Hey guys, so I just became a father and there are peers around me who send their kids to these brain development centres such as Shichida, eduwin, Ditoso, Heguru and many more..

I was wondering what are your opinions on such centres?

As when I was young me and my siblings never had such opportunities to these facilities but we all turned out well haha, one of us is a phd holder and also the other had a scholarship to study abroad in the States of a well known University in Cali..

Seems like there are so many options and activities now for Toddlers in this age of time

I observed that these activities will help toddlers to develop their mental skills earlier. After that, transitioning from toddlers to young kids - they will grow up just like us when we were young.

Realized similar patterns for babies fed on formula milk powder (super fast mental development) vs mom's milk.

Besides from nutrient, Suitable load of outdoor activities and introduce fine motor skills to toddlers. Learn from play and parent as role model. With that i believe thing will eventually get into right path.

I did send. In the end I find there's no significant difference

How old? 1-3 years old is too small. Reccommend start sending to playschool/preschool starting 4 years old.

I send my daughter at 4 years old to a playschool.

Develop their fine motor skills. Starting 5-6 years old only sent to really learning preschool.

I noticed she picked up reading, writing and simple math fairly quickly at 5th years old.

She Turn out just fine.

I think sleep is super important

Some parents over do with the learning, till late night etc

That one has bigger impact than most other things

And audio visual devices at night, also impact sleep

Impacts physical growth, brain growth and regeneration

Studies show brain growth for men finishes at 25 years old

And studies also show the brain need "boredom time" instead of overstimulation

Edit:
There's currently a trend where the kids final height is up to 1 foot less than the expected height due to mobile and iPad use

Lack of vitamin D from lack of outdoor activity

Increased rate of myopia

And markedly short attention span

Brain crave for further over stimulation

Impact real learning long term

This post has been edited by sakuraboo: May 8 2025, 09:32 AM

1st of all, you need to ensure that the environment where you raise your child is similar to what we had before.
Nowadays, those centers are popping up everywhere because kids no longer have the same opportunities to explore the world on their own.
Most of the time, they’re indoors. Thats why these centers create syllabuses to simulate real-world experiences (my thought only, not really sure on this).

Personally, I did not send my kids to those centers. Instead, I let them explore their surroundings.
Me lucky because I live in a gated, landed property where my kids can freely play with friends anywhere within the gated area.
I have a very good neighbourhood.

That’s just my two cents...
but if u wanna try out those centers, no harm.
It could be a good experience to see what they offer.
I also not sure how much their fees.

Parents play a more important role in developing their child rather than sending to such centres

(i know you are asking about brain development centre and not tuition centre) but anyway let me share something (my wife is running a centre)

i have seen all sorts of parents sending their child to tuition centres at a very young age (as young as 5 years old)

This is what i have observed among the two extremes

Well educated parents who also nurtured their kids well at home
Their children are fast learners, progress well, and easily understand instructions. When you speak to their parents, you can easily see that they are well educated and my assumption is that they have also nurtured their kids well at home. Or highly possibly, these kids inherit good genes from their parents. There are many journal articles out there highlighting the role of genes in kids' intelligence.

Parents who do not nurture their kids well at home
Their children usually progress slowly. Some even can't understand basic instructions. Well, learning development among children is also heavily influenced by genetic factors other than environment. When you speak to these parents, you can easily see it that these parents are those rich traders/businessman type who are not well educated. Some of these kids attended multiple extra classes but yet they don't seem to excel well academically.

Other than the two extreme groups i observed above, there are also the average-performing students.

In conclusion, no harm sending your kid to those brain development centres but you yourself, as a parent, play a more important role in developing them at home.

Spend time with them at home and encourage them to read instead of giving them handphones. Take them to libraries/bookstores. < These are the more important things to do and it costs less than sending to those centres.

My Daugther attending Montessori playschool at 26 months, we decided to let her go to playschool since she can talk and express herself what she want, what she don’t like.

Now, she’s a speech monster, even more talkative and can structure sentences well enough at 3 years old.

