Have you ever wondered whether your child was left brain dominant or right brain dominant? Or maybe it’s never really crossed your mind until now. “Is it even a thing”, you may be asking yourself? Well, apparently it is, even though there has been debate around it for years, it is something worth looking into. Like I always say, don’t take anything as gospel the first time around, do your research and then go with what feels good to you. Go with what will bring you and your children’s life ease. So let’s dive in a little and look at what this whole brain dominance hullabaloo is all about.
There have been studies and they revealed that the way a person acquires abilities and information is actually affected by dominance on either side of the brain. Although the majority of people tend to operate somewhere near the middle, where the parts of the brain are nearly proportionally balanced, a great number tend to lean either left or right.
Take your quiz now and find out if your child is left brain dominant or right brain dominant here:
Right-Brained Children
Here are some characteristics of children who tend to lean towards being Right-Brained:
- Can be a daydreamer
- Have a huge imagination
- Would rather be part of a group activity than having to wing it on their own
- Instead of telling them what to do they prefer to be shown
- Express and read emotions
- Understand geometric properties
- Would likely do well in activities such as art, music, athletics and organized physical movement
- Respond well to oral conversations, using objects and visual images
- Thinks, sees and processes data in wholes and not so much in segments
- Use intuition to solve problems
Left-Brained Children
Here are some characteristics of children who tend to lean towards being Left-Brained:
- Understands both abstract and concrete ideas, does not need to process data in wholes
- Will tend to do really well in the use of written and verbal language
- Will also do well in subjects such as writing, spelling, sequencing, math, reading
- Prefers to be structured (you will see them arranging their toys)
- Like to operate in an orderly manner
- When they are doing a task they prefer there to be silence, otherwise, they get irritated when they get distracted (they like to focus)
- They prefer to be given verbal guidelines (lectures, talks, discussions)
Are you seeing any patterns about your child yet? If you are not entirely sure and want to find out your child’s dominant learning style, and whether they lean towards being lefties or righties take this Learning Styles Quiz and find out in no time! It will reveal a lot to you.
Having said that it’s really important that your precious little ones are involved in stimulating both sides of their brain frequently. Just like any muscle, if you don’t use it and exercise it, it becomes atrophied. So, this introduces what is called Whole Brain Education!
The way the school system has been set up is that it mainly caters more for the left-brained children, missing out an entire group of children who learn in a completely different manner. Hence why of late, Whole Brain Teaching is being introduced by teachers so that they cater to all the children in the classroom. Whole Brain Teaching is engaging and makes sure that it makes use of all the learning styles from kinesthetic, to visual, to auditory and oral learning.
This is why STEAM activities are key for your children’s development because STEAM provides whole brain education and leaves no cell behind! STEAM activities should be done every week if possible. For this to likely take place, as a parent, you need to create a stimulating STEAM environment at home that encourages and motivates your little ones to keep learning and to flex their brain muscles, on both sides!
The beauty of living in the 21st century is that you get to play an active role in encouraging your child’s development. There are resources available everywhere to help you, help your children. So take on the challenge and let’s raise fully aware, motivated, smart, thinking children.