Easy Brain Methods

I read the headlines above today in the Straits Times,7July, a Singapore newspaper.  Front Page.  And in smaller print a subtitile read:

20 years detention

for a two year old who

wanted to join militant jihad abroad.

That’s what I read but it was not what was printed.

How can the brain play tricks on a 58 year old?  No, I am not a dyslexic.  It is just that I am left eye dominant and early in the morning when the system is not fully in gear, the engine called brain does not kick in at full capacity.

The left eye tracks from right to left horizontally and when it teams with the right, the brain reads the inverse.  The brain has to compensate and adjust in order not to make mistakes of reversal.  This is disastrous especially when dealing with numbers.  Imagine a telephone number of your new girlfriend copied down with a couple of reverse digits.

So in situations of stress, like taking in new information, we fall back on dominance  - which is the usage of our preferred eye. (Laterality includes preferred hand, leg, etc.)

Oh Yes, in case you are still wondering…it is a two year detention for a 20 year old.

In case you did not notice, it is a right handed world.  Right from the tender age of learning to use their pens in school, the student who has to write from left to right with his left hand needs to ensure not to smudge the words.  When it comes to driving, musical instruments and using guns in National service, the left handed individual has no choice but to learn to compensate.

A therapist friend of mine is left handed but both his parents and all grand parents from both sides are not.  How to explain that?  The statistics say that if both parents are right handed, the likelihood of having a left handed baby is 2 per cent.  My therapist friend thinks it is because of his personal birth trauma – he nearly did not make it into the world!  So he says the brain makes a survival switch.  Another learned well read friend says that it probably due to the high levels of estrogen during the trauma period that caused it.  Care to comment?

So should you insist that your child change hands, if necessary?

Clinical psychologists advise against it.  They tell parents to give support and help their child instead.  The reason is that children tend to lose their self confidence and interest in learning  if constantly corrected on an innate ability and told that being left handed is wrong.  Many left handed children become confused and less prepared for school compared with their right handed counter parts.  They have a higher risk of low self esteem and are often embarassed and feel awkward with their peers.

In developmental terms, handedness is a choice that is neither right or wrong.

Maybe you can ask Oprah Winfrey, she is left handed.  So is Queen Victoria, The Queen Mother, Prince Charles and Prince William

The popular “computer model” of the brain pales.  No hardware comes close to God’s creation.

Here are some not so commonly known facts:

Your two to three pound organ (visualise jelly) contains 100-200 billion cells (neurons).
We all lose brain mass every day as about 50,000 cells die. Don’t worry though,  you have ample reserves.

Networking in the brain

The neurons connect via signals at finger like strands but don’t touch physically.

100 trillion connections form a complex web of branches or communication links. These connections, called synapses, increase if stimulated – “exercised” and you can become “smarter.” The more connections the better – it means better abilityin terms of your brain circuitry.   When stimulation occurs as the result of an action we take or even a thought, the relevant neurons fire.  And as my daughter’s professor says

“Fire together – Wire together”

Connections are what we need.  So facebook was not have an original idea, duh.

Sit up and notice – the information you accept or reject depends on it.

Whenever we receive information whether it be text, voice or image,  our brain first process it before taking action.  What would you do when someone says, “Give me your wallet now!”

Your brain first process the information to determine the appropriate action you take.,  If  it is accompanied with an image of a sharp knife to your belly and 5 burly gangsters surrounding you, you would act differently than if it were a small boy tugging at your knees

Do you know that the set of information you process and accept or reject is different depending on whether you are really mentally alert or in a hypnotic alpha state?  So two persons may be listening in class and getting entirely different learning; even though it is the same presenter.

In the mentally conscious alert state you will reject information critically; filtering all information based on your beliefs and what you have been programmed to accept as true.  However, in the alpha or hypnotic state, suggestions are easily implanted as truth to be followed when awake in the post-hypnotic state.

This is the  difference between the conscious mind and the subconcious – its called the Critical Factor in hypnosis.

The Critical Factor refers to the fact that our mind filters and sorts information for the sake of our survival.  It’s a survival response  to behave and react according to past experiences.

We also call Past experiences “learning”, don’t we?  So parents take note of how you are teaching – the experiences  or lack of experiences you give your child determines it.  Notice, I did not say what you are teaching but what  you are doing it.  Even if you are not teaching, your child is learning.

Let me say it quite bluntly, your child learns by observing you; especially before the age of 6. All the tiny mind has to model on is you and your behaviour speaks the loudest.

So by the same argument, parents are great hypnotists without realising it.

Everyone wants the perfect memory, but like the RAM its finite.

It is not something new that the elderly are more prone to diseases related to memory loss.

In fact, the science says, it has been proven that our brain’s capacity and power slowly deteriorates as we grow older.  Do you believe that?  Yet how do you account for the many elderly statesmen whose sharp minds and public speaking command a standing ovation everytime.  So we will delve on the mystery of Memory in the following posts.

Regardless of our age, we are always on the hunt for new knowledge to improve ourselves. (At least I am.) From young, we start to learn and memorize how to tie our own shoelaces, and we move on to memorize facts, recalling them during our tests and exams in school. In adulthood, there are phone numbers, anniversaries and birthdays to remember.

