Brains: Making Connections

Photo Credit: Rifka Schonfeld

My neck bone’s connected to my shoulder bone
My shoulder bone’s connected to my rib bone
My rib bone’s connected to my back bone
My back bone’s connected to my hip bone
My hip bone’s connected to my foot bone
My foot bone’s connected to my foot bone

This silly children’s song illustrates an important concept – not only are all of our bones attached, but the more connected our bodies and brains are, the healthier and more effective we can be. In their book, The Whole Brain Child, Daniel Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson write about the ways in which parents can help turn difficult parenting moments into opportunities for growth. Much of their philosophy is connected to the idea that the brain performs best when its different parts work together – hence the idea of the “whole brain child.” The more integrated children’s brains are, argue Siegel and Bryson, the happier and more successful those children will be.

Throughout the book, the authors describe various ways in which parents can help children integrate the different parts of their brains. One of the ways they discuss is in the connection between the left and right brain.

Every person’s brain has two hemispheres separated by a partition called the corpus callosum, which sends messages between the right and left hemispheres of the brain. The two hemispheres perform different functions. As Maharaj Raina, an educational psychologist, explains in The International Review of Education, the left hemisphere “sifts through input and reduces functions to logical-rational forms and acts more like a digital computer.” The left hemisphere is also responsible for language production, reading, writing, and mathematical calculation.

On the other hand, the right hemisphere is often called the minor or mute side because it cannot verbalize what it knows. However, it is far from minor – it is responsible for visualization, artistic ability and musical skill. In essence, the right hemisphere is the more creative part of the brain, in charge of metaphoric and holistic thinking. As Raina puts it, “In a simplistic way, the right cerebral hemisphere remembers faces while the left remembers names.”

When babies are born, they rely primarily on their right hemisphere or visual stimulus. As they grow older, they depend more heavily on their verbal analytical skills. When the left and right hemispheres work together well, we do not even notice their separation. It is only when the corpus callosum is cut or when a person suffers a stroke that we begin to notice the separation as it can lead to loss of speech (even if the person understands what is being said to them) or paralysis on one side of the body.

While most people are fortunate and do not experience a division between the right and left hemispheres, everyone has one hemisphere that is stronger than the other. The key is learning how to strengthen either side of the brain through education and exercise.

In the Home

The best thing to do is to help your child not only develop both sides of their brain, but also to connect the two sides. One method that Siegel suggests we use for discipline instead of time-out, is “connect and redirect.” If your eight-year-old is throwing a fit because he can’t believe his birthday isn’t for another 8 months, chances are that he is experiencing a lot of right brain emotional or illogical activity. Rather than responding with logical questions, which he will not be able to hear because he is in the midst of a wave of emotional thinking, react to him with emotions. Hold him tight and tell him that you understand how frustrating that might be. Once he is able to calm down, help him work through the problem logically. In this way, you are connecting to him through his right brain (emotions) and redirecting his emotions through his left brain (logic). This will help him become better integrated in the future as well.

Another method that Siegel and Bryson recommend is what they call “name it to tame it.” When children’s emotional (right brain) feelings are getting out of control, encourage them to talk about what’s upsetting them. This verbal explanation will force them to think about the situation slightly more rationally and will therefore make them feel more in control.

In the Classroom

Teachers can also help children who are primarily left-brain students or primarily right-brain students by providing multiple opportunities for learning in different formats. This will also help students integrate the different parts of their brains. Below are some suggestions for those activities.