Last Friday night, I was fortunate enough to get to spend about two hours with an intimate social media press event for BrainFit Studio's first Brain Fitness Conference. The kids had a blast with the fun, interactive activities for Brain fitness while we, the stagemoms, were busy listening to one of BrainFit's Brain Fitness experts, Dr. Marlene Teo.
These are some of the brain fitness exercises for spatial awareness and motor planning:
Learning while jumping on a trampoline. What a fun way to hook the kids in!
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Maia, with her new friend, Ate Drei. : ) |
We also tried the Visual Brain Fitness exercise which was quite challenging as well. Believe me, it's not as easy as it seems! :) But I'm pretty sure that with these brain fitness exercises, one's brain will develop by leaps and bounds in no time. Call it magic, or science. Whatever. It works! :)
BrainFit Studio is at the forefront of providing personalized brain training for children 4-18 years old. I like the idea that BrainFit Studio's programs are personalized and brain-based which are mostly targeted specifically to improve various aspects of brain fitness. They both have gym-based and tabletop activities wherein they give appropriate program to each child. In a class of no more than 6 kids, their program has 20 engaging and fun-filled sessions but they said that they can see significant improvements in just 6 or 7 sessions. How cool is that?
As for my daughter, Maia, who just turned 5 years old, I like how curious she is. She asks a lot of Why's and her curious mind is constantly alert and exploring. Sometimes though, I simply ran out of answers, I die. LOL
Kids are so cute with their small hands, small feet, small everything and their big curiosity. One time, Maia was watching the ants and then, she asked me why are they walking together and why are they falling in line, why, why, why... I answered, because they need to work and find food. Then, the never-ending "Why?" continues. I guess nobody works harder than a curious kid huh? :) Hmm.. Then I realized that we can also learn a thing or two from our kids. Just imagine, kids are curious and watching ants with a magnifying glass while adults are stepping on them. Then I saw her drawing dots and a big circle, and she told me those are ants and the big circle is their food and the ants are going to share and eat them together. True story. :) That being said, I believe that the secret to creativity is curiosity. That is why we, adults, should always stay wide-eyed and curious, like a kid. :)
Needless to say, I love my curious, little girl. But I'm a bit concerned that she doesn't seem to enjoy learning because she easily gets bored and distracted. Sometimes, she knows the correct answer but she lacks confidence and she would give up easily, particularly when it comes to reading. Also, she has letter reversals like interchanging "b" and "d". That is why I'm glad I've attended this event. I found out that letter reversals, short attention span and lack of focus are the most common problems of preschoolers. The kids have tried some of the brain fitness exercises and they were quite interesting and very challenging. Best of all, the kids enjoyed doing them. :)
Dra. Teo's presentation was visually rich and informative, which begins with an overview of how the brain works and how brain fitness will boost a child's learning potential. These are just few of the things I've learned:
Our brain can be "rewired" to be fitter and faster, at any age! My inner geek loves this! :)
Myth: Brain development peaks at 36 months and then start faltering after that.
Fact: The brain has a constant ability to create neural connections (called neural plasticity) over the lid span, given the right stimulation. Our brain changes throughout life and it is not restricted to early life. So yes, even though you're 50 or 60, there's still hope! :)
Fit Brains Learn Better!
Brain exercise is just as important as physical exercise. Brain fitness is about having superior mental processes arising from more efficient and robust connections in the brain. It involves activities that strengthen existing and build new brain connections. We have to keep exercising our brain and body, regardless of our age, because physical and mental activity stimulates the creation of new neurons throughout our whole life.
Motivation and enjoyment builds a smarter brain. Learning strategies are useful only if they match your child's brain fitness profile.
If a child struggles to pay attention, would you know when is it serious enough to be concerned? I've learned that we need to train a child's brain by giving appropriate level of activity. Kids should also have the willingness to learn. You’ve probably heard it said that a person can’t be taught until they’re ready to learn. It makes sense, and IMHO, it’s mostly true. Why though? Why can’t a young child be taught until they’re ready to learn? If a child isn't willing or curious enough to want to know why, to want to ask questions, to want to learn, then he's not making the room in his mind for learning. If a child stops asking questions, or if one lacks motivation and enjoyment, his/her mind can’t grow. You can't just force them to fill up their brain with too much information in seconds. Also, it doesn't mean they're lazy. Ask yourself. Are they fit enough? Are they motivated? That's why it's best to feed their curiosity, provide our kids the right level of brain exercises, motivate them, and give them resources for finding the answers to their questions so they can learn anything! Apparently, yelling at kids "to pay attention" doesn't give them years of mental training. So for starters, let's stop yelling at our kids asking them to pay attention and learn to interact with them more often. Most kids learn language capacity by interacting with us, parents or adults like yaya, tito, or tita. I think it’s the interacting part that’s important because television, iPad or any other gadgets cannot replace parents as language teacher.
