sparkmygenius.com

Brain and Success Development

By Amy Price PhD
Somewhere in the world there is a child’s brain waiting to be salvaged. You have the power in your hands to change a destiny. With a few simple strategies and a little funding there can be answers. We can build it…You can help! You are invited to attend an art and media exhibit dedicated to brain development

Friday October 9: 6:30 opening, 7:30 – presentation by Dr. Gordon on The Brain Revolution, Creativity and Why Brain Development should be a Human Right.

Saturday October 10: Open Exhibition all day (10 am – 8 pm)

Sunday October 11: Open Exhibition all day (10 am – 8 pm)

Dr. Evian Gordon on his Brain Art: ‘Whilst there is a great deal about the brain that we do not yet know, the essence of what we do already know can be used to understand our behavior, as well as our sense of authentic Self and ultimately even influence the direction of human cultural evolution…… throughout my academic life and the past years in the corporate sector, I have always had an art life – painting metaphors of the Brain and Self (with symbols that reflect core brain dynamics). Where the testability of brain science ends, I have immersed myself in nonconscious speculations within my BrainArt, as part of a Brain Science – Brain Art Continuum.’

80% of profits from Dr. Gordon’s Exhibition on ‘Brain Art and Self’ will go towards funding The Brain Revolution Project (the other 20% will go to support the Nour Foundation’s initiatives). The Brain Revolution project serves to empower children around the world with ideas and ways to train their brain for Self Mastery. The overall goal of the project is to contribute to Brain Development being a Human Right. Click here for more information on how to participate and directions

Other material by Dr Price can be seen at Traumatic Brain Injury Centers Remember “A mind is a terrible thing to lose” You can be an answer!

On October 20, 2007 I was invited by the Florida Special Arts Center www.flsac.org. to address an audience of several hundred persons invited to view a new documentary called Bridging to Gap: A True Lesson in Humanity.

Let me tell you the story of this documentary.

The parents of three special needs young adults designed a “color guard” program for “developmentally disabled” young adults. Now if you are wondering what a color guard is, modern color guard is defined as “a combination of military drill, also called marching, and the use of flags, sabers, mock rifles, shields and other equipment, as well as dance and other interpretive movement.” It is typically seen in parades or halftime events. Until now it has never been part of the special needs world. Now, thanks to the vision of Jerry and Ellen Kleinert-Cohn, it is.

Anyway, the color guard, now called the Special Needs Color Guard of America, got invited to perform in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and the documentary tells the story of that trip.

Ellen Kleinert-Cohn put together a program to train these adults to perform at many local events. She even got them a chance to perform at the Winter Guard International (WGI) Color Guard World Championships.

I was invited to speak at the screening of Bridging the Gap. Here are some excerpts from my speech.

“Martin Luther King had a dream of freedom. Ellen Kleinert-Cohn and Jerry Cohn have dream of inclusion, a dream that children and adults with special needs such as developmental disabilities will be fully included as belonging. They understood that we all have special needs.
Lawrence of Arabia said “All men dream, but not all equally. Those who dream by night, in the dusty recesses of their mind, wake to find it was all vanity. But the dreamers of the day are dangerous, for they may act their dreams with open eyes and make things happen”.

Dr. King dreamed with open eyes. So do Ellen and Jerry.

I too dream with open eyes. I dream of taking the best of neuroscience research and combining it with great computer technology to ignite people’s sparks of genius. I dream of brain fitness centers where people of all ages “work out” to improve cognitive and executive function skills.

Today people between the ages of six and eighty-three come to Boca Sparks of Genius. They exercise their minds playing computer “games” specifically designed to improve their mental strength, stamina, speed, flexibility and balance and, of course, to spark their genius. We use the term “brainworksbetter” exercises, and each member receives a customized set of exercises. They are assisted by friendly, highly-skilled personal trainers who are passionately dedicated to the success of each member of our fitness community. Many members of the fitness center also “work out” on home computer to maximize brain functioning and peak performance.

I dream of hearing the sounds of success, joy, confidence and discovery as more people around Florida, the country and the world discover, ignite and express their unique sparks of genius in a fun-filled, challenging, supportive, gym-like environment.

