Strategies for helping bright, quirky, socially awkward children to thrive at home and at school.

Does your child:
• Have impressive intellectual abilities but seem puzzled by ordinary interactions with other children?
• Prefer to spend time with adults or alone rather than with other kids?
• Have deep, all-absorbing interests or seemingly encyclopedic knowledge of certain subjects?
• Seem uncomfortable with unstructured play or social engagements?

If you answered “yes” to some or all of these questions, you may be raising a left-brain child. Bright, eccentric, and socially awkward, these are children whose talents and inclinations lean heavily toward the logical, linear, analytical, and introverted side of the human psyche—what is commonly referred to as the "left brain”—as opposed to the “right brain” which is our emotional, holistic, intuitive, and extroverted side. Left-brain kids are often found on the margins of the classroom and the playground, the ones who tend not to fit in with their peers but have rich interior and intellectual lives.
According to Beals, left-brain children are increasingly misunderstood and undervalued, particularly at school. In today’s classrooms, assignments tend to favor children who are collaborative, artistically creative, and comfortable speaking in front of groups. Left-brain children tend to be highly intelligent but shy, and unsuited to group activities, and they are often downgraded for social aloofness and emotional immaturity.
Drawing on Beals’ research and interviews with parents and children, this book offers a new understanding of left-brain kids and practical strategies for nurturing and supporting them, both at school and at home.