Child Psychology And Development What is child psychology? In definitive terms, child psychology is a branch of psychology that focuses on the mind and behaviour of children from prenatal development through adolescence. Child psychology includes not only a child’s physical development but also his emotional, mental, and social well-being. Child psychologists attempt to make sense of every aspect of child development, including how children learn, think, interact and respond emotionally to those around them, make friends, understand emotions and their own personalities, temperaments and skills. Historically, children were viewed as smaller versions of adults until Swiss psychologist, Jean Piaget, made ground-breaking revelations in the field of child psychology. His discovery suggested that children actually think differently than adults. Albert Einstein proclaimed that the discovery was “ so simple that only a genius could have thought of it. ” Today, psychologists unanimously believe that child psychology is unique and complex. However, they hold different responses to some of the bigger questions in child development psychology. For e.g. Do early experiences matter more than later ones? As childhood has a tremendous impact on the adult, experts focus on the multiple influencers that contribute to a child’s healthy proliferation. They also pay attention to other variables that might lead to psychological problems during childhood. Some of these factors are self-esteem, school, parents, societal pressures, etc. Different Contexts Of Child Psychology. While internal characteristics such as genetics certainly affect a child’s development, one must also consider the influence of environmental factors such as culture and social relationships. Here are some of the major contexts that must be included in the analysis of child development psychology : The Social Context: Relationships with peers and adults affect a child’s thinking, learning, and development. Families, schools, and peer groups are essential in the social context. The Cultural Context: The culture a child is exposed to moulds his set of values, customs, thoughts, shared assumptions, and ways of living. These aspects will influence development throughout his lifespan. Culture may also play a role in the individual’s childcare, education, and familial relations. The Socioeconomic Context: Social class can also play a major role in child development. Socioeconomic status consists of a variety of factors such as a person’s level of education, his income, job security, and where he lives. Children raised in households with higher socioeconomic status tend to have greater access to opportunities. On the other hand, those belonging to the lower socioeconomic strata might have restricted access to quality education, healthcare, and nutrition. Such factors have an enormous impact on child psychology. However, we must remember that all three contexts are constantly interacting with each other. While a child may have limited opportunities due to his lower socioeconomic status, enriching and supportive social relationships and strong cultural ties may help restore equilibrium. What Do Child Psychologists Study? Child psychology encompasses a broad spectrum of topics, from the genetic influences on behaviour to the social pressures on development. The following subjects are essential to the study of child psychology : Genetics – Genetics play a powerful role in the development of a child and they interact with the environment to determine the child’s growth. For e.g. Down syndrome is a chromosomal abnormality that will affect your child’s development. Environmental influences – While biological influences strongly affect some aspects of development, environmental factors also play a role. E.g. The timing of the onset of puberty is largely hereditary. However, environmental factors such as nutrition can also affect this. Prenatal development – This is the process that occurs 40 weeks prior to the birth of a child. Genetics heavily influence prenatal development. It consists of 3 stages: germinal, embryonic, and fetal. Social growth – Through this process, a child learns how to interact with others in his environment. While getting in touch with his own individuality, he also acquires essential communication skills. Personality Development – Personality development is affected by a combination of social influences, biological maturation, and parent-child and peer relationships. It is also affected by the child’s representation of the world around him. Language – Language development is the process through which children understand and communicate language during their early childhood years. Gender roles – A child’s understanding of gender roles will undoubtedly impact the way he socializes with his peers and forms relationships. Parents should ensure they’re imparting values that support healthy gender role development. Cognitive development- This field of study focuses on a child’s development in terms of information processing, conceptual resources, perceptual skill, language learning, and other aspects of cognitive psychology. Sexual development – Human sexual development occurs in stages. At each stage, the child acquires knowledge and learns skills for sexual development into adulthood. Sexual development takes place in tandem with physical, psychological, social, intellectual, and emotional development. Also Read: 7 Exercises To Control Your Child’s Anger Child psychologists might specialize in helping children cope with developmental concerns, or they might adopt a more general approach. Either way, these professionals strive to improve the quality of a child’s life by helping him overcome potential problems. For e.g. A psychologist might work with children to help nurture a growth mindset. Child psychologists often work in practical settings such as schools and hospitals in order to foster development. Educational psychologists work with children who face difficulties in learning, understanding, or communicating with others. They might also help children with behavioural difficulties. Educational psychologists work in schools with teachers, families, and school administrators to help children who are struggling with specific educational issues. Clinical psychologists study, assess, and treat a wide range of biological, psychological and social problems that children and young people may experience in their personal lives. They often use diagnostic tests to identify children who are experiencing mental health difficulties or who are at risk of having some kind of developmental disorder, such as autism or ADHD. By observing how children of a certain age typically respond, clinical psychologists can identify symptoms of mental health difficulties, or developmental disorders, and provide appropriate treatment
