Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Pre-school What's the deal on these "Right Brain" education p

What's the deal on these Asian "Right Brain" education programs for little kids?

I'm taking about "Makoto Shichida", Tweedle Winks, Memory Magic Accelerated Learning Games for Children, etc.

Seems like a bunch of Voodoo.

My kid's been reading since way before 3. So I'm not trying to get him to "accelerate" but he might like this quirky kind stuff.

Does it have any merit? is it bad for him?

thanks

Hi lex,

Okay, I haven't really heard of the programs you mention so I went to take a look and clearly these are right up there with "My Baby Can Read" or whatever that one is called. I don't put much stock into systems that force feed the knowledge. These programs seem to be a part of the movement of trying to give your child the leg up in the competition.

As for is it bad for him? Really depends. If the focus is only these programs and not leaving room for his creativity then IMHO it could be a problem.

Bottom line, for me anyway, is these are not programs that I would be interested in for my DD.

I do remember buying some Kumon workbooks when dd was about 2.5. The books were all about cutting with scissors, folding, and pasting. She could read the directions by then and loved those books. I finally got to sit down and do my own thing for a few minutes... DD hasn't turned out to be "gifted" at cutting, pasting, or folding. But, 6 years later she still remembers how fond she was of them and recently insisted we send new copies to her 2yo cousin.