How important is mental math during early childhood?
Young children are more biologically primed for learning than adults, as noted by Rima Shore in her study of early childhood brain development. In her book “Rethinking the Brain: What Have We Learned?”, Shore noted that:
By the age of 2, a toddler’s brain is as active as an adult’s brain.
By the age of 3, a child’s brain is 2.5 times more active than that of an adult!
Compared with an adult brain, a child’s brain has higher levels of neurotransmitters, which play an important role in the connectivity and flow of information in our brains.
Neurotransmitters remain high in the first 10 years of childhood.
Neurotransmitters begin to decline in puberty at a rapid pace!
From her study, Shore concluded that connectivity between neural networks is a crucial feature of brain development and that the neural pathways formed during the early years of life are the ones carrying signals that allow us to process information throughout our lives.
In other words, our mental capacity and learning ability in our later years are all dependent on the extent and nature of these biological connections that are formed in early childhood.
How then can we boost brain development in early childhood? The best way to do that is to expose children to activities that promote stimulation and integration of the left and right brain in their early years.
In an earlier blog post, we explained the differences between the characteristics of the left and right brain. For most adults, the left-brain is the dominant one – analyzing information, languages, etc. But the right side of our brain – responsible for creativity and imagination, should not be neglected as it also needs to be stimulated.
The simultaneous stimulation of the 2 hemispheres of the brain will help to boost overall brain development. Therefore, our focus has always been to develop both sides of the brain. CMA’s dual-hand 4-fingers abacus mental arithmetic is one such activity that engages both the left-brain (logical mind responsible for processing and solving numbers and analytical sequences) and right-brain (creative mind responsible for music, colours, images, etc…).
The result? Better concentration, improved memory power, and creativity. The earlier our children begin to train both their left and right brains, the earlier they would get to benefit, enabling them to think and learn well for life.
Having trained thousands of children over the years, we noticed that children learn best in environments that are fun and enjoyable. At CMA, our objectives do not only encourage children to achieve results; we also focus on creating a positive environment where learning can take place easily for them. Our teaching and training methods complement our objectives to enable our students to learn and train up their brain potential in fun and engaging ways that appeal to them.
If you could give your child the best of both worlds for a head start, would you? Start building your child’s brain potential here, or contact us if you would like to know more.
Credit : http://www.cma.edu.sg/blog/how-important-is-mental-math-during-early-childhood