Dr. Makoto Shichida (1929-2009) is a well-known figure in Japan, having committed to developing techniques to stimulate the early development of the brain for forty years, and have founded over 450 Child Academies in Japan. Dr. Shichida believed that all children are born geniuses and the purpose of education is not to teach knowledge but to develop a child’s abilities at a young age.
The Shichida Method has been practiced in Japan for over 25 years. It incorporates special techniques for stimulating brains and helping children to develop special abilities from 3 months and 6 years old. However, the Shichida Method is secretive, with very limited materials and information available for public, and the only way to know and understand the full program of this method is to send the child to one of his classes in Japan, Singapore, or Malaysia. The usual teaching program would include drawing energy ball, imaginary play, ESP (Extra Sensory Perception), photo memory, flashcards session, speed reading, linking memory, finger training, songs, and language training. Dr Shichida believed that wave reading is a key skill that all students should master, and thus, the energy ball exercises, imaginary play followed by ESP activities are three key components incorporated to almost every class. For understanding of these three key elements of Shichida Method, we quote some vivid descriptions from parents who attended Shichida classes.
Energy ball exercise
“The reason to have energy ball exercise is to calm the baby down and switch the brain to alpha wave… The exercise goes like this: 1) Open up two hand and act like gather something from the atmosphere say: gather, gather, gather…. and make a big energy ball. And the ball now is very heavy (pretend the ball is very heavy) and is you ready to lift it up. (Lift the ball up) and splash….Wipe your kid from head to toes with your hand and say let the good energy flow into your body and clear the bad energy out from your body. 2) Again, say gather…..let make small energy ball….make it small and small. Let put some topping on top of the ball say…..chocolate chips. Are you ready to cut it into half. Then make cutting action, one for mummy to eat and one for the kid to eat. Then say I’m very full. 3) Praise the kid and give the kid and 8 seconds hug.”
Imaginary play
“Image training is a pretend play game. Eg. Imagine that we are going to the zoo. For about 3 to 5 minutes, you are supposed to say what animals you both saw, what did you do in the zoo, how many elephants you saw, who went to zoo with the child, What did the animals do. Prepare some toy animals when you play this “go to the zoo” game. This is also a right brain game. For all right brain games, everyone must be relaxed. At Shichida, we clap once to symbolize that we enter the image world and clap once again when we are finished with the image game. At the end say “Now we are going back to home/class, when mummy claps, you will be back home/class”.”
ESP games
“For simple telepathy games, you can send him a colour or shape and give him some choices to pick… to see if he can pick up the message you sent him? or you can image what vegetables you gonna cook or what clothes you gonna wear and get him to tell you! Another version of this game is prediction games, you can make a black box and put 3 toys inside… get him to predict which one you will pick up without looking at? you can switch to colors and other objects… waiting for the lift, you can ask him which one will arrive first? Another version of this game is clairvoyance, you can hide something inside a box or put toys behind a board and get him to see which one is hiding behind? Another version of this game is touch sense, you can make ESP cards with different things say fruits…. get him to feel the durian which is pricky and ouch!”