Throughout our lives, we are dependant on having to recall and apply what we have learned in the past. Unfortunately, we do not posses infallible memories and we do sometimes falter and forget important tasks and appointments. It is absolutely normal to forget things once in a while due to stress, lack of sleep or simply the inability of a finite mental system.  Some forget more than others – mahybe they are under more stress?

Enter the world of Memory Systems.  The key is to link something new to something you already know.  No memory that is filed away properly is ever lost; just misplaced int he same way as the car keys were left on the dining table.  Organise the information and file them systematically.  The cabinet keys are  often the emotional ones like anger, fun and love.
That being said, we should also accept that memory loss is not just restricted to the elderly.

Each and every one of us all is susceptible to lapses of concentration or loss of memory.

This is especially so when our studies and careers rely heavily on our ability to recall facts and figures accurately.

Memory improvement is no longer only relevant to the elderly.  It’s now time for you to pay attention to how you can improve this quality of your life as well.  The better you are at this, the more advanced you’ll be in whatever you’re field is.

MEMORY TIPS

1:  pay attention

2: Be highly motivated -set your intention. If it costs you $10/- every time you forget to put your tol cash card in, trust me you’ll remember.

The common complaint that parents have of their children is that they can’t focus.  ‘Daydreaming in class again,’  is the song they hear the teacher sing.  What is the child’s perspective?

Ask them and you will hear:

The teacher is boring.

She called my friend ’stupid’ in front of the class and I don’t want to receive the same.

I needed a drink of water and to stand up a little but teacher says I disturb my classmates.

The fact is not all children learn the same way.  Could it be that the teacher is not able to reach out to the child at his level? Why just blame the recipient and when the transmitter is at fault?   A simple classification of learning styles puts some things into perspective.  All of us, whether adult or child, we have  different preferences according to our cognitive strengths:

The VISUAL LEARNER.

This person must have pictures.  It’s like unless I see, I will not believe.  The fact is the visual system of this person is more switched on than the other systems.  We all need our visual system switched on of course.  The question is how much details does your brain process and is your processing fast enough?  Test you own processing by doing some spot the difference games.

Note that children with poor visual acuity also often have learning difficulties and vestibular challenges.  They tend to be poor readers – by which I mean they do not really comprehend what they read; have to read a passage more than once to understand, etc.  Vestibular challenges refer to their physical balance in space.  Does the child have to lean against a wall or person most of the time?

The AUDIO LEARNER.

This child or adult is affected very much  by the tone and volume and speed of the person speaking.  Speak at the correct level of warmth and acceptance and he will simply absorb without perceiving any threat of the raised or unhappy voice.  A person with strong audio discrimination often remembers  what he hears better and may be using sub-vocalisation to recall or memorise.

On the flip side, the audio preferred learner is also often distracted by a noisy environment- interesting TV sounds and friends playing just outside the window are examples.  Parents, its your job to ensure the correct environment for your child to study at home.  A poor listener on the other hand may need repetition and to sit in front in class.

The KINESTHETIC LEARNER

These learners need to move to learn – a fact that is disregarded as children grow into higher levels.  Dr Paul Dennison of Brain Gym fame puts it this way,”Movement is the door to learning.”

Just allowing the child to stand up occasionally has proven to work for a teacher friend of mine.   Apparently they have more wiring to the parietal lobe.

IN PRACTICE:

When in kindergarten,  learning is great for the child with lots of visuals, songs and hands-on stuff to do.  Colouring, drawing, doodling in class is given high praise.  Left and right brain stimulation goes on adinfinitum with hands-on and Motessorri learning aids.  However as we grow up, the visual and kinesthetic systems are gradually discarded until we become audio absorbers only! You won’t find your university lecturer welcoming your shuffling and  running around.  At that stage, you had better be a good listener.  No way is the professor going to break out in song and dance to demonstrate a point and help students to associate facts.

HINT: So what is one way to ensure learners learn?  Change your delivery to fit!  Having said that, what if you are a recipient in a lecture?  what do you do if your strength is not auditory?

So if you are strong on video mode, use a mind map to locate information in y0ur head.  And if you really cant get away from moving, twiddle your thumbs!

ALSO,

Get the learning profile done – we offer that to some 95% accuracy. (See tab above.)

The learning profile will show you a breakdown of how anyone uses his brain as well as define new learning styles beyond the simple VAK model describe above. What percentage of his cognition is visual, auditory or kinesthetic? Once you know your child’s natural modus operandi, its easy for you to adapt your presentation and interaction with the child – especially in the area of motivation and early development.  Send him for appropriate training, as a parent you’ll save a lot of time.  And of course, consult us.

Apply BRAIN GYM

This is the best thing you can do for your child to improve academic abilities and other faculties.  Learn and apply Brain Gym everyday – the changes you can work are tremendous and really fascinating

Switch-on with Brain Gym is always my key phrase.

Lets go back to ancient times.  In fact to the beginning of time.

When God created the first man as recorded in the Bible, he had incredible brain prowess.  God brought all the animals, I mean every single species and subcategories, and Adam named them all as he saw fit.   What ever name Adam gave, it was the name as befits its personality and God accepted that!   How’s that for brain power?  Adam remembered everyone of the animal kingdom!

Till today, neuroscience is still uncovering the wonders of the brain.  More on neuroscience to come.

AFTERTHOUGHT:

Er hem, for those of you out there who do not accept the Bible, you are free to have the  ancestry of your choice.  The rest of us did not descend from apes.