However, as much as parents can be “stressed out” with the sloooow academic pace of their kids, most parents don't realize that their children get stressed all the more as they are the ones being measured.
Also, Dra. Teo gave an example: in a setting where a child is trying to copy something from the board while listening to her teacher and ignoring her classmate making a gross sound, the noise outside the classroom, the texture of her clothes, holding head steady, holding pencil, and a lot more, that child is actually doing more than one task, and it's called, "multitasking at its best". Kids have “open” attention, which takes in a lot of detail from the surrounding environment, while adults have more focused attention, which means that they notice details that are perceived to be relevant and ignore those that are considered unimportant. At their very young age, we shouldn't force them to be at a level wherein they will have a hard time getting into and we should give them just the right level of activity. So that when they finally finish a task and then feel good about it, they'll be more than willing to do it again and be challenged to achieve more.
Also, Dra. Teo gave an example: in a setting where a child is trying to copy something from the board while listening to her teacher and ignoring her classmate making a gross sound, the noise outside the classroom, the texture of her clothes, holding head steady, holding pencil, and a lot more, that child is actually doing more than one task, and it's called, "multitasking at its best". Kids have “open” attention, which takes in a lot of detail from the surrounding environment, while adults have more focused attention, which means that they notice details that are perceived to be relevant and ignore those that are considered unimportant. At their very young age, we shouldn't force them to be at a level wherein they will have a hard time getting into and we should give them just the right level of activity. So that when they finally finish a task and then feel good about it, they'll be more than willing to do it again and be challenged to achieve more.
BrainFit Studio uses Cognitive Map.
A brain’s fitness level influences the 5 pillars of cognitive development namely: attention, visual, auditory, sensory-motor, and social-emotional. The first step is via a process called “Cognitive Mapping” of one’s strengths and weakness across all the 5 brain pillars using US-qualified testing methodologies. Based on the findings, the appropriate program are then recommended to improve on opportunity areas. That said, Brainfit studio's programs help your child learn better by improving their Brain Fitness levels. Brainfit programs helps strengthen a child’s ability to absorb and comprehend information at school/tutor.
Here's an interesting fact for you guys! You'll never forget the smell of your favorite perfume or the smell of something you love. That's because, of all the senses, smell is closely linked to memory. :)
Also, this media event is in preparation for Dr. Martha Burn's arrival here at the Philippines for the upcoming conference. Aiming to raise awareness for brain fitness, the first ever Philippine Brain-based conference is slated for 25th of March, 2013 to be held at CEU Auditorium. The speaker, Dr. Burns, is a well known neuroscientist from the United States. Be inspired as Dr. Burns explains how we can help our kids reach their potential and how the brain actually works. Also, this is a FREE conference and all you need to is to register at brainfitph.blogspot.com. So register now because they have limited slots.
Come and hear from the expert. See you there! :)
go go , maia
ReplyDeleteGreat post! Nice seeing you last Friday. Sayang, we weren't able to have a long chit chat.. hope to meet you again! :) - Louise| Mommy Practicality
ReplyDeleteLittle girls are precious Angels. I heard from Daryll that she really enjoyed time with Maia. She was hoping she can play with her again at BrainFit Studio. Isn't that cute. Girls are bonding :)
ReplyDeletehi sis, san ito malapit? Thanks!
ReplyDeletewow this is nice.. dami talagang perks pang nasa with in Manila area ka..I am hoping to see something like this sa province. Meron nga ba? kung meron.. I'll be more than happy to share it with friends..
ReplyDeletei hope my kids can try this...thankx for sharing chelle
ReplyDeleteTrampolines are not just toys that are just used for jumping but are also used to let your kids develop strength in their legs. This is also found to be a great way to exercise. So I hope you will buy trampolines for kids.
ReplyDelete