Skip to main content

Playing With Yo-Yos Bolster Creativity and Mental Alertness

The traditional toys and children's games have already lost their appeal to the latest generations of kids who have grown up playing video games on Wii or Xbox. They also learned to depend on computers and mobile devices, such as smartphones, laptops and electronic tablets, when communicating with friends or family and when looking for easy answers to difficult questions raised during their classroom discussions. In effect, the new generation of kids currently fail at showing some resourcefulness and creativity in their studies. It seems the loss of traditional toys and games, like hopscotch and playing with yo yos, has a profound effect on our children's intellectual, emotional and social development.

Yo yos, in particular, may have a significant effect on a child's cognitive development according to Datuk Dr. Mat Saat Baki, a clinical psychologist based in Kuala Lumpur. He further explained that playing the yo yo uses both the left and right sides of the brain, specifically those areas mainly responsible for maintaining mental concentration, for managing eye-hand coordination, for processing creativity, and for developing manual dexterity. The left side of the brain is mostly responsible for semantics and rational thinking as well as other cognitive processes involving linear, sequential, and logical concepts. Meanwhile, the right side of the brain primarily serves as the center for creativity, intuition, and abstract thinking.

Like in playing chess, playing with yo yos develops the individual's ability to concentrate or focus on a task, such as performing the exact sequence of moves that will precisely leave the spinning yoyo head hanging within the central space inside a pyramid-shaped frame made by looping and stretching segments of the yo yo string. An enhanced ability to focus one's attention and concentrate all of one's thoughts into a singular task is a major advantage. These people most likely excel at their jobs or in their studies because they pay more attention to details and possess deeper knowledge of their profession and the industry wherein they're currently employed.

Playing yo yos requires the person to develop a variety of skills, to adapt quickly to new ways of performing tricks, and to improvise while performing to produce the same result in fewer steps possible. Most players like to share tips and tricks with their fellow yo yo enthusiasts. Their use of lingo in describing specific moves or naming their tricks represent neural activity in their brain's left hemisphere where the area for language comprehension resides. These regular exchanges between yo yo players provide the right venues for kids to develop their social skills. Moreover, a healthy competition between players begets mutual respect for each other and also creates a sense of kinship within the community of players whether young or old.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Skin Care Benefits of Using Sulfur Soap

A sample of sulfur (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Despite its acrid smell, a bar of sulfur soap brings many health benefits to your skin through its antiseptic, anti-fungal and antibacterial qualities. In olden times, individuals had to take a dip in sulfur-rich hot springs located at a distance from an active volcano. Spas often appeared around these areas to provide patrons privacy and comfort while they visited the pools of heated water and sulfur. Many people frequented these places because the hot water therapy soothed their aching muscles and the sulfur healed their skin problems, such as acne vulgaris, whiteheads, blackheads, eczema, rosacea, scabies, and seborrheic dermatitis. Now, sulfur's cleansing properties are packaged neatly in soap bars. The ten percent sulfur content in the soap has enough potency to effectively produce the same effective results as dipping your whole body in a pool of sulfur-rich hot water. Like in the ancient times, use sulfur soaps to reme

How Do You Treat Scalp Acne and Scalp Dermatitis?

A case of Seborrhoeic Dermatitis on the back of the head (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) If you suffer from pimples on the scalp, then it's important to find a good scalp acne treatment. They're ugly, painful, and irritating. We can't see them ourselves so we pick them often by scratching our scalp before knowing they're there. Scalp wounds tend to bleed and this can make the spots visible, especially if your hair is thinning, fine or very short. Most acne on the scalp has the same cause as acne on the face, that is, overproduction of sebum leading to blockages of hair follicles, which often become infected. Inflammation can be caused by a condition called seborrheic dermatitis , and this, together with oily skin, is what you have to go along with scalp acne. What happens is the scalp will be red and itchy and the skin will flake off as dandruff. Associated with the condition of seborrheic dermatitis and more serious cases is yeast and it's someti

A brief vacation

I have just got back from UP Diliman for a week of respite. I had training for trainers at UP SoLaIR (School of Labor and Industrial Relations). It was a working vacation. At least I had time to slow down and not think of work for a few days. It was good! Really felt good to be taken cared of by the University Hotel staff.