Internet Safety: How To Keep Your Child Safe Online Does internet safety for kids require band-aids, anti-septic solutions, allergy meds, helmets, and knee pads? A BIG NO. As most children are likely to spend a lot of their time online on the internet. We’re sure they love playing games & watching fun videos that make their day enjoyable. However, as parents, it’s our responsibility to make sure that your little one is safe up there. Protecting them from internet safety risks & guiding them to adopt a sincere online behavior is a must. Innocent online searches can lead to negative results at times. Educating your child prior to such actions will inform them what’s correct & what’s incorrect. We at Tickle Right aim to foster a holistic brain development approach in children. This helps them guide themselves in making important decisions in life. Online Safety Tools For Children As a parent, your child’s safety is always your #1 priority. The first aid kit is stocked to the brim at all times. However, are you equipped to protect your child from the terrors that lurk behind a screen? A survey done by Uninor in schools across seven states in India indicates that 30 percent of Indian children accessing the Internet have experienced some kind of cyber harm. This includes cyberbullying, cyberstalking, hacking, and defamation. The younger your child, the more susceptible he is to the dangers of the Internet. A cyber predator could be right around the corner and you would have no idea if you haven’t paid attention to your child’s online activities. Most Common Dangers Children Face Online The following are the most common dangers children face online in the modern-day technology-driven era: 1. Cyberbullying Social media and online games are today’s virtual playground, and that is where most cyberbullying takes place. E.g. – receiving/posting hurtful comments on social media posts. While you do your best to protect your child from cyberbullying, you must ensure your child doesn’t engage in the same. 2. Cyber Predators Sexual and other predators can stalk children online, exploit their innocence, abuse their trust, and in unfortunate cases, lure them into very dangerous personal encounters. 3. Posting Private Information Since children are at a very tender age, they do not fully grasp the concept of social boundaries. They can foolishly post personal details online, right from social security numbers to home addresses. They do not realize that even a seemingly harmless location tag can be heavily misused by online miscreants. 4. Phishing Phishing refers to the use of emails that try to trick people into clicking on malicious links or attachments. The cybercriminals who devise these emails observe sites that are popular with children and gather information such as email addresses and friends’ names to use in their scams. ( E.g. – It may offer your child a ‘ prize ‘ in exchange for your credit card details). Therefore, you must teach your children to be wary of emails from strangers from a young age. 5. Undesirable Posts While children are at risk of being exposed to gruesome content ( both violent and sexual ) , they could also be haunted by their own posts. Anything you put on the Internet stays there forever. What they believe is amusing today could be embarrassing tomorrow. It’s better to be safe than sorry. These virtual hazards are just as powerful as real ones. Countless teens have been driven to suicide by cyberbullies. The surviving victims of these dangers must’ve experienced unimaginable physical, psychological, and financial trauma. Internet Safety Tips To Keep Your Child Safe Online The following tips will help your child adopt healthy behavior against internet safety risks. 1. Communicate Openly As soon as your child is old enough to access the Internet, talk to him about what type of content he’s consuming, who he’s talking to – and continue this conversation as he grows older. Healthy discourse is vital for keeping your kids safe online. At all times, let them know it’s okay to make mistakes and that you’ll be there for them no matter what. Your child must trust you for him to tell you about any unsavory online experiences. If your child is being bullied online, you might detect changes in his behavior in real life. Please pay heed to these signals before the damage becomes irreparable. It’s also critical to teach them about their online reputation and how they must be careful about how they behave, interact with people and represent themselves in such a public forum. They must always remember that the internet isn’t private. 2. Keep Screens & Devices Where You Can See Them The computer should preferably be placed in a central location in your home so you can keep an eye on your children when they use it. For mobile devices, you can set them to forget Wi-Fi passcodes. This way, you’ll know they’re going online when they ask you for the password. You may also enforce a ‘ no devices in the bedroom’ policy. For younger children, you might want to check their browser histories so you’re aware of the content they’re viewing. 3. Parental Controls Several browsers, applications, devices, and Internet Service Providers offer parental controls. For example, the SafeSearch Filters feature on Google will block sites with explicit sexual material. Although not 100 percent accurate, parental controls can help prevent your child from seeing and accessing the most violent or sexual material. While most parental controls are offered for free, paid security options are also available. 4. Know Your Children’s Online Friends Children and young people can be alarming naïve about who they are chatting with if they are not taught to be cyber-wise from an early age. Thus, you should monitor who your child is talking to. If it’s a school friend or a neighbor, it’s probably alright. If it’s a stranger who insists on meeting them? Red flag! 5. Privacy Encourage
