Every mom wishes to provide the best food, education, health facility, and hobby classes to their baby and make them a dynamic individual. As soon as your baby comes into this world, you start dreaming and consequently mapping out the best for him.
You might be concerned and cautious about comfortable clothes and proper nutrition. However, one more aspect that contributes to the overall quality of your child's life is Education. Furthermore, you might have heard that the ‘first education starts at mom’s hands and not school’.
Every parent wants to see their child getting exceptional success and shine in all fields of life. But, smart parents lay the foundation of an amazing life in early education only. Many studies have proved that during the early age of 0-6 years, the learning power is at its highest level. Early childhood education helps in the overall development of social, cognitive, mental, behavioral, and academic aspects of life and all these can be possible with the Right Brain Education.
This article will guide you on everything about right brain education and why you should consider including it in your parenting process.
WHAT IS RIGHT BRAIN EDUCATION?
As you may have guessed from the name, it is an education program for the development of a child’s right brain.
The exciting news is that infants' brains have an exceptional growth rate until the age of 7. But, here is the catch: this magical activeness gradually slows down and after this age, it will not be a breeze to learn for your child. Researchers have concluded that the right brain is more active and dominant between the ages of 0-7 years. At this age, it supports the child to consume a large amount of information at a higher pace. It is said to have a sponge-like capability to absorb knowledge.
Will not you want to squeeze out the benefits of this valuable period and make your child smarter? The Right brain education will help you stimulate these powers and improve memory, concentration, and creativity. When you utilize this period properly, it enhances the overall learning abilities of your child to perform better in later stages too.
The traditional education curriculum concentrates a lot on the left brain (like theoretical exams, logical maths, and analytical knowledge). However, it leaves the child with insufficient abilities. Our brain will work better when there is a balance of both hemispheres. So your child can get a special competitive advantage by having the right brain education under his belt.
WHY IS RIGHT BRAIN EDUCATION IMPORTANT?
A paper by JSTOR had shown the crucial importance of right brain education in our life. Our brain has two parts: right and left. Let us first see how each has different functions and learning processes:
Left Brain (The Logical Part)
It links to analytics, logic, math, and thinking in words.
It learns by repeating, reasoning, and systematically organizing information.
It can process less information and that too at a slow pace.
Your child learns numbers, the English alphabet, and words and performs school tests/quizzes using the left brain.
Right Brain (The Visualization Part)
It links to the imagination, creativity, intuition, and holistic thinking.
It learns through visual imagery, actions, body movement, and creative activities.
It can process large pieces of information very rapidly.
Your child learns drawing, plant and animal images, colors, and other creative activities using the right lobe.
Dr. Makoto Shichida is the one who introduced right-brain education in Japan and worldwide.
According to Dr. Makoto Shichida, both parts contribute to the working of the brain. He named it hemispheric synchronization. Children who receive right brain training at an early age have better neuro connections than those who do not. More linkages in the brain help in the fast processing and integration of information.
But, the formal education system including competitive exams & tests mostly deals with developing the left lobe. Counting right brain education together can be a cherry on top. It can be a supplement to your brain capabilities. It enables your child to acquire loads of knowledge quickly, which is indeed a plus in today’s competitive scenario. Having a balance between both logic and creativity lobes can make learning easy and enjoyable. So, right brain education is very crucial for your child’s development and education.
BENEFITS OF RIGHT BRAIN EDUCATION
Stimulating the right lobe of the brain can have multiple long-term benefits. They can aid you in every field of life like academics, art, music, sports, etc. Children with right-brain education have amazing levels of these abilities:
1. High Memory
2. Grasping & comprehension skills.
3. Extraordinary Concentration & attention span
4. Creative mind
5. Emotional intelligence
6. Self-Confidence and esteem
BUT, WHY SHOULD I PROVIDE THE RIGHT BRAIN EDUCATION AT AN EARLY AGE?
You may ask why should you trouble a kid with education at the play age. Well! Playing is for enjoying. Right? At this age, your child is craving knowledge. So he is going to enjoy this education system. A 2020 article published by Edutopia talked about how much early age matters for the development of the brain.
Here is an important reason you should know:
As per the “Law of Diminishing Ability”, your child’s extraordinary learning ability will diminish after a certain age if it is not encouraged. In simple words, a younger child learns faster than an older child. The right brain starts losing its dominance and energy after 4-5 years. And left brain comes into the rule, which assists in logical aspects. That’s why, mainstream schools teach the alphabet, word formation, poems, and numbers. It can process lesser information and that too at a slower speed than the right one.
Further to this, like muscles grow stronger with exercise, your brain also grows stronger when you use it and practice more. So, it’s important to assist the growth of the right hemisphere in its dominance phase so that your child always has the support of both sides.
METHODS TO DEVELOP THE RIGHT BRAIN OF A CHILD:
You can use various activities to amplify the abilities of the right brain:
1. Provide them with a lot of information: Use Flashcards (math, alphabets, and pictures).
2. Encourage the sight sense: Right brain works on the visual sense. So, you can use Mandala coloring, doodles, pictures, and sculpting, to grow image-ability. Try tangram puzzles for visual-spatial learning.
3. Memory exercises: Use creative and imaginary exercises like peg memory, linking story, poem recitation, spelling, playing easy hide & seek, etc. You can also use kids’ school courses like weekdays, months, colors, etc.
4. Focus on Speed: The main essence of right-brain education is fast-paced learning. So, you need to train your child to think, absorb, memorize, and respond rapidly. You can use flashcards moving at a 1-sec speed and an abacus for fast math calculation.
5. Improve emotional quotient: Grow your child to be an emotionally strong personality. You can use music, poems, games of pretend actions and dramatic storytelling.
6. Activate the alpha state: Right brain works better at alpha wave frequency (8-13HZ/s). The alpha state is a focused mental state when you are calm and can absorb new information easily. You can include relaxation and breathing exercises in a child’s routine to activate their alpha state.
Important points to keep in mind:
Activities should be creative, playful, and fun.
Make sure that they are fast-paced.
Spend time with your child during these activities.
Practice regularly
Activities should make your child happy.
WHAT IS DR.SHICHIDA 'S TEACHING PHILOSOPHY?
Dr.Shichida’s teaching philosophy emphasized parent and child bonding. The foundation of right brain training is love between them. So, it supports the parenting style that can understand a child’s mind.
Apart from pampering, feeding, and caring for them, loving your child also includes encouraging, praising, and thus motivating them to learn. It can make him more open to learning opportunities. You can contribute to the growth of the right brain by actually participating with your child in this parenting style.
WRAPPING UP
The right brain education can help your child outshine others in the future by developing both lobes. It develops the social, cognitive, and academic aspects of your child's life. Along with this, such activities also help in strengthening the parent-child bond and making your child happy. Hence, you should consider including this in your parenting.
For your child's bright future, it can be a life-long investment. To keep yourself updated with such helpful information, keep reading our blogs and be a smart mom.