Learn to Make friend, fight, be friend again with her classmate lol

She can count, read abc, and sing nursery song

couldn't agree more with you have shared

from my observation, children will follow what the parent do, so perhaps TS can lead by example and spend time together for education and fun time together, not just sending kids to school/enhancement classes only

back to your question, what are your expectation of your child? are you training him/her to become excellent and achieve T10 in the future? only you and your spouse knows about this

Hi all! Thank you so much for the wonderful response..

I also honestly do not want to overdo with learning like what sakuraboo mentioned.. Just want her to enjoy her childhood and the ultimate goal is actually to ensure she is capable enough when it comes to standard 1(planning to send to chinese school) and do not feel left out

she's currently 22 months old


Her development is ok, can express feelings now and sentences.. Our daughter have anxiety with strangers then she would either tell us daddy, abang papa(scared) or mommy, abang(papa).. Haha the abang are the cleaners at our condo or the security guard.. She knows how to express feelings as well for example when she's angry she would do her angry face and cross her arms when my mother annoys her and every night before i go to bed I will always ask her how was her day and she told me about the experience that she was angry with my mom and showed the action of crossing her arms and showed the angry face..

I was shocked when she did that lol.. Because when it happened, she was with my wife and my mother..

She can also sit down on her own at the table and enjoy her food which makes it a lot easier for us to take her out for dining.. She wouldn't allow us to feed her and luckily she's still not an ipad baby although been exposed to some of the toddlers who join us for meals who sees ipad

Btw speaking about preschools, i was from Montessori myself at The Children House in Bangsar.. I truly enjoyed my childhood there..
So I went to enquire the 1 near lucky garden bangsar, but i felt the quality of teachers fell so much and didn't feel comfortable leaving her there..

Which Montessori did you send your daughter cuddlybubblyteddy?

My friend highly recommended Finnish early education for my daughter who is a teacher herself but the distance not too favourable..
https://www.instagram.com/funhome__/

So I did some searching and found out TTDI, KL has one as well so most likely will check it out
https://www.instagram.com/miracletotselc/

Wait what? Formula milk gives super fast development vs mother's milk?

Don't studies show that the best milk for a child's development is mother's milk and that while formula is a good substitute, mother's milk is still the best?

I think formula is better than breast. My daughter's development is so slow lol .. at 10 months can't even crawl yet, sit also very wobbly .. haha .. compared to her peers at the same month. Some of them can walk le.

I have been hearing formula child are smarter they develop faster, but breast fed infants are less prone to sick.

This post has been edited by malz89: May 8 2025, 02:42 PM

My son was formula fed because unfortunately my wife couldnt produce much milk. He got seriously ill at 3 and a half months old. RSV Virus that caused him to be in ICU for 5 days. He stayed in the hospital for a total of 12 days. Another relative's baby who was breast fed got the same RSV was out of the hospital in 3 days. Normal ward.

His speech development is quite good at his age of 2 years 7 months but the relative's kid has a faster speech development. I know its anecdotal but.....

Some people share similar thinking based on two main points:

Breast milk from the previous generation is the same as today’s—nothing has changed biologically.

Formula milk, however, has evolved—the formulation from the past is not the same as today’s. With advancements in biotechnology, modern formula has improved significantly.

if u wan your kids learn fast speak fast..send them to international skool

Haha .. my wife tries very hard to keep her milk supply. I told her to stop but she insisted because she has been reading that BM is better. My daughter got sick too occasionally but she recovers quite fast too.

Formula today and during our days, they are quite different already. Doctors do not encourage FM because they are afraid to break the convention. Else everyone would go for FM, no one will breastfeed anymore. If you look at the formula in the market today, most have supplemented with dha, etc for brain development.

Yeah .. formula changed over the years. Either getting antibodies from parents to build up their resistance or to go for FM for better development .. haha

Dont so kiasu like singapore. People do u also want follow

If TS can afford why not leh. Haha.

But speaking of a working parent in sg. Sg has a very different system. I get to send my daughter to sch as early as 2 months.

Infant > playground > nursery > kindergarten.

Infant they have some activities to do, although most of the time either sleep or eat.

When they move to playground, they do more art work and learning.

Nursery is more on learning fundamental

Kindergarten is where they are exposed to more things.

It is pretty healthy exposure to the kids from early childhood.

I think TS wants something like that ba.

