It’s A Left Hander’s World Too!

The world has been inquisitive, amazed and even scared of them. They have been looked upon as objects of curiosity. People never understood why they do things the way they do. The right handed population has always had the upper hand in life compared to the Left Handed.

Almost 10% of the people are predominantly left handed. About 1% of the people are ambidextrous i.e they use either hand for doing daily tasks.

In most civilizations and traditions across the world, the left hand has been considered the impure one or the unholy one. It has also been traditionally believed that the left hand brings bad luck. In India we never hand out or receive anything with the left hand.

Left handed children have often been accused of being clumsy and not being able to do things ’properly’. Quite frequently parents have tried to ‘rectify this defect’ in their child and forcefully ensure that the child uses the right hand. But the right hand for a left handed child is the left one.

The brain is divided into two hemispheres: the right and the left. The left brain controls the right side of the body and the right brain controls the left side of the brain. Research has proved that the functioning of the brain is to a great extent responsible for the handedness of a person. Left handed people thus usually have very active right brains.

Most babies begin to use both the hands simultaneously. It’s usually by the age of five that infants begin to show preferences for the use of their hands.  In most people where the right side of the body is the stronger side, inputs are taken from the right eye, the right ear and the rest of the right body and passed on to the left side of the brain. In left handed people it is seen that not only is their right brain more active, they are very comfortable with simultaneous, bi hemisphere processing of data.

There is enough research to prove that it not just the dominant side of the brain that affects the handedness of a person. A number of factors go into it like the genetics and the foetal development. Research is still trying to discover if the levels of testosterone in the womb at the time of foetal development has anything to do with being left handed as it has been noticed that among lefthanders, the majority are male.

So being left handed has more to do with genetics and brain dominance than evil and bad luck. The left handed child is not clumsy. He is a left handed child trying to manipulate things made for predominantly right handed people. From keyboard designs to door handles, to cars, everything is created for a right hander. The fact that left handers are more ambidextrous only displays the plasticity of their brains to adapt to situations. It has also been found that right handers are not as dexterous with their left one as are left handed people with their right one.

Being able to process data between both hemispheres faster and better, left handed people have an advantage in many areas of sport and learning. Research has shown that the top 20% of all Mensa members are left handed. It has also been noticed that left handed people are better at multi-tasking and yes, better at playing video games! They may be more visual based learners and hence far more oriented to follow the creative arts.

As parents you make a note of which hand is dominant in your toddler. Initially most children are ambidextrous and will soon figure out which is their own dominant hand. See what hand he uses to eat, pick up toys, write and paint.  Speak to the teacher at school so that your child is placed on the left hand side of a desk which leaves him free to be able to write.

While teaching your child how to tie shoe laces or bows sit in front of them and demonstrate. Thus they get the mirror image of what you are doing and thus is becomes easier for them to learn these skills. At the same time do not try to change too many things for the left handed child because, at the end of the day he has to navigate in a world which may not be so kind. But don’t at any time try to rewire his preferences. Left handed children learn how to negotiate a right handed world in their own way. In fact a typical qwerty keypad has 3500 words that can be typed with only the left hand while there are only 450 words which can be typed using only the right hand.

Encourage and motivate you child just in case he gets too hassled working out things for himself. Remind him that famous people like Mahatma Gandhi, Bill Clinton, Ravi Shastri, Charlie Chaplin, Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Mark Twain are all lefthanders.

August 13^th is the International Left handers day. 

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Mind your Music!

“Music makes me forget my real situation. It transports me into a state which is not my own. Under the influence of music I really seem to feel what I do not understand, to have powers which I cannot have.”  ~Tolstoy

Kangaroo Kids celebrated the 20th year of igniting human greatness with a live concert of the world renowned Buddhist nun and singer Ani Choying Drolma. The evening catapulted everyone present into a world of peace and calm. Almost everyone I met after the programme told me how they felt a sense of calm after the ‘satsang’ as Ani called it.

Music had proved to be a powerful change agent yet again. People came in with a million thoughts in their mind; about husbands, wives, office deadlines, exams, the rains and everything in general. But music changed them all. They went out happier people; calm relaxed and more focussed on their inner self.

While we agree that it is so vital to retain inner peace and calm in our otherwise agitated lives consciously how many of us as parents and teachers try to infuse music in the lives of our children?

Music has held man in her sway since time immemorial. Music represented happiness and joy. Festivals and celebrations are always associated with music. Entertainment relies heavily on music.

Music can be introduced into a child’s life very early. There are, in most cultures so many songs which are traditionally believed to have deep impacts on the child in the mother’s womb and many ‘to-be’ moms have spent their days of anticipation listening to these songs. Though such theories have not been scientifically proven, what scientists do agree upon is that if the mother enjoys the music she is listening to and is in relaxed state of mind, the unborn child benefits from that state of mind.

Children can be introduced to music at very early stages. Playing classical music while children are busy with any activity like feeding or playing is always welcome. Implicitly they pick up music. Music offers lifelong learning for children.

Children in the age group of 1 to 3 benefit if they are actively involved with music. They love to sing and dance and that’s why we see most preschools focusing on music and movement. Music gives them a sense of rhythm and there is a lot of brain development happening when they are clapping, tapping, shaking their head, marching and rolling to music. Music thus helps develop multiple brain and muscle activity and most of this learning happens unconsciously and does impact the subconscious mind of the child.

When we listen to music the brain is activated in varied areas. It does some computational tasks that help it wire and rewire itself in powerful ways. Research is yet to figure out how deep the impact of music is and how complicated the computations are. But scientists are pretty sure that the music you hear as a child influences your taste in music as you grow older.

Research also shows how music helps develop various skills. Music and math go a long way together. There is enough research to prove that training in music does help enhance the math skills of an individual. Music targets, among the varied parts of the brain, that particular area that deals with the development of math skills. Music will not help create a mathematical genius but will help develop the same part of the brain which is used to do math.

Learning to read and interpret music is as beneficial as learning a new language. While mastering the syntax and semantics of music new pathways are created in the brain. These then rework on existing pathways and get the brain to think and process differently .Thus music helps increase the levels of creativity in an individual.

There are simple ways of introducing music in the lives of children.

Pick out musical tracks that can play in the background when you read aloud to them. Pick and choose the song to the mood of the story and always play the same song when you read out a particular story. Though association children will link the song and the story and make multiple connections in their mind.

Infuse dance along with music. Ask your children to dance to the tunes. They could interpret the music in the way they want. They will develop a sense of rhythm, balance and coordination. The power of creating their own dance piece is very powerful and will keep their creative juices flowing.

Simple activities like creating a paper plate drum or a simple jaltarang will bring music and rhythm in their lives. Just pin up two paper plates together with a few beads or tiny pebbles inside them. You have a simple percussion instrument ready. Arrange a series of bottles or cups with varying levels of water. Hit notes on them with a metal spoon. Your jaltarang is ready!

Play music at home while you are doing your daily tasks. Playing music while you children are doing their homework or even playing boards games helps a lot. Soon you will have your children developing their own taste in music and wanting to play and learn music for themselves.


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