Shichida Method™

Shichida Method™ - revolutionary brain training hits the UK

It started in Japan over 60 years ago, quickly spread to 300 locations across Asia – and has now hit the UK. The Shichida Method™ of ‘brain-training’ is fast becoming the way to develop creative and intelligent young minds. The aim is to nurture wellbalanced children who can use their whole brains efficiently.

Vandana Prasad and Shraddha Tekurkar are the Executive Directors of Shichida UK, which has its headquarters in Reading. They advocate ‘bringing out the genius in every child’ through the unique activities and exercises practised under the Shichida Method™. Their weekly classes are already such a sell-out success they are now looking to recruit more trainers, and roll out the programme across the country.

Vandana and Shraddha who completed their Shichida Trainer Certificate in Japan, explain the key reasons for starting early: “Our youngest class is for six-month olds. At that age, babies have a huge thirst for knowledge and an incredible ability to retain information. By the age of six, our brains are already 80 per cent formed. Mainstream education is focused on the left brain – the rational and the logical centre. It neglects the other side of the brain which is linked to colour, shape, imagination, empathy, memory and language acquisition. The Shichida Method™ is about stimulating the whole brain and sparking the neural connections between both sides.”

They recently celebrated their first anniversary with an event attended by parents, the Mayor and Mayoress of Reading and the family of the Japanese founder, Professor Makoto Shichida. In an exclusive interview with Families magazine, son of the founder, Mr Ko Shichida President & CEO Shichida Japan, said: “The Shichida Method™ is about making children selflearners, and equipping them with the skills to excel in all areas of education. The ages between 0 and 2 are the most important in the brain development. At that point, the right side of children’s brains are dominant, so capturing that window and drawing out the hidden abilities they possess is incredibly powerful. It gives them the potential to be great musicians, mathematicians, athletes – whatever they choose.”

Mrs. Mayumi Shichida, Vice President Shichida Japan, added: “The human brain is such that whatever skills we do not use in infancy are lost. We are born with remarkable abilities that are often overlooked. The key is to make it fun – if children are not having fun, it is not working. The education system gives children a lot of knowledge. Shichida provides the skills so you can process that knowledge yourself, and make all the necessary connections.”

The success stories are remarkable. For example, children under two who attend regularly have a large vocabulary, can complete simple addition, recognise numbers up to 50 and count in fives and tens. Classes run weekly and are divided into age groups from babies to preschoolers. Numbers are kept small at four to six children per hourlong class, and parents are encouraged to be involved and continue the work at home.

The founders claim that the combination of activities, pitched at exactly the right level, lead to photographic memory skills, computer-like calculation capability, multi-language acquisition ability and more. Activities range from work with numbers and letters, to music and story time, and from critical thinking and memory games to image play.

Shichida’s reputation means that parents like Michael and Lachin Harvey make three-hour round trips to attend. Their son, Miles, has been attending classes for almost a year starting just a few days after he turned one. Michael said: “I began to research the Shichida Method™ shortly after Miles was born. It is totally unique, and I became convinced that it would give him the best start in life. I’m a firm believer in the power of imagination and classes have definitely developed his ability to play on his own, and his fascination with everything he comes across. His language acquisition is good for his age – especially considering

he is already tri-lingual – and he is very musical. We spend 30 minutes every day with him at home working on the exercises that we have been given in classes. We really value that parent / child bonding. When he starts school, we feel confident that he will be ready and will reap the benefits from the foundations that are being laid now.”