I see them all overcoming limitations, defying labels and breaking boundaries with their awesome accomplishments.”

–Dr. Rohn Kessler, Ed. D.

There’s a great story about a child with Down’s Syndrome who by the age of three was walking, running down ramps, climbing up slides, saying about 1,000 words, a bunch of short sentences, and following three-step requests.

His mother was pleased with his progress, but not the director of his program, who said “Sure, he’s a cute little guy and he’s doing nicely, but he could be doing so much better. You need to push him beyond his comfort level.”

http://www.aish.com/spirituality/growth/Going_the_Extra_Mile.asp

The director was referring a very intensive brain development program to improve vestibular function. Vestibular function includes coordination and balance skills to jump, hop, skip, and run. The child is put in an anti-gravity device with a harness and swung, flipped, cart-wheeled, rotated in all directions.

It seems the child loved this activity, but the director said “He shouldn’t be laughing and enjoying himself while being flung about like that.”Think about it. You and I would be throwing up after three minutes of those acrobatics. The fact that he’s enjoying it means his brain isn’t getting it. His cerebellum is not yet growing and developing enough to reach the kind of coordination and balance he’s going to need to function normally. You need to intensify the swinging, up the ante to the point where he’s a little uncomfortable and apprehensive. That would be a good sign.”

The mother said “I don’t know much about brain development, but as a parent trying to maximize her child’s potential, it made sense. Just as your muscles don’t develop if you don’t work up a sweat, lift weights and push yourself, a child’s brain needs to be pushed beyond its comfort level in order to create new circuits and neuro-connections.”

A few weeks later her son disliked the intensified version of the swinging routine and started complaining. The mother called the director and asked if she should stop it or slow it down.

“Stop it? No! That’s wonderful news!” the director said. “Keep the swinging at that level — that’s perfect.” He explained that her son was starting to grow new vestibular connections in his brain.

“You guys are doing a great job. And you know what,” he added, as if to impart a wonderful secret, “the more effort you put in, the more your son will develop and function as a regular kid. There’s nothing stopping him. It’s all up to you.”

The mother ends the story by bringing up an important point: to help their children develop their full potential, parents must stretch and flex their spiritual muscles as well as physical muscles.

In doing so they become much more humble, patient, grateful and wise.

We see this often at Sparks of Genius (www.sparksofgenius.com). Personal Trainers at our brain fitness center teach children and adults to overcome labels and move beyond limitations decided by others.

Just as the director was raising the bar higher and breaking the child’s comfort barrier, he was pushing both parents to go beyond their own self-imposed limitations.

Many are taught that if you can’t go over, you go under. We teach that if you can’t go over- you go over.

–Dr. Rohn Kessler

Musical intelligence has been defined as the ability to think in sounds, rhythms, melodies and rhymes. At Sparks of Genius www.sparksofgenius.com we use a variety of musical software and experiences to optimize brain functioning in children and adults.

Nine years olds use an ear training game called “Pitch Invasion.” Teens play violins and flute. Adults sing along to old favorites like “Home on the Range” on an electronic keyboard.

We also encourage students young and old to take advantage of the brain benefits of whistling, humming, singing and dancing.

There is a study by Daniel Amen in Making a Good Brain Great about the effects of music and meditation on the brain.

Link here.

Kritan Kriya is a 12-minute meditation based on five sounds: saa, taa,naa, maa and aa. Meditators chant each sound as they consecutively touch their thumb to fingers two, three, four and five. This is repeated out loud for two minutes out loud, two minutes whispering, four minutes silently, two minutes whispering and two minutes out loud.

Afterwards, brain images called SPECT showed:
1) Marked decreases parietal lobe activity – less awareness of time and space
2) Increased pre-frontal cortex activity –facilitating inner awareness
3) Increased right temporal lobe activity – associated with spirituality.

Music is processed in the right temporal lobe – also called the “G-d spot” of the brain. No wonder it can increase spirituality. Of course it depends what music you listen to!

