Learning Brain Busters Part III: Engage The Filter

We started this series by discussing strategies for leveraging the Pre-Frontal Cortex, The Thinker, in order to maximize learning potential. From there we learned the power of emotions and how to keep the Limbic System, The Reactor, from taking over to help your kids overcome frustrations and get back on track to learning success.

In today’s post of this series, I want to discuss a small but powerful part of the brain that you as parent and teacher have the power to significantly influence.

The Reticular Activating System

The Reticular Activating System (RAS) is located at the top of the spinal column in the brain. Approximately the size of your little finger, the RAS is a robust filter for your brain, sifting through the millions of bits of information your brain encounters to determine what is important versus what you can ignore.

Stop reading for just 10 seconds to do a quick test of The Filter at work in your brain. Focus for just 10 seconds on the screen. What images did you dismiss? What ads or images showed up that you didn’t even notice? What colors got lost in your determination to jump in and start reading? What sounds are going on around you right now that you blocked out in order to concentrate and digest what you were learning?

If you are like most, you feel pretty amazed at the information The Filter eliminated on your behalf empowering you to focus on the immediate task at hand.

Let’s just consider for a moment the power of this amazing processor. Designed to control where you place your attention, The Filter draws you to what you are interested in, whether that interest is good or bad. In addition, its programming is biased by your beliefs. In fact, it is wired to spot and/or seek out information that supports your beliefs.

Think about this in terms of teaching and parenting. What your kids believe about themselves becomes what they notice. If your daughter believes she is terrible in math, she will notice every time a sibling beats her in a verbal math problem and completely miss the time that she was able to answer 22 out of 25 questions correctly.

If your son tells himself he cannot write, he will sit staring at a blank page for hours unable to begin the writing process because he believes at his very core he cannot possibly write anything worth reading. Meanwhile he is likely to miss his own success when he was able to quickly draft a response to a question about a topic he felt competent to answer.

Your kids don’t only have to overcome their own self-talk. They are also strongly influenced by what you notice about them. If you have programmed your filter to think of your teen as a slob who doesn’t help around the house, you will notice every single time they leave the room without helping with the dishes (and you will likely point it out). If you believe your oldest has a bad habit of lying, you will catch every lie and miss the many occasions when the truth came right away. And because you take your role as parent seriously, you likely address that inappropriate behavior. But if you find yourself labeling them as “slob” or “liar”, you are actually programming their filter to identify themselves with those labels. You root them in the very issues you are hoping to help them overcome. Eck!

But take heart! You can leverage this powerful region of the brain to help your kids develop character, motivation, and academic success by just programming it to draw their attention to what is most important. Let’s take a look at some ways to improve your job as both parent and teacher.

4 Methods to Reinforce Our Parent Teacher Role

1. Character Development: Define the character you want to see your child develop. Then notice it and point it out every single time you see it demonstrated. A simple, “Wow! I am so proud of you for sharing!” or “Thank you for telling the truth. I really appreciate that you are honest,” goes a long way in programming your child’s Filter to look for opportunities to demonstrate that behavior again.
2. Positive Reinforcement:  Point out the successes. If your child is struggling with a particular subject or skill, you are likely already seeing discouragement and frustration. Why? It’s not just the struggle, it’s their Filter noticing every time they make a mistake. Help turn that around by pointing out every success and programming their Filter to see success rather than failure.
3. Tune in The Reactor: Be aware of what your kids feed The Filter in their brains. Remember, it will draw them to what they are interested in. If they (or we) are filling their minds with destructive ideas, behaviors, language, and other negatives, their filter will continually retune their attention to those things. And the more they pay attention to those things, the stronger the hold on them.
4. Pen is Mightier than the Sword: Have your kids write down their goals. Leverage the power of The Filter to teach goal setting. When your child sets a specific goal, their internal processor immediately goes to work figuring out how to accomplish that goal. Even better, it subconsciously identifies people or activities that will impact their ability to succeed. Why? Because this part of the brain supports their beliefs. So when they set a goal—and even better, when they write it down—their brain goes to work making that belief a reality. Now that’s powerful stuff!

The Filter is actually a powerful tool that we can use as both parents and teachers to help our kids develop into successful adults. But it takes commitment and it takes you deprogramming any negatives and taking special notice the positives in your kids. So take a moment and write down their strengths, the character traits you want to encourage and the incredible aspects of their personality that make them who they are. Then, look for opportunities to tell them how amazing they are at every turn possible.

Stay tuned for our next article “Leverage the Doer” that helps students and parents build their memory, habits, and more! Now live!

Read Part IV: Leverage the Doer