The media was abuzz with the success story of Joseph Schooling, Singapore’s first Olympic gold medalist. So much have been learnt about how his parents discovered his talent at a young age as well as their faith and unwavering support for him.
Schooling’s story inspires a lot of parents because it highlights the importance of discovering a child’s true potential and planning the path to their success. One crucial parenting lesson learnt for all of us is to allow our children to discover and develop their talents. Parents should not just highlight how talented their children are, but make constructive efforts to nurture them and plan for their future.
Whether it’s a hidden talent, unique intelligence or gifted potential, how do we discover them? Some children may have displayed their talents, intelligence or potentials since young, but many of them remain unnoticed.
It’s no surprise because we, parents, are so geared up to making sure that our children have all the essentials covered, such as food, school, tuition and exam. When all these important jobs are done, we forget that what our children need from us is to discover their true potentials.
This sets me thinking, again and again. What is my son’s potential? How can I discover them? What is his dream? How I can help him to achieve his dream?
Recently, I discovered the KidSmart Programme, a 2-step approach to nurturing a child’s true potential, launched by UOB that works in this manner –
Step 1: Discover our children’s unique smarts by using the MIDAS™ tool
Step 2: Plan for their future with the holistic suite of financial solutions offered by UOB.
UOB is the only bank in Singapore to bring us the MIDAS™ (Multiple Intelligences Developmental Assessment Scales) – an aptitude assessment tool to help us discover the type of intelligence our children may have and gain a deeper appreciation of what our children’s capabilities may be.
There are eight types of smarts identified by MIDAS™ that cannot be measured through common IQ tests. The EIGHT types of smarts are: Word Smart, Body Smart, Logic Smart, Music Smart, Nature Smart, People Smart, Picture Smart and Self Smart.
If a person’s distinct smarts can be recognized, he or she can focus on developing that potential and go on to roles or careers that will allow him or her to thrive and succeed. Therefore, the MIDAS™ tool was developed to help us gain deeper understanding of our child’s smarts.
This is the first time I heard of MIDAS™ assessment tool. So I’m thrilled to find out more about it too. Now, let’s head to UOB website to try out the abridged version of MIDAS™ profile for free.
Picture Credit: UOB website
Before I go on to the test, I’d like to highlight to you that the MIDAS™ tool is not a test with absolute results. It’s up to you to decide if the results are a good description of your child’s skills and abilities. Remember, your child’s abilities will change and grow over time. And of course, they can retake the test in future to determine their new set of smarts.
Now, let’s click on “GET MIDAS™ PROFILE NOW” and get started. You’ll be brought to a screen where you need to do a quick registration before the test starts.
Next, you’ll be given 27 simple questions. Yikes! 27? I know what you’re thinking. It may sound a little overwhelming for your child, but trust me, the questions are very simple and it will not take more than 10 minutes to complete.
You may, of course, help your child to answer the questions based on your observations of him or her. The questions focus on their interests such as how keen they are to do science activities, sing a song, play an instrument, play sports, and also behavioral such as how they work in a group setting. For each question, you just need to select from a scale of five.
When I showed the test to Edison, he was quite enthusiastic to try it.
