subject: Flash Cards For Kids And Right Brain Learning [print this page] In the early childhood till the age of ten or twelve, the brain of the child remains in a developing stage. Anything learned in the childhood remains with the child forever. During the initial learning stages, it is difficult for the child to understand and grasp everything that is being taught to him. The reason for this lack of understanding is inefficient learning capabilities developed in the left hemisphere of the brain of the child.
The possible impacts of early childhood learning include a positively enhanced participation rates in education and socially adjusted behaviors in schools and later life, and subsequently, a higher qualitative academic achievements with a secure future.
This quality of the right hemisphere of memorizing images and easily recalling the information learnt through them requires teaching strategies that employ images and visual aid for learning. This unique learning capability of the child explains the successful results of employing flashcards for early childhood education.
As explained, the child memorizes through the use of images and visuals; flash cards are the best way of providing knowledge in visual form. The flashcards are a set of cards that bear information on them in the form of questions and answers. A question is written on the front side of the card and its answer is written overleaf. Usually, flashcards bear historical dates, scientific formulas, spelling and vocabulary or any other subject that can be taught via a question and answer method.
By the use of flashcards, parents not only provide an easy learning way to their children but an interactive fun activity too. Flashcards are very effective; once the question is posed to the child through the flashcard, it makes the child recall its answer. It is especially helpful in developing a strong memory of the child. This activity of recalling is termed as "active recalling".
There are questions that often arise in the minds of the parents such as how to make efficient use of these cards? How often should they repeat the activity? What should be the interval between repeating the same kind of cards? And, once the child has failed to reproduce the correct answer, what should their reaction be?
Many systems have been developed by teachers and educationists in this regard. Most of these various systems employ the "space repetition" technique. In space repetition, a repeat interval of the flashcard is increased every time its answer is recalled correctly by the child. With the passage of time, as the child has perfectly learned most of the current cards in the system, new informative cards can then be progressively added to the card set.
It is for this reason that the use of flash cards for early learning among young kids is growing in popularity. Many researchers have encouraged the use of flash cards and other practical images to improve the learning capabilities of a child. As children grow older, they continue building up the right brain learning habits and store images, which can be easily recalled and used.
