In case you haven't been following the blog, let me recap a bit. We've been reading about Rosy, who had a severe stroke to the left side of her brain and went from a grumpy, impatient woman to a patient, talkative, delightful woman within a matter of months. She'd been an discontented accountant her whole life and, once the left side of her brain didn't work, she found happiness (at 83)! Her story is a lesson for parents (read through the archives for her story). If your child is aggressive, mean, unempathetic and/or rude (like Rosy was before her stroke), then the child's left hemisphere of the brain may be developing quickly and the right hemisphere needs to be “fortified” through creative play. Creative play often uses both sides of the brain, which will give all children a feeling of success and comfort within the activities, but the right side of the brain must be used in order to imagine things. For example, let's say Mary has three children; twin five year old boys and a three year old girl. The boys are, of course, always picking on the girl. Mary needs the boys to understand why that behavior is harmful, not helpful, and how it will affect all of their lives in the future. The main problem is that children under eight years old can't project themselves into the future or understand abstract concepts, like empathy. Due to the developmental stage of their brains; they just don't have the capacity, or neuron structures, to comprehend abstract concepts like mechanized "time". Empathy, therefore, must be taught not as a concept, but as a behavior that leads to positive natural outcomes. Mary usually yells at the boys to stop, which they don't, and then she sends them into “time-out”, where they throw fits until they "tire-out". Once they regain their strength they go right back to bothering their little sister. Mary wants her sons to help and protect their sister, so, what should she do? We'll look at some creative play that will act as therapy and help re-direct the boys' behavior patterns in the next blog.