Creative Play (continued)

Creative play is based in the right hemisphere of the brain. To emphasize the importance of developing the right hemisphere, let me share a story with you. I know an 83 year old woman, who we'll call Rosy. She was mean, rude, pushy, and selfish, but very good at mathematics. She had a high functioning left hemisphere, which processes language, numbers, etc. In April of 2008 she had a massive stroke to the left side of her brain. She couldn't talk at all for about six weeks and was in a nearly comatose state, able to communicate only through small nods and some hand movements. Her right hand and arm didn't work correctly anymore. The doctors told her, and her daughter, that she would probably never speak correctly again. Rosy came to visit me about two and a half months after her stroke. She'd been doing therapy and had gained some of her speech back but, as expected, she spoke like a two year old and left out many small words, like "an" or "the", while unable to express herself with others. She kept asking me for a sheet, for her numbers, “A book”, she said, “with lines. For my numbers. I need do numbers.” Even though she'd always been rude to me, it broke my heart to see her struggle in such a way. After ten minutes of asking questions and getting two to three word responses, I figured out that she wanted accounting sheets (she'd been a C.P.A.). I told her daughter where to get them and then suggested that she also get children's books, starting with pre-school books, and read them everyday. I'll tell you the rest of the story on my next blog post (and, of course, eventually connect it to creative play for your children).