Ada wang semua bole. Suka u Want abalone ka want eat chicken rice ka.

I reckon its combination of good genes and parenting. I've noticed successful, well educated and/or rich parents tend to raise their kids a certain way which is different from the norm. It is something that not necessarily involves having more money but getting their child to think and behave in a certain manner.

I believe this starts at home instead of outside home. 1 thing sorely lacking in Malaysian parents I see is teaching kids independent thought and actions and critical thinking from an early age. Many think "aiya too young, later only" when I've.

IMO, depends on how much social opportunities your child has. If everyday got peers to play with, then maybe those centres not so important. But if hardly see any kids his/her age on a daily basis, then might be good so they learn to socialise and not become introvert.

Depends on needs. If there really a need to develop a child, and it has a difference, then ok.

If no difference, better let kids be kids. Let them play n sleep

A must watch for any parents, steps to significantly reduce chances of becoming 4 eyes early on, as you can't reverse it.

80% of a child’s brain develops by age of three. It’s during these years that the child’s brain begins to develop memory, language, thinking and reasoning skills.

They learn by imitating the behavior of others, especially adults and older children. It can also be a trying time, as they begin to show defiant behaviour and set out to explore the world around them.

Children grow up very fast.

Parents should focus on them, during their first 3 years. Enjoy playing, singing, laughing or even crying with them. They learn very fast. But their attention span is short.

For me, parents are always the best teachers.

If want to try sending them to those special classes, no harm trying. There is always something new to learn.

Just don't be too kiasu, make your child to be better than others..... every child is different. Some just want to learn slowly.... some are quick learners.

Early age emotional growth is more critical than those brain development bullshit.
Spend more time with small kids to instill confidence and passion. Even better if can delay kindergarten

Montessori is good

but if you are planning to send them to chinese school, montessori and learning chinese contradict.

I know one guy personally, young time, slow learner.

Parents tried everything, send expensive tution, expensive private tutor also failed.

he more prefer to mix with bad hats, smoking at school, car illegal racing, miss classes.

everything fail, everyday in class fail. Go to uni in Australia, kena kicked out.

in the end parents have to send him to easiest uni in USA.

Because parents rich, he can inherit their business.

Now he boss, earn big bucks.

Yes, ada wang anything bole

This post has been edited by hoonanoo: May 9 2025, 09:14 AM

Ya lo .. if u look at xhs many parents will post their kids development. They develop so fast. My wife and I always jokingly say our daughter is so stupid and slow. So we always let her play and spend some time with her when we have time. Most of the time she sleeps .. haha

i was expecting something like, in the end, maybe he insaf, becomes a good guy and makes his parents proud lol

True story!!!!! You see all boss series penang one enjoy life do business also no care got business or no business becoz too rich.

Unfortunately she speak 0 Chinese (although I’m Chinese and speak Chinese with my parent and sibling)

Still undecided to send her to Chinese medium, or sk or international school

My Daugther now keep asking why on thing, example I told her cannot so this , do that. She will ask why?

Have to explain slowly , like you do this, you will fall, when you fall, what happen? You will boo boo pain, do you want boo boo pain?

If it’s my parent generation , first thing will kena is rotan

I concur on this. Toddler or kids need adequate sleep and physical play time. We grew up just fine, aren't we ?

he didn't really insaf, every night hang out with bad hats, racing car every night.

he married some lady who was a mistress of some big time gengster.

made his parents mad at him

montesorri very hard to teach kids to write chinese strokes and radicals.

kids who love montessori and freedom to learn (based on liking), usually dislike learning chinese because have to memorize many strokes.

correct if I am wrong, but my perception is that mandarin usually involve a lot of repeated practice. Kids usually don't like to do this unless they are forced to keep repeating. This is not what Montesorri teaches.

This post has been edited by hoonanoo: May 9 2025, 03:11 PM

Nowadays many gadgets. Not like our time.

Been talking to parents who give their kids gadgets

Some even bring to their room

Next day some of them even sleep in class.

Distracted half the time

Some of them even talking about brain rot tik tok during school hours.

And couple of them already had early puberty but no major growth spurt, probably some growth restriction.

I don't know whether this and COVID brought record failures out during SPM, but this trend is seriously concerning for the nation and the world.