6 Most important Social Skills For Kids At An Early Age The ability to contemplate feelings, manage responses, & express emotions fall duly under the umbrella of excellent social skills. These skills bestow power in a child’s behavior. In a way, it helps initiate conversations, read facial expressions, & strengthen their communication skills with the faces around them. And as your child’s first role model, it’s your duty call to expose your little one to a responsive environment where they can interact easily. Besides, there’s no doubt about how important social skills are for a child’s overall development. A child only develops their senses when they are exposed to surroundings where they can play, explore, learn, & even get irritated, bringing about all kinds of reactions. In general, it’s easy for some children to get along over time, but for some, it may still be difficult to speak to their peers. And you can help your child be more comfortable around unfamiliar people by following the tips mentioned ahead. We at Tickle Right assert the crucial importance of social skills in our Right Brain Training Program. There are also several other skills associated with the understanding of social skills. That includes developing empathy, profusing confidence, inculcating a habit of sharing, & setting boundaries while communicating with peers around. What Are Social Skills For Kids? Social skills for kids can be referred to as a set of skills crucial for daily interaction & understanding of expressions. It also involves strengthening a child’s language aptitude for enriched social-emotional development. While helping a child develop some fundamental social skills, the focus stays on both verbal & non-verbal communication. Your child will come through these skills with just effort, the right means, & practice. These skills have the potential to transform your child into a social butterfly. And if not that, surely some social & emotional independence as they grow up over time. The ability to express themselves well caters to every child’s social needs & personal requirements. It is the direct means of connecting with people, making new friends, handling conflicts, expressing your wishes, & others. In short, it helps your child to read social cues & respond well to them. Importance Of Social Skills For Kids Having a robust set of social skills can foster a wholesome personality for your little one. It is just not limited to social development, instead caters to other rich experiences to help your child connect with both like-minded & varying interests of peers. This further impacts a child’s success & emotional well-being in every way. And subconsciously a child is born with the brilliance to connect with people, you still have to help brush these skills over time. Here’s how social skills can assist your child: Develop linguistic proficiency – Basic language skills include listening, speaking, reading, & writing. These skills help a child communicate with the world by improving their speech & the ability to connect & understand other people’s emotions. Self-confidence – It’s crucial that your child feels positive & good about themselves. At this age, you must expose your child to all sorts of fun experiences & encourage them to try out new things. This way they get to interact with a bunch of positive people which helps them build confidence. Improves learning power – Sound social skills also nurture a child’s best interests & talents. Which makes it almost impossible to avoid communicating & learning something new simultaneously. This also impacts how your child will grow in a learning environment & connect with their classmates as a preschooler. Inculcates problem-solving – Strong communication skills & a better understanding of any situation help resolve conflicts with peers. Such situations usually involve brainstorming & analyzing what’s best for everyone helps develop empathy & decision-making skills. Positive Mindset – A positive mindset lays the foundation for healthy early relationships. This is a mental & emotional attitude that helps concentrate on the good side of the situation. Therefore, with a positive mindset, your child will be able to develop great social skills & approach situations with confidence. How To Improve Your Child’s Social Skills? Your child is often surrounded by familiar & strange faces all the time. However, they begin to interact with their facial expressions, smiles, fussiness, & crying at a young age. As parents, you can leverage this opportunity to teach your kids to understand social cues, common languages, & listening skills over time. It’s essential that your child grows & develops communication proficiency with the right methods. Therefore, here’s how you can improve your child’s social skills who are struggling to interact with peers around them: Be Your Child’s Role Model Always be present during your child’s developmental years. It’s a normal tendency of many children to imitate their parent’s actions & words. That means your child is watching your behavior all the time. And that’s why it becomes important to think about how you interact with others around you. Encourage your child to interact with you & build on conversations that involve expressing any kind of emotion. Speak Your Common Langauge Speaking your common language around your little one helps develop a solid foundation of linguistic proficiency. Your child is a born linguistic master! And you must not forget it. This is another way how you can introduce your local language to your child. Children learn to pick up a few words by they are 9 months old. And you can go the extra mile by engaging in the same language that you want them to start speaking. Foster A Positive Environment An optimistic environment around your child helps develop a positive attitude & overall social skills proficiency. It gets easier for your child to make friends in the classroom & elsewhere by building upon skills like teamwork, sharing & emotional competency. Owing to such skills, the environment around your little one should be such that helps them express themselves without any hesitation. But this must also
