Brain Body Connection: An In-depth Look at Ear Eight 身脑连结之深度讲解耳朵画八

Have you had the experience that when you talk to your kids, it feels like they don’t have their ears with them? Or when the teacher asks them to do something, some kids look like they didn’t hear it at all? Or they would nod their head or say “yes” but don’t really move? The first reaction to this is: this kid has an attitude problem and never listens! Or this is a strong-willed, self-centered kid! Some parents even had their kid’s ears checked by an ENT but found everything normal. Then what IS the problem?

您的孩子有没有这种跟他说话他像是没听见的情况？或者老师让他做什么，他根本不理？或者他们点头称是，但是其实根本没动？我们对这种行为的第一反应往往是：这孩子态度不好，不听话！或者，这孩子真任性，自我中心！有的家长甚至担心孩子耳朵有问题，带到耳鼻喉医生那里去检查，却发现耳朵根本没问题。那到底是哪里出了问题呢？

Developmental education experts and therapists such as Diane Craft discovered that, for a lot of kids with this issue, it is a brain-ear connection problem. The ear receives auditory information without any problem; however, it may not send all of the auditory info to the brain. The brain, on the other hand, may not process the auditory information correctly — sometimes the processing is partial and sometimes not at all.

以Diane Craft为代表的儿童发展专家和心理学家发现，很多有次问题的孩子其实是有身脑连结不到位的问题。耳朵接收到了声音信息，可是，有可能不是所有的信息都通过耳朵送到了大脑。大脑也不一定对听到的信息做了正确的处理。有的时候只是处理了部分信息，有的时候甚至完全没有处理。

Have you ever had the experience when you say “if you don’t do this, I will take your X privilege away” the child blows up in a full-blown tantrum? If you say similar things to an adult, they will not like it, but will probably stop the undesirable behavior. This is due to the fact that many little kids can only hear/process the following: (1) the last part of what is said; (2) the part that evokes the strongest feelings; and (3) the part that their attention is on. (This is why parenting experts recommend saying “when you do x, then you will have y”, which is so much better than saying it in the negative way.) Coming back to brain-ear connection, many children don’t really hear the whole entire message, let alone processing it.

您有没有遇到过，当您说“如果你再不做这个，我就禁止你的X特权”，年龄小的孩子会直接进入撒泼打滚的状态？如果一个成年人被告知了类似的话，他们虽然不喜欢听，但是估计会停止不合时宜的行为。这是因为小孩子只对下面几种声音信息更敏感：（1）最后说的那几个词；（2）让他产生最强情绪的那个部分；（3）他们不小心注意到的那部分。（这就是为什么专家建议不要用否定句说话，而是要用肯定句：如果你做了X，你就能得到Y）。回到耳脑连结，很多孩子并没有完全听到需要听到的信息，更别提处理这些信息了。

This usually happens to very young kids before school age. They are in their own little world and don’t process outside information that much. Most kids grow naturally out of this stage, while some kids need more intentional training. Kids who need training, if untrained, may get stuck with poor brain ear connection for much longer. They may miss a good chunk of what is caught in school, which may look like they have an attention problem, but is actually not.

这种情况主要是发生在学龄前的孩子身上。他们很多时候沉浸在自己的小世界里，并不会太多处理外界信息。很多孩子会随着年龄增长自然更注意外界信息。但是有些孩子则需要干预。如果不即时训练，孩子的耳脑连结可能会一直不太好。他们可能没听全课堂内容或者老师指令，就认为自己明白了。这看起来有点儿像注意力有问题，但是其实不是。

Schools teach kids based on the assumption that by school age, kids have already had age-appropriate brain-body connection. So, they are teaching higher order skills such as reading comprehension, essay writing, critical thinking, etc. If the kids have not mastered their brain-body coordination skills that are directly associated to their executive functioning skills and processing ability, those higher order academic skills are harder to gain no matter how much teachers, pareents and tutors work with them.

学校教育是基于孩子已经建立了适龄的身脑连结的。老师教的阅读理解、写作文、批判性思维，等等，都是如此。如果孩子还没有掌握与执行力有关的身脑协作能力，那些更高层的学习技能可能很难达成，尽管老师家长乃至私教都一直在不断地帮助他们。

This is exactly why this set of activities are designed. To train kids who need them the necessary brain-body connection to form the physiological foundation for higher order academic skills. Ear eight is specific to the brain’s ability to connect with and process auditory information. Again, the cross body movement is very important in training the left and right hemisphere of the brain to work together in processing and storing auditory information. When your kids are doing the exercise, make sure that the movement crosses their body.

这就是为什么专家们设计了这一套动作。为孩子的学习技能打下良好的生理基础。耳朵画八帮助孩子的大脑处理听到的声音信息。同时，斜挎身体的动作对训练左右脑连结也起到了重要的作用，以便帮助新技能顺利进入长时记忆。当孩子在做这一节的时候，请务必注意斜挎身体。

So, why crossing body? We need to take a look at how the two hemispheres of the brain works. Researchers found that the left brain is in charge of logic and short term memory, whereas the right brain is in charge of creativity and long term memory. We store what we learned temporarily in our short term memory and, with repeated and preferably pleasant experiences, what’s stored in short term memory in the left hemisphere will move into long term memory in the right hemisphere. The corpus callosum in between the left and right hemisphere, in which neurons connect with each other to form synapses, helps connect the two hemispheres. Language is processed first and mostly in the left brain. As a result, the cross body movements help the body-brain to physically make connections. However, the brain needs time to make these connections. This is why when doing these activities it is crucial to slow down, too.

斜挎身体有什么深层的愿意吗？我们需要看一看大脑的两半球是如何运作的。科研人员发现，左脑管辖逻辑思维和短时记忆。右脑负责创造想象和长时记忆。我们把获取的信息暂时存放在短时记忆里面。练习次数多了，练习中感到愉快，左脑就更容易把信息输送到右脑的长时记忆当中。胼胝体为于左右脑中间，如桥梁一样，把两半球连结起来。神经元在胼胝体建立和加强连结，形成突触。语言是首先和大部分在左脑进行处理的。所以，做斜挎身体的画八动作，可以帮助大脑建立连结。不过，大脑需要时间来建立连结。所以关键是要放慢速度，这就是为什么这些动作需要像慢动作镜头那样去做。下面请跟视频做耳朵画八。