Here I am, and I’m going to continue with my MI theory explanation. Please see my post on March 19, 2008 to see what multiple intelligences are. There is still research and controversy about this, and there will probably be changes and additions in the future, but I will cover the basic multiple intelligences for now.

I have already explained naturalistic and verbal-linguistics intelligences in previous postings.

Today I’m going to talk about interpersonal intelligence. The intrapersonal intelligence is critical for the successful social life of a DHH person.

Intrapersonal means you have the ability to sense and feel other people’s moods and attitudes. Many DHH people LOVE to be sociable, and are anxious to know how others feel and react.

So DHH people will watch intently your face, reactions, your body language and your hands.  The better interpersonal skills you have, the better you will be in understanding others in non-verbal ways. This explains why some people are able to get inside someone else’s “skin” better than others. You just “know” what the other person is thinking and feeling.

This is where lipreading and sign language skills come into play and how they are chosen.

Many DHH people can sense and understand you better via lipreading, because they are also able to watch your face and reactions. So they may choose to use lipreading for that reason. Lipreaders also have an innate sense of the English language base and the structure of it. Also, those who have better residual hearing tend to lipread. Lipreading would also be chosen by those who are not good in sign language skills. For me, I am much better at reading sign, than expressing myself in it. In other words, my receptive skills are much better than my expressive skills while signing.

But I am the best in written English than I am in signing or lipreading!

On the other hand, some DHH people like to watch body language, and so therefore sign language comes into play. ASL language structure is usually different from straight English. The ASL structure would probably be chosen by those who might not speak well, or are embarrassed by their speech. Other possibilities are that they may not be good in English, or not good at lipreading. Some just enjoy seeing sign language, because it’s fun and/or different, or that they cannot think in English, but in ASL only. That’s totally fine.

Regardless of which communcation method is chosen, it’s important that the DHH child start developing interpersonal skills early. Watch your DHH child to see how he is in receptive and expressive skills.

This is why parents of DHH children must take them out and expose them to as many social situations as possible. The DHH child can see how people react in various situations and learn the proper responses. The DHH child starts to learn early what is the best way for him to communicate with others.

I recall once observing a DHH man managing a restaurant. I could see how each time a restaurant patron came in, he would study their body language and faces quite closely. He didn’t speak much, but seemed to know instinctively what each patron wanted. It was an interesting situation to observe. He evidently had to use his lipreading skills, although other DHH people told me he had quite strong sign language skills.

For you see, socialization IS communication. Socializing, for DHH people, is far more important to them than to hearing people. It is because they know they have less of it, and so will maximize it as much as they can with other DHH people. This is why they have such “long goodbyes” periods. You see, when a DHH person leaves a DHH social time, it is a “death” of social time, and who knows when the next time a DHH person can be with another DHH person.

The bodily-kinesthetic intelligence theory will be in my next posting.