A riveting passion for creating a positive impact in young lives has been the driving force behind the successful journey of Dr Munira Saheb Dattani as the COO of Tickle Right. She is a certified physical therapist with a specialization in Neuro-pediatrics. Before Tickle Right, she has spent years working with children with neurological and developmental disabilities at the Nair Hospital, Mumbai (Maharashtra), which laid the grounds of her expertise in the cerebral growth of a child.
Did you know that a child’s brain develops 50% by the time he/she is 4 and over 80% of the development is complete by the age of 8? Do you know what that means? In conventional learning, we put pressure on the child to learn from 8-18 when the scope of brain development is only 20%. The real training of the brain should be done from infancy till the age of 8 when you have a scope of nurturing 80% of the brain. Simple Return on Investment logic, isn’t it?
Focusing on training the brain in the early childhood years can yield brilliant results. You will be able to stimulate the right brain of the child through several activities and lead to holistic brain development. A fact that needs to be understood is that sending a child to school early will not necessarily lead to brain development. The academic curriculum feeds the left brain which processes information in a logical, sequential and analytical manner. However, the right brain which is more creative and intuitive doesn’t get sufficient stimulation.
What your kid needs are play-based sessions that can trigger curiosity. It could be flashcards, puzzles, music, painting which lets children spread their wings of imagination. Training the right brain includes developing holistic reasoning skills, improving visuospatial abilities, sharpening intuition and emotional intelligence. Right brain training exercises can help in boosting memory and concentration and improving vocabulary and comprehension skills.
Children with a stimulated right brain normally grow up to be more positive and well-rounded individuals. This helps them to ingest, analyze and process data faster and more efficiently as they see the whole picture very clearly.
As Albert Einstein famously said, “Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.” A stimulated right brain can help individuals rise to their true potential. This is what parents and schools should aim to achieve.
While the left brain focuses on logic and language, the right brain focuses on curiosity and creativity. Educators are now realising the importance of holistic brain function development and focusing on emotional intelligence. Proper right brain stimulation can help to raise a creative, happy and empathetic child with a well-rounded personality. The New Education Policy is focusing on the development of the creative potential of every child. It lays emphasis on the fact that education should not only focus on the development of cognitive capabilities like literacy, numeracy, critical thinking and problem solving but also social, ethical and emotional capabilities.
Training the right brain helps kids to move from rote learning which is limiting to application-based learning which is long-lasting. Right brain development can be measured by the increase in imagination and creativity, raised levels of concentration, retention of memory, logical thinking and better hand and brain coordination Stimulation of the right brain helps the child to grasp information and comprehend it well leading to better academic performance in the long run.
Training the right brain is through child’s play but training the brain right is no child’s play if you get what I mean. Right brain development in a structured manner can yield tremendous benefits to little children and their whole approach to learning will be very different. As parents, you will be surprised to see the transformation in your child as they discover the pleasure of a stimulated right brain.