RBT activates the brain’s right hemisphere, the seat of visualisation, photographic memory and inspiration, most active in children till the age of three.
CHENNAI: As R Kanakarekha wandered about a supermarket in Chennai searching for the cosmetics section, her two-year-old son Abhinav Krishna pointed to a signboard, shouting: “There… cosmetics.” Even as the other shoppers stood staring, the little boy read aloud from the boards: “Vegetables… oil… processed food…”
Krishna, known to his neighbours as the wonder kid for his abilities to read full sentences and do basic maths before he turned two, is one of the first children in India to be introduced to right brain training (RBT).
Developed by Makoto Shichida, a Japanese professor, RBT activates the brain’s right hemisphere, the seat of visualisation, photographic memory and inspiration, most active in children till the age of three. According to Shichida, all successful people demonstrate the right brain ability of distinct image visualisation and RBT can make children smarter.
For RBT, parents show the babies flash cards of words and pictures, uttering the corresponding word. In a few weeks, the child starts identifying the cards with the words. The training, which can start from a couple of weeks after birth, takes not more than 15 minutes a day.
Designers of the Indian version of RBT, ‘My Smart Baby’ (MSB) are two IIM, Bangalore alumni, K Swaminathan and Madhumathi Narayanan, who have floated Aspire Superkidz. “We worked for more than two years to develop the package and tried it on 160 children before launching the programme. After a one-day training for parents, we give them a kit for basic MSB training that takes 18 months,” says Swaminathan. Aspire, which has distributed more than 6,000 kits, plans to open three centres in Mumbai.
“Some 15 years ago, I would have advised parents not to burden their babies. But new research shows that from the second month, the child starts analysing things. Each bit of information adds to the connections between neurons in the brain and increases intelligence. Earlier the neuron connections, the better,” says Chennai-based neurosurgeon Dr Rangarajan Jyothi.
Shylaja Madaye, a housewife in Mumbai who started training her eight-month-old twins Ishan and Aadhya last week, says their attention span is a problem. Lakshmi Chandrasekhar, a young mother from Thiruchi, encourages Madaye: “My three-year-old son C Ashwath had the same problem when I started MSB. But now he forces me to play the flash cards.” Ashwath can identify more than 20 scientists, looking at their photographs.
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