Although RBE in itself is a very interesting methodology, the math program takes the cake for being the most intriguing part of the course.
Remember the recent movie-Shakuntala Devi and her mind-boggling mental math capabilities since birth? Nobody had to teach her the basic rules of maths. Not just her, most of the great mathematicians, such as Bertrand Russell, could do arithmetic as small children. There are always these outliers who no matter how hard we try, we are just not able to fit them into the regular crowd. “They were born geniuses!”-We shrug our shoulders and move on.
While it’s true that ‘born geniuses’ are not your regular children, every regular child has the inborn capability to be a genius. We are undermining the human brain potential when we try to paint every child in the same colours.
"Children and genius have the same master organ in common-inquisitiveness. Let childhood have its way and as it began where genius begins, it may find what genius finds."
-Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton
Have you ever wondered how children can pick up anything and everything from their environment? The first 6 to 7 years, children are absorbing everything from their environment which will later form the basis of all their thoughts and actions. Children pick up languages without you having to “teach” them how to speak. Long before they begin to speak, their mind has started to understand words and bring them together in meaningful patterns. Similarly, your child can begin to read, even do maths if you give the right inputs to the brain.
Mathematical ability is a built-in function of the human brain.
Rapid, computer-like calculation is another characteristic of the high speed automatic process function of the right brain. Babies have a unique ability to perceive quantities in a manner that few adults can. If you show a baby a card with 59 dots on it, he will know that there are 59 dots on the card without having to count the dots. For most adults to know that there are 59 dots on the card, they would have to physically count the dots. Children lose this ability as they get older unless you help your child to develop the ability.
For most individuals, the limit to subitising is about 7. Beyond that, we’re usually making a guess at the quantity. Glenn Doman and Shichida believe that all babies have the ability to subitize any quantity but the ability is lost by the time they turn 3.
We adults have for so long used symbols to represent facts that we now perceive only the symbols and not the facts. While ‘7’ is a symbol, the actual quantity can be represented by 7 dots(or any other image) on a card. These can be arranged in any pattern-it doesn’t matter. What matters is that your baby will instinctively know that there are 7(not 8, not 6) dots.
Infants can be taught to recognise the number of dots on cards up to 100. Eventually they can learn the answers to complex arithmetic problems before they acquire any conscious understanding of mathematics.
You can teach a baby anything that you can present to him in an honest and factual way.
According to Shichida, many people have the misconception that infants’ intellectual abilities grow as they store memories through learning, acquire logical thoughts, and learn explanatory methods. However, when we see babies doing arithmetic easily which is not in their memory, such theories are proven wrong. Man’s brain inherently holds a “super-high performance computer function” which enables him to automatically manage sophisticated arithmetic at high speed. This process is something “pre-designed” in the right brain, not something learned. It functions without any relation to the memory system.
The ability to take in raw facts is an inverse function of age.
Benefits of the dots program-
A child exposed to the dots program naturally excels at math. Mathematics is no longer a dreaded, but an easy and loved subject. Numbers and calculations flow automatically for this child.
The program has a very positive effect on the physical growth of the brain and the product of that physical growth-what we call intelligence.
If you improve one function of the brain, you improve all functions to some degree
At Braintastic, we provide a comprehensive maths program.
For details, enrol in our home-based program for children aged 0-6 years. Contact us to know more.