Holistic Brain Development Of A Child Every child is different. Their personality traits or extraordinary talents define their aura & uniqueness in the world. And it’s important that there is an alignment of your child’s interests, skills, strengths, & weaknesses with the kind of training they receive for beneficial personality development. If you’re only depending upon your child’s educational curriculum for results, this wouldn’t be your finest decision. However, we at Tickle Right would recommend the holistic development of a child’s mind for greater dynamics. Early childhood development lays the concrete foundation for an infinite potential to learn new things every day. And as parents, it’s almost impossible to not think about your child’s future growth. So, read ahead to know the vitality of holistic brain development. What Is Holistic Development Of A Child? The holistic brain development of a child constitutes the development & nurturing of skills to be able to encounter any day-to-day requirements & challenges. These include a child’s cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional, and physical growth for their overall development. Which makes it more crucial to recognize the demand for holistic development in the early years of a child’s life than in the later stages. Right after the birth of a child, a newborn’s brain & brain structures are quite similar. When a child hits their developmental years, especially the ‘sensitive periods’, it caters to the wiring of a brain for particular abilities & skillset. And here comes holistic brain development that assists in the wiring of the brain network via enriched & stimulative experiences. Importance Of Holistic Development In A Child Holistic development aims to nurture & expand a child’s full potential with the abilities that will help them lead a successful life. It establishes social adaptability alongside emotional intelligence to help them surpass their fears to interact & work as a team. Here’s why holistic brain development is important for a child’s complete growth: Instills compassion & confidence to meet daily challenges A bundle of prolific neural connections with physical, social, intellectual, & emotional development Builds social-emotional competence, linguistic proficiency, physical growth, & helps attain cognitive enlightenment Caters to the emotional & psychological well-being of a child to counter pressure & daily challenges Lays the foundation for academic brilliance & a resilient lifestyle that differs from conventional methods Factors That Help Shape An Holistic Brain Development There are several factors behind the influence of exceptional holistic development. As parents, you can look after your child’s learning path to success keeping into consideration the following factors: Education Physical & mental health Optimistic environment Social status Stimulating experiences Physical skills What Are The Components Of Holistic Development? Given below are the components of the holistic development of a child in the early years: Social Enlightenment A child’s social skills can be uplifted by helping them engage with other children. This helps foster early relationships & grants an ability to develop empathy towards others. Great social skills have several benefits like a chance at having better relationships, educational opportunities & profuse confidence to interact with people. This instills speed listening skills & an ability to cooperate, contribute, & participate with others. Emotional Intelligence Emotional intelligence counts for an ability to comprehend, manage, & regulate emotions. It is the ability to understand others’ feelings & be smart about the next response. At a young age, a child begins to express emotions without knowing their real meaning of it. You can put in efforts to develop such emotional intelligence. This is a clear opportunity for your toddler to build a high IQ as it is directly linked to emotional enlightenment. For that, you must show empathy towards your child & make them feel that you’re validating their emotions. Read stories that send out a message on problem-solving & coping skills. Share your experiences & give emotional support. Linguistic Competence Language skills are super important for kids to develop a step-by-step communication mechanism. It’s a part of upbringing naturally, as your child imitates your actions & is most familiar with the language you prefer at this stage. By the means of music, story-telling, reading, and responding to your child’s social cues, you can help them expand their language skills. Keep in mind that you need not pressurize your child into adapting language skills. Instead, get along & engage with your child by starting with small words first & full sentences later. Cognitive Enhancement By the time your child is 5 years old, their brain is already developed by 90%. Cognitive enhancement taps into the potential of a child’s developing mind by helping them explore & coming to a conclusion on their own. Besides, there’s no doubt about how young kids have the ability to quickly transmit information and imply critical thinking skills from a holistic perspective. As parents, you can provide a stimulating environment to your kid & encourage them to play & indulge in extracurricular activities. This also unleashes their potential for active participation and becomes a means of educating your child duly. Physical Strengthening Nurturing your child’s physical & motor skills is very crucial for their holistic brain development. With growing age, children are filled with regular bursts of energy that can be utilized to their advantage. Encouraging your child to move around & play, climb, hop, swim & swing helps build physical strength. For fine motor skills, you can clap with your child, play block games, complete puzzles, open-close containers, & make them hold small objects to teach pincer grasp. From kicking, and crawling to holding objectives, these skills help build muscles & spark sensory abilities. What Can You Do As A Parent? The means to strike a reasonable balance between providing exposure to play freely & address the physical, emotional, rational, intellectual, and spiritual aspects of a child duly is the key. As parents, you must continuously observe your child’s behavior for holistic brain development. The role of such development skills extends its domain to your
