in its nascent stages.

The Foundation is currently working with a small group of students and will have to reflect on how the system works before more students can enrol.

Once the individual profile is ready, the areas of the child's strengths will be discussed with the parent. “The programme attempts at shifting the focus from academic aspects to assisting students in developing other skills for a well-rounded personality,” says Mr. Chandrasekhar.

“Experts in the specific areas will be used to hone the skills of students to kindle interest in their innate abilities. It may help them identify career very early in life,” says Shirin Mammen, coordinator, Vidya Sagar. “If this pilot project works well, multiple intelligence and its applications can be extended to mainstream schools too,” says Mr. Chandrasekhar.

Identifying innate abilities

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