When faced with a difficult problem, Dr. Amen recommends playing music. He notes that music helped Thomas Jefferson write the Declaration of Independence. When his writing got stuck, Jefferson played his violin to get the right words from his brain onto the paper.

Playing the violin also helped Albert Einstein solve complex problems.

At age 60, I was given a great present- an electric violin. When my brain gets stuck from too much multitasking in this crazybusy world of ours, I play different styles of music and learn new ones. Believe me, sparking musical intelligence benefits brain fitness.

Whether you sing, dance, hum, whistle, meditate or play an instrument, we can conclude that if you want to make your good brain great, exercise your musical intelligence. There are so many ways to do it. Have fun!

–Rohn Kessler, Ed. D.

My friend’s son has Aspergers and wants to be a singer. The problem is it’s hard not to cringe when he sings. It is very soulful and when I listen to him I wonder if he isn’t into some kind of more evolved singing and the rest of us just can’t get it. I’m reminded of an old Twilight Zone for those less aged than I am, it was a popular science fiction show in the fifties) In this episode a woman is horribly deformed and has plastic surgery after plastic surgery. We await the results of the most recent attempt. The camera cuts to the woman in bandages, then pans away and we hear the pitying voices of the doctors bemoaning the surgery as a failure. The camera focuses on the woman who is drop dead gorgeous – played by a popular model of the time. It is then that we realize that we haven’t seen the faces of anyone, and that the doctors all look like pigs. I wonder if this isn’t a lot like living with Aspergers.

Tonight on NPR I heard an interview with Tim Page, a Pulitzer Prize winning music critic for the Washington Post with Aspergers. Robert Siegel was interviewing him because he had written a description of what it was like to grow up with Aspergers in the New Yorker Magazine. He called the article “Parallel Play”. He felt that the Aspergers led to a lifetime of “restless isolation” because he couldn’t connect with others in “normal” ways.

He said Aspergers was “a different way of processing information.” He was “obsessed with detail, with music and with old photographs. Throughout his life he has possessed an extraordinary memory for facts and data. However, he was oblivious to most social things and had to read Emily Post to learn how other people related to each other. Although he was praised for thinking outside of the box, he admitted that he often couldn’t even find the box.

“Aspergers is something that you never get over, but you learn to live with it.”

Tim Page has lived well and is an inspiration to others.

To hear a podcast of this story please go to:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12750745

Ninah Kessler, LCSW
Life Coach

Tell them to Think of Their Brain as a Muscle

Research shows that students do better in school when they are told they can get smarter by training their brains to get stronger— like a muscle.

Article here.

Does your child see intelligence as something fixed or something expandable?

Students who think intelligence is fixed become preoccupied with whether they look smart or dumb. They also tend to avoid difficult tasks. |Not good!

But students who believe they can develop and expand intelligence usually like being challenged. They try harder, are more persistent and worry about making mistakes and looking dumb. This is good.

In one experiment of 12 year old students with similar math achievement scores, those with a fixed mindset did worse in math than those who were taught that the brain is a muscle. And, the gap between the two groups widened over the years.

Carol Dweck, a psychologist and researcher at Stanford University said:

“We taught them that the brain forms new connections every time they applied themselves and learned,” she explained. “It gave them a new model of how their minds worked, and how they had control of their brains and could make it work better. The idea is to free them from the tyranny of fear of looking dumb. The name of the game is learning.”

Students need to understand that their intellectual potential is not fixed. So do parents and educators.

Some games that exercise the brain to get stronger can be found here.

Moreover, there are many ways to be smart that are undervalued in school and at home—so-called multiple intelligences.

Students at Sparks of Genius learn that their brain forms new connections when they work hard to learn and learn. They also learn how to take full responsibility for learning buy controlling their mind and their brain to work better.

Sparks of Genius personal trainers use a high tech (software) high touch (character development) formula to help students train their brain for success

We identify, ignite and nurture many intelligences. It’s a great way to increase student achievement.

To learn more about your child’s learning potential

fill out the FREE 39-Point Learning Assessment now. http://sparksofgenius.com/screens.html.

Dr. Rohn Kessler