Right Brain VS Left Brain Learner: Who Is Better? Are you more of a ‘maths’ person or ‘arts’ person? This is a common question that we start getting asked in school. Sentences like “I am not creative,” “I hate maths,” “I am a right-brain dominant person,” or “I am a left-brained thinker” are commonly heard among adults and kids both. But how much of this right brain vs left brain thinking is really true? Several facts have gotten oversimplified in the war between the analytical left-brained and the creative right-brained people. But let’s get one thing straight. No person or kid is walking around with one side of their brain hilariously bigger than the other. All of us have perfectly equal-sized brains, with each side busy chattering with the other. The Indian schooling system focuses on memory and retention learning while stifling the kid’s creativity. At Tickle Right, we focus on activities that impart education with creativity. Our right brain education program prepares your child to be confident and empathetic with a lightening fast grasping speed. Right Brain VS Left Brain Characteristics The brain is divided into two parts– the left hemisphere and the right hemisphere. Each part of the brain focuses on a specific type of skill. The left hemisphere of the brain controls the right-hand side of the body. Left brain activities include speech, language, and recognizing words, letters, and numbers. The right hemisphere of the brain controls the left-hand side of the body. Right brain activities include creativity, organizing information, and interpreting social cues. It is also good at recognizing visual and spatial information. The two hemispheres of the brain connect to each other by a bridge called the corpus callosum. They constantly coordinate with each other via this bridge. When we perform any activity, both sides of the brain process different aspects of the same information. It then coordinates with each other to give a response. Right Brain Functions: Organization of information Abstract thinking, processing visual information Recognizing spatial relationships (e.g., map reading or shape recognition) Intuition, emotion, imagination Music and art appreciation Controls the left side of the body Left Brain Functions: Speaking, reading, writing, listening Grammar Number skills & computation skills Information analysis Reasoning, logic, & linear thinking Controls the right side of the body The Right Brain Dominant VS Left Brain Dominant: Which Is Better? We humans really like to categorize ourselves. That’s why Buzzfeed quizzes are so popular. We divide ourselves and our kids into logical vs creative, like left brain vs right brain individuals. This is simply not correct. Any activity, be it as logical as maths or as creative like painting, requires both sides of the brain. For example, in a conversation, the left brain focuses on picking out sounds that form words and understanding the syntax of a phrase. The right brain grasps the emotional features of the language, focusing on intonation and stress in the patterns of speech. Therefore, a conversation would need both sides of the brain. The left side to understand the language and the right side to pick up the social cues of the conversation. We know what you are thinking, so why are some people more creative and others more logical? It comes down to training your brain to think a certain way. Regular schooling focuses on reading, writing, speaking, and analyzing information. Empathy, musical awareness, or any out-of-the-box thinking does not get due heed in general. The natural creative and curious nature of kids gets suppressed, and we seem to ‘lose’ our creativity by the time we become adults. But we never lose it. Just like any other skill, creativity becomes rusty from disuse. At Tickle Right, we focus on right-side brain development activities. The best time to develop a child’s creative skills is when they are still at their most curious and creative. You must take leverage of their rapidly expanding brains to train them in visualization skills. This enhances their photographic memory and instills confidence, patience, self-expression, and speaking skills in each child. Right brain training activities such as processing and recognizing visual data at lightning speed. It enables their brains to develop a faster reaction time. Strengthening The Left Brain And Right Brain Connections The brain consists of billions of neural pathways. You can imagine these pathways sort of as hiking trails. With enough use, a hiking trail would become well-worn and easy to travel by. On the other hand, a less-traveled trail would become overgrown and gradually become lost. The brain is somewhat similar. Learning and new experiences can form and strengthen new pathways. Infrequently used pathways get ‘pruned.’ The good news is that the brain’s enormous capacity to learn can is advantageous to us. One can take up several activities to enhance the connections in the brain. Making Art: Experimenting with different arts will help create new brain pathways. It enhances brain connections and boosts brain performance overall. Exercise: Physical activity for at least 30 minutes improves memory and motor skill coordination. It also improves memory, attention span, and the overall efficiency of the brain. Learning A Musical Instrument: There is mental and physical syncing required to learn a musical instrument. It is a fantastic workout for the brain. It boosts bilateral brain connectivity. Learning A Foreign Language: It’s a complex brain activity. It requires the brain to shift from thinking to speaking in another language. It also requires memory expansion which stimulates the brain. Reading Complex Things: Reading things outside your comfort zone increases brain activity. It speeds up your mental processing and boosts connectivity in the brain. Hobbies Needing Mental & Physical Coordination: Any hobby that involves new thinking and physical coordination. Any sort of new activity will constantly stimulate both sides of the brain, especially if they involve cognition, memory, and physical coordination. For e.g., Quilting, knitting, dancing, sketching, etc. Tips To Mind When Your Child Learns With Right-Brain Activities While you boost your child’s learning with right-brain activities,