BODILY-KINESTHETIC INTELLIGENCE

Margarida Dolan

"Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence is the capacity to use your whole body or parts of your body--your hand, your fingers, your arms--to solve a problem, make something, or put on some kind of a production.  The most evident examples are people in athletics or the performing arts, particularly dance or acting." --Howard Gardner (Gardner & Checkley, 1997, p. 12)

Key Abilities

  Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence

           ...allows an individual to use one's body to create products or solve problems.

           ...refers to the ability to control all or isolated parts of one's body.

Sub-abilities

           athletic movement 

           creative movement (including responsiveness to music)

           body control and fine motor abilities

           generating movement ideas (such as in choreography)

Endstates or Domains that require significant bodily-kinesthetic intelligence

           dancer                                 athlete                     actor            

           choreographer                  artisan                      mime

           sculptor                    surgeon        sign language interpreter

Strategies or Products that emphasize bodily-kinesthetic intelligence

           dance performance        mime             sculpture, painting, other arts product

           play                           textiles                      charades

           sports/games                     jewelry                      performance art

Everyday uses of bodily-kinesthetic intelligence

           playing on the company’s softball team

           getting in and standing in a crowded subway car

           brushing your teeth

           fixing something

Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence is NOT

           ...necessarily demonstrated by  an "antsy" or physically active child.

           ...unstructured release of "energy" through physical activity.