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 Education: Importance And Why Start Early? What do you think is the ultimate goal of right-brain education? It’s activating a child’s intrinsic desire to learn & explore. Right brain education implies nurturing both brain hemispheres for a child’s holistic development. It extends to forgoing the conventional methods of teaching & redefining new ways. It directly helps broaden the scope of knowledge & skills a child adapts to in the course of development. We at Tickle Right promote education methods that adhere to developing an effective synergy. The coordination advances both the lobes of the brain equally. Their objective is to sow the seeds for skill development from the beginning itself. These great life skills consist of social skills, language skills, high attention span, photographic memory, & critical thinking skills primarily. What Is Right Brain Education? Right Brain Education is a brain development program for children in the age group of 1.5 to 7 years. It is specially designed for early childhood learning. This method governs a series of specific teaching techniques that allow children to learn in an entirely new manner. It is further followed by a different procedure that nurtures both lobes of the brain including the stimulation of vocal & visual centers. The promptness of the right brain hemisphere is associated with perceiving the information in a joyous manner. This demands the execution of brain development activities, extracurricular activities, & mind games for kids. It pledges in building confidence that boosts brain power to make the best of their talent. It also promotes dynamic development that reflects imagination, creativity, & innovation. The stimulation of the left brain hemisphere is related to laying the foundation of logical & analytical thinking. You can relate it with exercising left-brain activities to support low-speed data processing. The main objective is to help provide the exposure necessary for the development of synaptic connections. Importance Of Right Brain Education The learning curve of children seeking right brain education is different than that of others. Since parents play an imperative role in a child’s life & their brain enrichment. They must focus on ensuring that their little one is employing right-brain activities & exercises during the early stage of learning. As it is a method of fledging confidence, excellent memory power, & extraordinary self-esteem amongst other benefits. Read ahead to know its importance. 1. Promotes Cognitive Development Right-brain education lays the foundation for effective cognitive development from the initial level. It sets off a child’s learning journey by focusing on improving the synaptic connections. It is a way to nurture both brain hemispheres while exposing them to constant information. As a result, which takes the form of an ability to perceive & respond to things rightly. This helps them perform excellently in both the educational & non-educational subject matters. 2. Enhances Creativity & Innovation The best practices of right-brain education make your child think out-of-the-box by fostering creative thinking in them. It encourages children to be innovative & powers them to self-express. Since creativity supports mental growth by a means of problem-solving. It also nurtures a child’s emotional & social well-being via the freedom of expression & understanding of different expressions. It impacts many aspects of a child’s life including developing tolerance & empathy. 3. Builds Photographic Memory Photographic memory in kids is their ability to quickly recall information from a picture they sights. Right-brain education lays the foundation for creative thinking & audio-eidetic memory. Since a child’s photographic memory is gathered on the right side of the brain. Activities that focus on strengthening this memory skill trigger their visual stimulus for a response. It helps your child grasp information quickly & establishes long-term memory for it. One such technique to do is – Flashcards Learning 4. Boosts Speech & Language Skills A child’s language development is a comprehensive process. It begins even before birth & takes a quick gear during the first 5 years of a child’s life. A high-quality interaction via the sessions of the right-brain education program taps into a child’s undiscovered language skills. You can encourage such linguistic behavior by initiating quick conversations, interacting in your home language, & reading with your child. Be your child’s role models as they will copy your words & actions! 5. Powers Social & Emotional Skills Another reason why right brain education must be an indispensable part of your child’s brain learning is – a child’s social & emotional development. As they go through & are exposed to different emotions almost every day. It extends to their instant mood swings, temper flare-ups, & fussiness. Helping your child manage these reactions to establish a healthy reaction is what this program does. Training emotion regulation from methods like experiences, relationships, & storytelling gives a sense of both right & wrong. 6. Backs Holistic Development Right brain education advances holistic brain development that prepares a child to encounter any day-to-day requirements & challenges. The main objective is to expand their full potential to lay the grounding for social adaptability and emotional intelligence. There are various components of this development powered by unique teaching techniques. Such as physical strengthening, cognitive enhancement, social enlightenment, & linguistic competence. Why Start Right Brain Education Early? A child requires an increasingly dynamic environment to achieve great feats of creativity, imagination, & innovation. Their future endeavors & overall personality depend on your smart decisions made today. Their foreseen achievements similar to this requires constant exposure to information creatively. However, a program as interesting as right brain development & brain learning focuses entirely on activities that stimulate & power effective childhood development. Kids are naturally born with 100 billion neural connections that exchange information via a synaptic connection. As their brain develops from right to left, this becomes the prime time to start early learning as per studies. Your child’s right brain is dominant during the first three years of their development. This brings them to an unconscious & subconscious state for skill building
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,