by Lisa H Warren

Created on: October 25, 2007

Common sense is one of the types of intelligence that people have in varying degrees.

Based on my experience nurturing three children (one of whom was adopted in infancy), I believe common sense (otherwise known as "having the ability to think well") is something that children learn when their mother or caretaker talks to them enough during the first three years of life, when brain connections are forming.

When my children were young I saw myself as an "old computer" and their new minds as a "new computer". They may have been newer, better, models; but I was the one who had all the programs and information. I made the conscious effort to talk to my children about everything we did each day and anything else I could think of. When I would be driving I'd "put my mind on speaker" in order to allow them to witness my thinking process. I'd say things like, "Oh, I have to stop now because there's a stop sign," or "I think I'll go to the cleaners first, so my cold food won't have to be in the car." My belief was that I had to "upload" as much information and thinking process as possible to my "new computer" children. I believed that the sooner they had as many "programs" and "files" "uploaded" to them, the sooner they'd be able to build on the information I had imparted. If I hadn't talked to them often enough or well enough they would have remained "new computers" with the potential of more capability, but they would not have had that capability on their own.

As a result, all three children have a lot of common sense. They're also, however, have high intelligence. Intelligence is the general ability to learn and process information quickly and efficiently. There are people who have plenty of intelligence , as well as plenty of common sense. Then there are people who have plenty of intelligence, but their intelligence does not include the type of intelligence associated with common sense. I know a few people who have some degree of mental retardation but who show plenty of common sense. I suppose a good (but fictitious) example would be Forrest Gump, who had a mother who talked to him and taught him really well. Of course, a mother or caretaker can only "upload" as much common sense thinking as she has, herself. That means the child raised by a mother with plenty of common sense will witness plenty of common sense thinking and talking as he grows up.

Common sense is generally associated with verbal, reasoning, and "human" skills. People with a very high degree of this

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