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Master minds

PHOTO: K. ANANTHAN

BRAIN POWER THROUGH BEADS But children should not miss out on playtime

Once upon a time, there was a happy world for children with just school to go to, and the streets to play in after school. Formal learning ended at school, period. Life was simple, for kids at least.

Today, kids too are ensnared in the rat race. All parents want their kids to be super-achievers, and put them through abacus, speed math, vedic math, mental math, brain gyms, and whatever else. Whew! With so much on offer, parents are racking their brains trying to decide the right enhancement course for their kids. How does one make sense of it all? And do these programmes really work?

"Our programmes facilitate multiple intelligence development," says K. Swaminathan, Aspire, which has programmes not just for kids, but even for newborn babies! Huh? "Whether we work towards it or not, babies are constantly learning different things," he says. True enough. After all, babies learn their mother tongue (language), identify faces (visual), etc. "By giving more inputs in a structured way, we enhance the process so that learning even arithmetic becomes easy for the baby."

Consider the many abacus programmes. The premise is, during the mental arithmetic computation stage in abacus, the child uses both his left and right brain. "This gets the whole brain working at a great speed and activates the brain cells such that all the brain faculties would be at high performance levels," claims Basheer Ahmed, CMD, UCMAS.

"The abacus harnesses a different set of brain cells to achieve the same function - it uses visual ability to achieve mathematic function," agrees E.S. Krishnamoorthy, Director, Institute of Neurological Sciences, VHS Hospital, Chennai. "By learning any new skill, a child stocks up on his cognitive reserve, which is great for mental health," he adds.

But while cognitive ability (theory, language, arithmetic ability, abstract and visual understanding, etc) can be enhanced by programmes, one should not go overboard. "Parents need to make a balanced decision," insists Dr. Krishnamoorthy. A smart child may get smarter and an average child may become better, only if the child enjoys the process. "On the other hand, if the child doesn't gel with it, but is compelled to go through it, it becomes drudgery. The pile of extra homework, the consequent missed-out playtime, and peer pressure to perform would actually cause the process to backfire," he warns.

So, watch how your child reacts to a programme, and do not overload a child. And remember, children don't learn from formal classes alone. "A lot of informal learning happens through social interaction and just hanging out with friends," says Dr. Krishnamoorthy. For normal and healthy emotional development, this is absolutely crucial. So, do not sacrifice your kid's playtime.

There are many ways of enhancing a child's mental faculties.

"If a child is reasonably intelligent and quick-witted, it makes more sense for him to take up a game like chess, or puzzle solving which would increase his problem- solving ability. This is more important than just speed in calculation," suggests S. Anand, who holds a double engineering degree from BITS Pilani and an M.S. from the University of Connecticut, and now tutors aspirants to the IITs and intellectual Olympiads.

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