Today we are continuing on with our review of Debi Pearl’s hot mess of a book on brains ‘Create a Better Brain Through Neuroplasticity’ Thankfully this chapter can quickly and easily be summed up because it’s all Debi telling lies about all the brain-building actions she took with her children to make them all so so successful. The last chapter is here.

All I can think of reading this chapter is this Ozzy Osborne song – Crazy Train. Worth watching because Ozzy sports an early 1980s mullet-esque hair do. Debi repeats many of her sketchy pieces of information on how music creates ten zillion new roads in your brain. She also claims that you can rewire/remap/reroute roads in the brain after stroke.

Yeah, about that. It might be partially true, but the jury is still out and the science not even established well yet. If you Google ‘rewiring your brain after a stroke’ you will find most of the pages of links about this lead straight to scammy sketchy medical clinics promoting their treatments. Like the one they took Michael to that used ‘stem cells’ for his stroke. Many of them cite this article out of Johns Hopkins last year that talks about the coming possibilities of rewiring the brain. It’s not established treatment yet. Scientists think it might be a developing drug to rewire your brain.

Established medicine likes to use treatments that work, like reducing blood pressure, or thinning too thick of blood, reducing cholesterol. But they also like using physical therapy, not weird brain treatments, immediately after a stroke. PT has been shown to help as long as they start it very soon after the stroke. It’s why I was encouraged to read, read, read on my Ipad during and after mine. My vision was affected, and reading would help with brain connections.

The rest of the chapter is Debi bragging on how she made her children outstanding, exceptional, uber-mensch individuals by her constant ‘training’ of them. She goes as far as claiming by using noises, or clicks, she trained her babies to go potty on the toilet right after they ALL started walking.

What Debi does not discuss here is how the many things she is claiming to train are not well affected by training, but are more about developmental milestones, no matter how much mama might want to stop diapering it’s not happening until the physical development is there. Experts agree that 18 months old is about the youngest this might happen. A lot of kids walk well before that!

Debi goes on to explain she trained one of her daughters to deal with her own dyslexia by using sand table play. Which likely just means she beat said child until they hid their dyslexia from Debi.

Then we arrive here, a familiar place in Pearl World.

“Cell phone use or excess viewing of small screens can disrupt development of peripheral vision. The lack of normal peripheral vision is a handicap that can often be avoided.”s

and this…

“When children are allowed to disengage from society and spend hours focused on a digital screen, their brains are being left idle. The offensive noises, and psychedelic, flashing colors that emit from the screen are unhealthy……Brain cells cannot be produced in a brainless entertainment.”

Yes, let the festival of cell phone and tablet bashing start! It’s followed with idiotic claims that watching “Sponge Bob Squarepants” Debi claims that a experiment involving watching “Sponge Bob” versus a PBS show, or drawing showed that after a mere nine minutes kids lost the ability to focus or remember. She cited a journal I was unable to find.

“It is crucial to understand that a child’s intellect, as well as his soul, will not develop into anything more than what is poured into him.”

Debi calls “Sponge Bob” the “Cheetos of mental food.” then claims kids that watch cartoons all end up obese. I guess because they aren’t fed animal feed and that makes Debi sure they’re getting fat.

For giggles Debi shames mothers by claiming that your own moods that stop your kids brains from developing.

I find her bashing of all cartoons, but most especially “Sponge Bob Squarepants” pretty funny. Do you know what my husband used in his teaching Costa Rican five and six year olds English? “Esponga Bob”, a program to teach English to native Spanish speakers of a very young age by using “Sponge Bob.”

Those kids weren’t stupid or warped. My kids are grown, more successful than any of Debi’s offspring, yet they all watched “Sponge Bob.” Deb, this is not a hill you want to die on this early in your dumb book.

I think about all the good, brain-building content, available out there in the digital world. From memory improving games to cartoons that teach kids how to code and I laugh! Great, now I have the “Sponge Bob” theme song stuck in my head, thanks Debi.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Part 5

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