EdnoLand: Parenting Articles: Nurturing the Gregarious Personality

Parenting Articles

Nurturing the Gregarious Personality
by Theresa Lütge-Smith

Is your child outgoing, sociable, talkative and adept at communicating with his peers and people in general? Your gregarious youngster possesses the gift of being 'people smart', which is a simple definition of Gardner's Interpersonal Intelligence. Such persons have the ability to understand and work with other people.

A child who displays a gift for verbal comprehension and social intelligence may, however, be quite inept in other areas such as spatial visualisation, number ability and perceptual speed. Parents should provide opportunities for their child to explore the areas of learning he prefers as well as those that are not as strong so that he may become a well-rounded individual who is successful in many aspects of life.

The sociable child benefits from experiencing diverse things. About 20 to 30 percent of school children remember what they hear while 40 percent remember what they see or read, but almost all children remember what they experience directly through touching, feeling and doing.

This just goes to show that a child learns best through physical experience, finding out what things are like, how they work and how they relate to one another. As the child learns, he will connect his newfound knowledge to existing 'hooks' from things that he has already encountered. The more the child encounters during these preparation years, the easier his brain will assimilate new ideas when school starts.

Help your child develop traits like self-awareness, impulse control, persistence, self-motivation, empathy and social deftness by initiating teamwork activities that promote learning through interaction with his peers. Projects they can do include putting together puzzles, stringing beads and cutting construction paper, all of which develop fine motor skills, attention span and interpersonal communication.

Invent fun games to enjoy with your child. A tremendous amount of learning and development grows out of play, but as far as possible allow your child to create his own entertainment. You can sing and dance, make play dough from flour, water or salt, visit a pet shop, fly a kite, play hide-and-seek, draw a finger-painting picture, read a book, listen to stories on tape, etc.

Ask open-ended questions about the story, for instance, "What do you think will happen next?" Talk to your child about a variety of topics like volcanoes, relationships and different cultures. These discussions help develop a child's thinking skills and reading together becomes enjoyable for both parent and child. Reading also helps develop listening skills and attention span.

Encourage your child to help with household chores and cooking. There is a lot of learning that takes place with activities such as weighing and measuring ingredients to bake a batch of cookies, sweeping the floor, sorting the laundry, planting seeds or feeding the family pet. Arrange to take your child on regular nature walks, trips to the zoo, the children's library, etc. All these activities develop curiosity and a love for learning.

By introducing your 'people smart' child to a variety of useful information and experiences in a fun way, you not only help to establish a view that the world is interesting and understandable, but also help develop his vocabulary, comprehension, general knowledge, thinking skills, interpersonal and conversational skills, as well as ability to follow directions.

About the Author Theresa Lütge-Smith is a published author and writes extensively for print and online publications. A freelance research-writer, Theresa writes mostly non-fiction on a diverse range of topics including business, computer technology, education, health and parenting. She is married with four sons and resides in South Africa.

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