I was introducing some information on retraining the brain, and I think it is beneficial to know a little bit of information about the brain.
The brain is separated into two hemispheres, the left and the right. The right hemisphere is the creative side of your brain. It is the side of the brain that is responsible for movement, colors, pictures,shapes, music, emotion, daydreaming,expression, synthesis, and problem solving. The left side of the brain is quite different. It is responsible for conscious control, words, phonics, reasoning, numbers, math, lists, categories,analysis, and linear thought. Right brain dominant children learn best from whole to part. Left brain dominant learn best from part to whole. Most of what the schools present and expect is processed on the left side of the brain.
It is obvious that we need both sides of the brain to work together in harmony for learning and a balanced life. For instance, to read, a person needs to constantly be accessing both the left and right hemispheres of the brain simultaneously. If a student is “stuck” in one side of the brain, then reading becomes difficult because the student isn’t able to access the other side of the brain.
In the middle of the brain is a bundle of nerve fibers called the corpus callosum. It is basically the network of circuitry that allows the left and right hemisphere to communicate with each other freely.
In people who have integration problems, the corpus callosum acts as a wall instead of an integration device.
If someone has dyslexia, visual information taken in bounces off of the wall and comes out differently, perhaps backward or upside down.
Some people receive auditory information that bounces off the wall and is lost. These people don’t have the necessary “Velcro” to hold auditory information in their brains. They in turn have a difficult time concentrating, holding on to what is heard, and tuning out extraneous information.
These students can’t hold directions in auditory memory, either. They might lose certain parts of sounds that are heard such as the middle of a word or the end of a sentence. They hear just bits and pieces, which can cause a great deal of confusion. It can isolate the student as well, since we build relationships through verbal communication.
When babies are born, the corpus callosum isn’t integrated. Physical movement wires the brain to do simple tasks, such as sucking a thumb. As the baby grows, physical activities increase until the baby crawls. This crawling activates both sides of the brain simultaneously and teaches them to work together.
The eyes of an infant or child activate the brain. For instance, when a baby is crawling and looking up, the visual memory center of the brain is activated. This sets the stage for later learning. If the baby misses the activation of one of an area related to learning, then a learning problem can occur later on.
By retraining the brain, you can use the eyes and physical exercises to rewire the brain for learning success. The series of exercises has the student look in a certain direction while doing exercises that simulate what a baby might have done when crawling and looking around. There are other componenets as well, since doing cross crawls and looking in a certain direction isn't enough. But the point is that it can be done. I use these techniques every day and watch students change for the better, both academically and emotionally.
