Right Brained Learning

Why It Matters If Your Child Is Right or Left Brained

Right brained learning doesn't have anything to do with saying being in your "right mind," and it isn't a contest that pits right brain vs left brain.

In oversimplified terms, humans have one brain, but it has different parts that control different things. For example, you might remember from school that the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body and vice versa. That's why if someone has a stroke on the left side of their brain they can't control their movements on their right side. People use both sides of their brain to gather information, then each side "talks" to the other (via the corpus callosum) to exchange the information and "file it away."

Experiments show that most children prefer right brained learning before entering school, but our educational system values logic and language over drawing and imagination. If your child prefers right hemisphere tasks, he or she may struggle with a traditional curriculum. Children who are right brain thinkers are often labeled ADHD. While it is true that all children who exhibit ADHD behaviors prefer right brain tasks, not all children who prefer right brain tasks show signs of ADHD.

Researcher and Nobel Prize winner Roger Sperry wrote about his research: "The main theme to emerge... is that there appear to be two modes of thinking, verbal and nonverbal, represented rather separately in left and right hemispheres respectively and that our education system, as well as science in general, tends to neglect the nonverbal form of intellect. What it comes down to is that modern society discriminates against the right hemisphere."

It is important to understand their is nothing bad about being this type of learner. In fact, there are many benefits. Since our educational system is set up for left brained learners, homeschooling is a great option if your child fits the RB learner description. As homeschoolers, we can even the playing field for our creative kids by identifying their strengths and using different teaching strategies to build those strengths rather than squelch them.

Leave the Right Brained Learning page and return to the HBD Home page