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Babies get early start on the right track

The Young Reporter (2007, November), 40(03), pp. 10.
Author: Carine To. Editor: Jenny Zheng Jialing.
Permanent URL - https://sys01.lib.hkbu.edu.hk/bujspa/purl.php?&did=bujspa0015785

By CARINE TO

The famous scientist Albert Einstein once said, “when I am thinking of a question, I do not use language, instead, I use feelings and images first.” This is a typical description of how the right brain works.

Our right brain, which is well known to be sensitive to images and sounds, is crucial to thinking in terms of images. It is generally believed that the right brain is only active while we are very young. A new kind of education — exploiting the right brain — is now being offered to parents who want their children to have a prosperous future.

“Babies remember things by memorizing a whole picture, just like taking a photo; that's why they can recognize a face so easily,” said Mr Thomas Ho, the school supervisor of KinderU. “However, we lose this ability after six, when the left brain starts to dominate our thinking, so an adult usually remembers some characteristics of a person, but not the whole face.”

KinderU is one of the associations providing preschool education in foreign languages in Hong Kong, and all its study programs are based on the theory of early right-brain development. One of its programs is designed to teach four-month-old babies foreign languages like French and Putonghua.

According to Mr Ho, in KinderU, native-speaking teachers give a 45- minute lesson to babies accompanied by mothers. In order to help babies to memorize and learn the words, the teacher shows word cards and flashes these cards very quickly in front of the babies while speaking the word. Singing foreign language songs is another way to help babies to learn foreign languages.

Mr Ho said that besides the study session, they also provided a baby massage session to help the babies to relax and have a better absorption of what they had learned.

“Babies can remember seven photos in one second. Speaking out the words helps them remember the words more easily,” added Mr Ho, “and a massage session with mother can help them to relax and lead them to a complete development.”

Mr Ho thought it necessary for babies to develop their right brains as soon as possible because it was generally believed that when a child reached six, his thinking ability of the right brain started fading out, while the left-brain started to play the active and dominative role.

. So we usually cannot remember clearly what happened before six, but those memories are stored in our unconscious mind,” Mr Ho said, “if we don’t know how to recall things in the right brain and keep on using it, our memories in right brain will become blurred.”

Mrs Leung Pui-kwan, a 32-year-old mother, delivered her baby two months ago. “I heard that these programs could help babies to learn English and exploit the faculty of memory in the right brain. I hope my son can have a better foundation so that he will not have to study too hard in the future.”

“I know I cannot guarantee the result and I do not want my son to become a genius. I just want my son to have a happy childhood with less burden in studying,” added Mrs Leung, “I know nowadays even primary students have study pressure.”

Ms Lam Wing-yan was a graduate of The Hong Kong Institute of Education and majored in English. She said that it was inevitable that parents tried their best to exploit their children's studying potential.

‘These babies will be studying in the 3-4-4 system, and they will face only one exam to decide if they can enter university, Ms Lam said. “Parents will put more effort to help their children to study because they have to prepare for the exam for nearly 20 years. They will be facing greater pressure than ever before.”

Programmes designed for babies in their first to fourth months cost $300 for each hour-long lesson for a baby with one parent attending, excluding the cost of teaching materials used for daily practice.

Edited by JENNY ZHENG JIALING

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