Left brained right brained and creativity

An interesting test on right brained and left brained learning (though they're positioning it as a test of creativity where creativity = right brained... not sure I buy that!).  But, the results are interesting as they break out different aspects of Left Brain and Right Brain...

http://www.wherecreativitygoestoschool.com/vancouver/left_right/rb_test.htm

Here's their description of Left Brained and Right Brained:
http://www.wherecreativitygoestoschool.com/vancouver/left_right/

Left brained aspects:

• Linear
• Sequential
• Symbolic
• Logical
• Verbal
• Reality-based

Right Brain aspects

• Holistic
• Random
• Concrete
• Intuitive
• Nonverbal
• Fantasy-oriented

These are in the order I tested -- interestingly, I was about 60% left brain, 40% right brain -- dominant linear LB but holistic RB -- so my approach is a linear parts to whole processing of pieces of information in a holistic manner -- yep, that about sums me up!

AND here's another link with an interesting blog post about using left brain and right brain tendencies in art -- how there's a place for both approaches.

http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/11/understanding-your-brain-for-better-design-left-vs-right/

Right Brained resources

A response to a friend who said they were in the totally frustrating, "my son will never learn to spell and I've probably screwed up his whole life because I haven't figured out how to fix it" season of life.

My oldest (now 15) was at grade 1.4 to 1.6 spelling (Woodcock Johnson) until about 6th grade.  Then we did vision therapy for 40 weeks (a very long, very expensive period but that paid off 100-fold over) and he rose to grade 4.4.  Over the last few years he's slowly increasing and is almost at grade level -- though spelling is grade levels below anything else except for writing fluency (speed) which is about the same as spelling!

We got some great visual spelling techniques when we took vision therapy -- similar to how Dianne Craft approaches math -- each word is written out alone, with pictures around the letters if needed and color coded, and he would hold it up above his head, really picture it, close his eyes and spell it to me forward and backward.  Two or three times of doing that for each word and he had it.  Completely and forever.  Another thing they had us do was take turns coming up with a sentence (3 words or more -- "The black cat sat.") and we'd bounce a ball back and forth -- spelling the sentence forward and backward -- then bouncing the ball once for each letter but not saying the vowels or only verbalizing every other letter forward and backward -- much harder for me than for him!  But it gave him experience visualizing the whole sentence in his head.

His spelling has improved.  However, he depends a lot now on spell check.  And caps/periods he only gets if he's proofing someone else's writing -- can't see his own!

One of the major players in the right-brained/visual learner arena is inda Kreger Silverman. Her website is:
http://www.gifteddevelopment.com/Visual_Spatial_Learner/vsl.htm

Her book: Upside Down Brilliance:  The Visual Spatial Learner is absolutely great but very hard to get.  I got it from Interlibrary Loan.
http://www.amazon.com/Upside-Down-Brilliance-Visual-Spatial-Learner/dp/193218600X/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1295024560&sr=1-2

She's got a great 23-page summary of her approach with check lists at:
http://www.euronet.nl/~mjkbeeld/Upside-Down_Brilliance.pdf 

2nd best book with suggestions by topic area (math, reading, etc):
Right Brained Children in a Left Brained World
http://www.amazon.com/Right-Brained-Children-Left-Brained-World-Unlocking/dp/0684847930/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1295024629&sr=1-1

Some other great resources:
http://throwingmarshmallows.homeschooljournal.net/r-b-resources/

A yahoo group by Cindy Gattis from the mountains of NC who has several right-brained learners and is a big proponent of not trying to change our children, but to change the timeline (much easier said than done!):
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/homeschoolingcreatively/?yguid=1572768

And here's her blog - dig through it to find some resources like her collaboratively-based learning philosophy by ages, etc.
http://applestars.homeschooljournal.net/an-introduction-to-the-creative-right-brained-learner/

Hope that helps...

Local Diane Craft resources

A post on a local loop from the local homeschool store in Raleigh, NC:  The Homeschool Gathering Place:

If you heard Dianne Craft speak at NCHE conference in May, did not purchase her materials and are not regretting it, regret no more!!! HSGP is now carrying Dianne Craft materials. We have the following items in stock:

1. Biology of Behavior cd: detailed step by step nutritional guide to help improve behavior, learning "glitches" focusing issues, etc.

2. Brain Integration Therapy Manual: easy to use at home therapy program to help make learning easier by using your child's body to make brain connections.

3. Right Brain Phonics Reading Book: 20 minutes a day program that turns a word guesser into a word reader. Great for dyslexics.

4. Smart Kids Who Hate to Write DVD: Does your child seem lazy, sloppy, unmotivated? It could be dysgraphia, where the child has to use so much energy for the writing process that they are reluctant to even put pencil to paper. This DVD will help you identify a child with a writing glitch, dysgraphia, visual/spatial problems and more importantly, give ways as to how to correct them.

5. Teaching the Right Brain Child DVD: Does learning seem harder for your child than it should be? This DVD contains right brain learning techniques taught by Dianne Craft that teaches the child how to store information in long-term visual memory for maximum retention.

6. Understanding and Helping the Struggling Learner DVD: Use this DVD to find out the symptoms that a child presents when he/she is experiencing an information processing glitch and what to do about it.

7. Right Brain Multiplication cards: learn multiplication facts with right brain strategies.

8. Right Brain Phonics cards: Teach phonic sounds so they stick

9. Sight Words cards: Sight words taught using right brain strategies.


Thanks for letting us serve you,
Jim, Julia, Cally, Emily, Joyce, Mary Beth, Lynn, Kelson, Vicky, Kira, Beth,
Ashley, Elizabeth, Kathleen, Victoria, Kimberly, Royale

Right brained resources

Diane Craft has a lot of great ideas about homeschooling with ADHD kids and right brained kids -- with both techniques to use and more information about the why's of their brain functioning. You might want to check out her website: http://www.diannecraft.com and articles. You can also order recordings of her talks at the conference if they look helpful. I'm actually going on Friday and hope to hear some of her talks.

Her approach is that you want to give them all the skills and tools they need to get them to function at the same evaluation level.

Another person who's well known in this area is Cindy Gaddis (from eastern NC). She also has lots of great info and techniques but her underlying philosophy is that right brained thinking is no different than left brained thinking and therefore why should one even be looking at the same measurements.
http://applestars.homeschooljournal.net/

Karen Davis (Charlotte) has a great list of resources for right brained learners:
http://www.squidoo.com/Right_Brained_Learner
**** Go down halfway and watch the "Animal School" video if you haven't seen it before.

And last, a current business book on the future of right brained thinkers:
A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future by Daniel H. Pink

Vision Therapy/Right Brain websites

GREAT list of questions to screen for vision therapy (also an adult one)
http://www.cookvisiontherapy.com/childrens_screening.html

http://www.diannecraft.com/
(check out her articles -- one on different types of dyslexia)

http://www.visualspatial.org/udb.htm
(author is the Upside Down Learner)

http://www.arty4ever.com/right/brain.htm
Right brained state/capital cards

Right-brained Children in a Left-Brained World: Unlocking the Potential of Your ADD Child by Jeffrey Freed and Laurie Parsons.
(This is not ADD -- it's right brained-focus...)

http://www.giftedchildren.org.nz/national/article4.php