Left Brain/Right Brain Dominant?

I still find it so amazing that we live in a time when many think bright children are that way only due to how their brains are wired. Well, I admit that to some degree they are right, but is there truly a child that would fit a left brain thinker or a right brain thinker?

As we watch Selena grow and watch her world evolve around her, we see this analogy a little differently. Many would place her as a left brain thinker. Yes, she is a thinker, a very deep thinker, very precise, in everything she does. It is funny to even watch her in her imaginary play, for example:

She loves to play barber shop with Papa. You know the first thing she has to do is wash his hair. Oh but she has to make sure the hoses are in the right place, so the water flows at just the right level, and temperature. She tracks her imaginary hoses up the wall across the ceiling over to our fire place, where her imaginary hose hooks up to. She twists the nob on the handle many times to both turn on the water as well as check it’s temperature, and watches to make sure the water is flowing through the hoses along the ceiling down the wall, to where Papa is waiting to get his hair shampooed. (Are you laughing yet?)

In everything that Selena does, imagines, or pretends there is so many small details that goes into her thought process, yet each one has it’s own touch of creativity. She sees so much detail in the beauty around her, from the stars at night to the clouds in the day. The simplest form of art can take on so much meaning to Selena. She doesn’t just sit and color in coloring books or draw a picture of a person or a house, but she creates the most in depth story plot that is going on in her mind at the time. The simplest drawing of Thanksgiving turns in to one of us dressed as a turkey having dinner with a hippo. Or a simple bowl of soup turns into a elaborate picture of noodles, twisting and twirling this way and that way.

Through observing her so closely it isn’t hard to see that for as strong as her left brain might be working towards the science of how things work, her right brain is working just as hard to bring out the beauty in everything she sees.

While maybe some people are more likely to be dominated by either the right brain or the left brain when it comes down to their abilities and the way they think or see things, but if one is to really look hard even in the best scientists or engineers we have, one can see where the right brain is just as strong in their creativity of what the left brain is thinking. Same with any artist or musician, if not for the left brain they wouldn’t be so precise with the paint strokes or musical notes.

To those who categorize people in such small boxes as left brained or right brained, I say step back and really take another look. Really observe the thought process that is taking place as they write music, play an instrument, or paint a picture. Look at how much creativity really takes place when an engineer designs a new building, freeway system, or a computer program. Truly both sides of the brain is used in everything we do, if not the greatest artists, scientists would only be sitting on a chair as a thinker with no motivation to get up and create.

When we look at our children we truly realize we need to exercise the entire brain, so what if they are not as creative as another child, or as good in academics. To only focus on just one part of the equation is truly giving our children a disadvantage. Some children are very good at combining both sides and making some real astounding results, we sure know that Selena can.

What do you think? Is there truly any truth to a left brain or right brain thinker?