How to Identify Multiple Skills

Whether you are a psychologist, an educator or a parent, it can be helpful to identify a person's multiple skills. This will help you to pinpoint strengths that can be utilized and areas where there is room for improvement. Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences pinpointed seven main areas in which a person could develop skills: spatial, linguistic, logical-mathematical, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal and intrapersonal. Naturalistic, moral, spiritual and existential abilities are less common skill sets that should be taken into consideration for certain people.

Things You'll Need

• Grades
• Standardized test scores
• Multiple intelligences test

Show More

Instructions

• 1

  Make your own observations about the skills of the person in question. Pay close attention to the way he speaks, thinks, writes, moves and communicates. Someone who gracefully twirls his pen across his fingers while listening to a lecture may have a lot of kinesthetic skill, while someone who uses an extensive vocabulary in conversation is displaying linguistic skill.

• 2

  Ask the person what he thinks his greatest skills and strengths are. Pick the individual's brain to discover what comes naturally. Ask questions that will open his mind to less common skills he may have, and consider different manifestations of each skill set. A student who is tone deaf may have an impeccable understanding of rhythm and therefore still have a great deal of musical skill.

• 3

  Talk to teachers, parents and friends if this is appropriate. If the person in question is a child, it is often appropriate for the adults in his life to discuss his skills and strengths. Child psychologists may call upon teachers and parents to get a more three-dimensional understand of a child's skills, while parents and teachers can both rely on each other for this knowledge. Whatever your position, utilizing other perspectives can be helpful.

• 4

  Use intelligence tests, SAT scores, standardized test scores, grades or degrees to obtain a more calculated view of a person's skills. A person with a degree in biology will probably have naturalistic and logical skills, while a person studying counseling psychology may have interpersonal and intrapersonal skills. Someone with high grades in art classes will have spatial skills and someone with a high IQ will have linguistic and logical skills.

• 5

  Administer a multiple intelligences test to the person based on Howard Gardner's model. Explain that for each item, you can write down a number between one and four. One signifies "mostly disagree" while four signifies "mostly agree." Calculate the results for the person to identify his or her strongest skills.