Intelligence matters

by The Flamingo

Emotional intelligence, intellectual intelligence, creative intelligence, adaptive intelligence are, among others, very important traits in every individual. All of them are cultivated from very early on, or ideally should be. 

As a mother of a 4 year old, and also a kindergarten teacher, it is a subject that is constantly on my mind. How to grow and educate children to become better adults. What I found confusing at times, was that a lot of parents didn’t know or didn’t necessarily care about other types of intelligence, except for the development of the intellectual one, commonly known as the IQ. 

What exactly is the IQ? This is the type of intelligence associated with logic and perception. This relates to all mathematics, science, linguistic fields. So the better you are at mathematics, the smarter you are…Which is very logical, from the point of view of this type of intellectual measurement. 

What other types of “smart” are there? The emotional intelligence, EQ, is the one that permits you to analyze yourself, to know and evaluate yourself properly, and others as well. EQ allows you to perceive and interpret others’ feelings, motivations and emotions, as well as your own. 

The CQ, the creative intelligence, is the one that incorporates what is commonly known as “talent”… which is actually another type of “smart”. 

Spatial-visual intelligence is the capacity to reproduce and transform the world around you, in your mind or on paper. The musical-rhythmic intelligence also belongs in this category. 

Adaptive intelligence, AQ, refers to bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, meaning the ability to perform different kinds of sports. 

As a parent you would want your child to master all the types of intelligence, to perfection if possible. Alas, that is not how it works and it’s ok. It’s normal for the child to perform better in some areas than others. 

I wrote this article in order to bring a little awareness towards the importance of emotional intelligence. Why is it so important for me personally and for the development of my child? EQ is the only one which gets you in touch with yourself and the people around you. If you help your child to develop it early on, then they will grow into an empathetic adult, being able to understand himself and others, to help and support, to love and be loved in return, to have friends and have fun, to suffer and recover, to give and to receive. This is what I call the essence of being alive.

EQ is the one that supports the human throughout his entire life, regardless of how many languages he speaks, or how  smart in STEM fields or in the musical and visual department he is, or how well he performs in different kinds of sports. A poor emotional development of the brain gives us in most cases cold and selfish people and in extreme cases all sort of psychological problems like antisocial personality disorder or other even more serious.

All we need to do is not to ignore the emotional development of the child. A child with a healthy mind and a high EQ has much higher chances of developing a high IQ, AQ and CQ, lead a normal balanced life and to achieve happiness.

For sure, this is what all parents want deep down, for their child to be happy and also for him to bring others happiness. 

So what The Flamingo is advising, is for all you parents and teachers out there to love and support the child, to help him understand his own feelings and reactions, to sympathize with others and to help. Teach him right from wrong so that he really understands the notion, not just obeying the rules, mindless of what they really stand for. Do not neglect the importance of emotional intelligence, because it is what makes us better persons. 

All of us should try to make this a better world, because it really looks bleak right now. 

For those of you interested in the subject, I will write another article on techniques on how to better develop emotional intelligence in toddlerhood.

Photo from Flamingo‘s archive.