Concentration, Listening Ability, Memory And Recall, Why And How Are They So Important

05Oct

At a first glance the four qualities mentioned in the title of this blog doesn’t appear that significant but let me assure you these four or I may say the lack of them is the prime cause behind the most common problem we come across in the academic performance of kids. In layman’s language, it is said that the child is poor in studies; technically we can term it a result of lack of concentration, poor listening ability & memory and weak recall.

Interestingly these four are interconnected with each other and the right or the creative hemisphere of the brain is responsible for them.

We often say that a child is not focusing on studies or diverts attention a lot while studying. Do we really know that this is actually because of a lack of concentration which actually has a scientific reason and is not being done voluntarily by the child?

The human brain is a very intelligent organ and if not focused or we can say concentrated on one place, work or task, keeps engaging itself automatically. For example, if a child is studying and is concentrating or focusing only 50 % of his brain, the remaining 50 % of his brain starts engaging itself automatically into other thoughts. Thus the child is only able to utilize 50 % of his brain and in common language; we call it diversion of focus. This lack of concentration leads to other connected issues like poor listening ability.

While listening is a process that primarily involves the auditory organs like ears, lack of concentration actually leads to poor listening ability despite having no issues in the auditory system. When the child is not concentrating in the class, they automatically are not able to listen what the teacher is saying or teaching as due to lack of focus whatever they hear is actually not processed in their brain.

Having a poor memory is also one thing that largely affects the academic performance of the child as the same is directly related to recall. Only and only if a child is having an excellent memory, he will be able to recall during the examinations whatever he has learnt. A most common problem in kids is not remembering what they have learnt which is the reason for losing marks in exams.

These four important traits actually directly affect the academics of the child and interestingly the creative or the right hemisphere of the human brain is responsible for all of them. In almost 90 % of individuals, the right hemisphere of the brain is predominantly less active resulting in poor concentration, listening ability, memory and recall.

Thankfully an interesting program is available that improves all of these qualities by activating the right hemisphere and is known as Abacus. An ancient calculating device used for doing calculations when used by a defined process through structured course content results into the complete brain development of the child by activating both the hemispheres. Abacus specifically works on improving the concentration of the child leading to improved listening ability. Kids doing abacus develop a photographic memory and can memorize and remember anything and everything like as if a photograph is imprinted in their brain. This actually results in an improved recall as everything they study remains imprinted in their brain which they can refer whenever required.

That’s the reason why against the popular belief that abacus is a math improvement program the fact is that Abacus if done properly through a correctly structured course and content results in an excellent improvement in the overall performance of the child.

As far as my information about the product is concerned one brand of Abacus that follows the Indian school curriculum of teaching and has a structured teaching methodology to deliver excellent results is Mastermind Abacus.