Know Why Right Brain Activities are Important for Your Child

When Little Miss A started walking and talking, as a new mom I looked for activities and classes for her. I was against the idea of sending her to a playschool until she turned 2.5, but I was looking for classes for her to engage her.

During this time, a class I found was called Think Right where they did right brain activities with kids. Honestly, this was something I had never heard about and it intrigued me to learn more about the concept of right bran education for kids. 

The Concept Behind Right Brain Activities

Too many ancient stories and researchers say that a child starts learning in the womb. The child can hear voices from the outside world. Moreover, a child develops bonding with the mother inside the womb. So brain development begins during pregnancy and continues till adult years.

At birth, the brain is about one-quarter of the size of an adult and becomes 90% of it at the age of five. And the child’s cognitive learning ends up to eleven years. As an adage “Strikes while the iron is hot”, so you have to be more attentive in these years of your child. These years are more substantialand future changer.

Left and Right Brain

The brain is the most important organ of our body. It controls our thought, behavior, emotions, memory, as well as the function of many organs within our body. Our brain is divided into two parts the left brain and the right brain. The left brain stays busier and does most of the routine functioning. It is also known as reasoning brain which controls the conscious mind and logic.

On the other hand, the right side of the brain helps to control attention, memory, reasoning, and problem-solving. A right-brained person is said to be artistic and creative, emotional, thoughtful, and subjective. He has visual skills, intuition, imagination skills and most importantly emotional intelligence. Not many focus on EQ but you must read my post, Emotional Intelligence is More Important than Intelligence to know why this is the need of the hour.

The Right Brain Education Program is a program where different right brain activities  are done with kids that helps them to use and improve both sides of the brain. The right brain develops more by pictorial representation to the child.

Importance of Right Brain Education

Nowadays, most of the people are left-brain dominant, thinking logically, leaving the right brain behind. Often, the importance and development of the right brain is ignored. The maximum brain development of a child happens in the first 5 years as per various studies and thus, it is essential to work on the balance brain development of the child.

Right brain education through various age-appropriate activities is a must for the overall development of a child. Some of the advanatges of doing the right brain activities with your child are:

1. The right-brain teaching helps to change the way they learn and the way they recall data.
2. It will help to enhance the Left and Right Brain Connection.
3. It will help become a fast learner
4. It will help to enhance productivity.
5. Kids can improve their learning capabilities in all areas of study, academics, arts, music, and even sports.
6. It will help to evaluate problems from different dimensions in a better way and come up with innovative strategies to solve them.

In small children, the right hemisphere of the brain develops before the left. Gradually left brain becomes dominant. So introducing this program and right brain activities in early childhood will help them to improve learning capabilities,  become successful in the future in every step of life.   

Right Brain Activities

Nowadays, numerous learning centers providing courses on right brain education. Enrolling children in their early childhood improves mental ability. I have personal experience with the program as Little Miss A has learned a lot from them and her memory has certainly improved.

However, it is not always practical and feasible to join a center. Doing activities at home is also doable with some research. These are two main teaching methods when it comes to the Right brain activities program.

Heguru Method

This is one of the methods of teaching to increase brain development. Heguru Japan develops it with extensive research on Right Brain Training and Whole Brain Development. This method is an effective early childhood education program that emphasizes creative and critical thinking in a fun-filled learning environment. The aim is to nurture the child to be a positive, confident, and happy learner with better memory.

Shichida

This is also another world-renowned teaching method that helps in childhood brain development. The curriculum is age-specific, designed for children’s attention covers and brain capabilities.

Apart from that, there are many activities that parents and children can do together to increase brain activity.

How can you achieve the right brain development?

Premature Experiences

Newborn’s brain is like a house, which has just built, walls and doors are up but the wiring is not at all in place. There are still ample changes to come. Brain cell connections are created through everyday experiences, interactions and things that children see, hear, touch, taste, and smell.

Watching your child grows and develop is one of the most exciting parts of parenting, especially when every day brings a new skill to your infant because development happens swiftly.

Nutrition

For nurturing your child’s brain you need to feed him very well. If a child doesn’t get the right nutrition it will adversely affect its brain development. Right nutrition plays a big role in brain development and nerve system at every age.

So you should provide your child, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin B6 and vitamin B12, protein, iron, iodine, minerals and essentials for their new brain cells to grow. It’s veritable that “Healthy diet is key to the healthy brain”.

Audio/Video Aids

 Genetic potential is necessary but DNA alone can’t help in brain development. You have to concentrate on giving learning content to a child in the most interactive manner. Audio/Video aids is an area which is not only good for the child but also for adults like us. Our brain retains more when we acquire knowledge using pictures or in audio form.

Healthy Environment

Theenvironment has a more important role in brain development. If two identical twins which have same genes are placed in a different environment, their brains will develop differently. An encouraging and interacting environment is very helpful for guidance and they become independent and responsive adults.

Your child learns more from pictures, so he accesses your daily activities as pictures. It has a strong nexus with a brain. Strangely negative incidents usually have more impact and cause anxiety. So you should keep your child aside your domestic altercations, abuse, violence. So it’s vital to keep a healthy environment.

Anxiety in kids is a big issue and many parents do nor realise and thus, are not able to handle the same. Read my post, 6 Helpful Tips to Handle Anxiety in Toddlers to be able to handle the anxiety issues better.

Brain game Exercises

Doing right brain activities will help to sharpen the mind, sharpen thinking skills and improves memory. Playing is the best workout for the brain. Games such as Speed Games, Memory Games, Problem Solving Games, Word Games, Math Games, Strategy Games, Puzzle Games, Logic Games are very beneficial for right brain development.

Physical exercises

Identify something on the left side of the vision and move the eyes back and forth. It will help to engage both the left and right brain. Exercising the left side of the body will stimulate the right side of the brain (and vice versa).

Simple exercises like breathing through the left nostril can awaken the right brain. Tickling funny bones will also help. Positive thought and laughter also boost creativity in the areas of the brain that linked with decision making and emotions.

Puzzles

By doing simple puzzles, crosswords daily will not only help children’s cognitive abilities and excellent motor skills but will help to increase memory. There are many puzzles available online and in stores.

Flash Cards

Parents can use different types of flashcards (large, colorful pictures, words)to stimulate the right brain. By doing this, their instant memory ability will develop; they will try to remember the cards while flashing.

Reading is a great brain exercise and one of the easiest right brain activities . It helps in many ways. While reading, kids can imagine things, create an imaginary world, remember things in his visual memory. Reading is not limited to only storybooks; they can read different kinds of books, newspapers, magazines, articles. Reading increases vocabulary helps to learn a new language, new words.

Reading is one of the earliest activities you can do with the kids. You must read my post, What is the Right Age to Start Reading to Babies.

Duties for parents:

• A child acts as a mirror, whatever you display them child imitate it and reacts exactly the same. So it’s parents need to act smartly.
• Never spoon-feed. Let the child learn interactively with actions and experience.
• Shouting, fighting, punishing, embarrassing leads to a hypersensitive or indifferent child. Whereas caring, loving, interactive parenting makes a versatile and mature individual.

Plan for brain development, pay heed to your child. Develop their brain in such a healthy manner that they are capable of logical thinking and problem-solving. Motivate them and never impose your expectations on your child.

(Read my post, Hug your Kids When They Are Being Horrible)