Actually I told myself that I wasn’t going to do a book review for this one. Just type the key learning points and recycle it.
My learning mechanism renewed my appreciation for “The Self-Motivated Kid”. If “Peak” is the book I enjoyed reading the most this year, then “The Self-Motivated Kid” is the book that made me learn the most.
As a self-respecting teacher, of course I know about the prefrontal cortex and the brain’s neuroplasticity. This book, however, made me realise that there is so much about the brain that I am completely clueless and ignorant about. Stuff like this:
- Brain-derived neurotropic factor (BDNF) is released when we focus wholeheartedly on one thing and/or indulge in active play. BDNF happens to be a key chemical needed for neuroplasticity, so if I suck it up and pick up my son 15 mins earlier to facilitate his running amok at the playground, his cerebellum will grow mightily. Now, one’s cerebellum is responsible for language processing, so if I want him to be as adept at languages at me, the best thing I can do for him is to enable his playing mode. And train his concentration with stuff like Lego. And not multitask in front of him (now this is a tall order).
- Curiosity is a winning formula because it helps stimulate the caudate (responsible for knowledge and learning). Helping children sustain their curiosity is beneficial, for it aids in deepening neural pathways. Specifically, these tracks develop more dendritic connections (the path becomes wider) n become more myelinated (the path becomes smoother). Now, I know I sound intelligent, but it’s all from the book.
- Japanese researchers discovered that children enhanced their performance in a dexterity task when they were shown pictures of cute babies and animals and the like. Okay, I don’t doubt this result, but I wonder if it might have been influenced by culture. Japanese people are conditioned to like kawaii things from young, so viewing adorable pictures will put them in a positive mood and prime their minds for success. I guess I should try to create irresistibly cute images from Ideogram and see how my Singaporean kids will react.
Another reason why I feel compelled to type this review is that I realise all good authors make use of their insights on animal behaviour to comment on human nature. We have all heard about the Tiger Mum. Shimi Kang takes this one step further by expounding on how authoritarian, authoritative and permissive parents are Tiger, Dolphin and Jellyfish Parents respectively. In fact, the majority of her book is spent extolling the virtues of dolphins and how we humans can emulate them. Sensei is committed to learning more about animals so that he can weave pertinent insights into his writing.