Edit:
On the issue of independence and emotional growth, parents spending time with their kids got bigger factor than kindy or primary school when they are preteen.

You have to build the bridge to teenage years.

They have to be so impressed with you, they respect you and wanna be like you but better.

Otherwise gg

This post has been edited by sakuraboo: May 9 2025, 05:41 PM

I used family link for my kids devices. 930pm down.
One day max is 3 hours screen time. Weekend longer.

Swimming, basketball etc.

You're a legend with swimming and outdoor activities

Hi all! Wow after reading through everyone's thoughts and opinion didn't expect to have so much exchange of ideas and experiences..

The reason why I started this thread is because most of my peers do sent their kids to these brain development centres and just spark some curiosity from my end that when I was young, these centres were not around and how me and my friends have all turned out well..

The end goal is to ensure that daughter is not left out when it comes to primary school because when I was in primary school, the teachers will pair a stronger student with a weaker one to encourage each other to be better..

Btw I was from montessori, The Children House and went to SJK © Yuk Chai..

I remember speaking my mind and got punished for it lol..

For example teacher would say VEGE - TABLE.. I told her the pronounciation is veg-tuh-bul..

Another example was the letter Z, in children house I was taught that it was pronounce as Zee and when I went to Yuk Chai it was called Zed.. One American way and the other british? Many more examples haha but those were the days.. Of Course no right and wrong, so now i understand these are the things that I need to teach my daughter

NGiaww so cute! Haha I can't wait for this period to come

Actually Montessori thought me about independence, how to eat on my own, using the toilet on my own.. Every day I every children had a task to do something in the classroom, for example tidy up the chairs and table, write the day on the blackboard such as Monday, Tuesday etc..

It was really fun, but when it comes to Chinese school, it was more on discipline.. I remember that at Montessori I have already learned division and multiplication, so it was really easy to adapt when it comes to maths

No la not kiasu, just that I believe in learning from other people's experience and thoughts first before making any decision..


"It's good to learn from your mistakes. It's better to learn from other people's mistakes." ~ Warren Buffett

Ofcourse in this context it is experience and thoughts , because I am still a new parent

Thank you all

I was sent to English medium kindergarten at 5, then SK .. speak Chinese at home, speak Malay and English at school.
Did learn basic Chinese at primary -> han yu pin yin , and only into adulthood now really learn to read Chinese (because of working environment) but still mostly use google translate lol

I did heard Chinese medium school will be tough, my Daugther personality now is outspoken, independent, more mature than kid around her age, playful, still listen to us and respect (mostly my wife the enforcer)

Why wife already got annoyed sometimes. So many questions why. Why why why lol

If you don’t have patience , you gonna feel annoying too

Hahaha i think the toughest period was the colic period for us.. Can't wait for more milestones..

Just yesterday we brought her and a friend to The Curve Mutiara
https://www.instagram.com/p/DI_G7vPpa4V/?ig...WZtaWlicHp3d3Z3

They had the inflated bouncy slide and play area..

Was good fun

bro....22 months
Stay at home play magic sands and drawing walls have more brain development at centres

my 2cents

Kids are like sponge, they will become whatever you feed them.
You behave like explorer, she will become one.
You appreciated family members doing at home, she will caring as well.

She wont suddenly become academic excellent when the parents keep on scrolling phone after work.
Parents shape them well.

Forget all about the tuition, centres, extra classes.
You are the development.




This post has been edited by submergedx: May 14 2025, 12:31 PM

"She wont suddenly become academic excellent when the parents keep on scrolling phone after work.
Parents shape them well."

Thanks! Will definitely keep this in mind.. As of now we are not pursuing the brain development programs yet.. Will continue to explore to see what fits her..


We just got back from our trip to Tokyo and it was really fun without work on our minds, took her to a child departmental toy store and she align the rabbits while talking to them like she's their leader..

Thank you all for the input and have a lovely week everyone!

please do not stop answering her even though its annoying. pray for me to do the same too.

the last thing you want is for her not to talk to you about anything ever again because you ignored her.

you would had missed 80% of the brain developement time

stimulation is very important, you can either do that at home or go attend such centers.

Shichida Method starts from 6 months. if you got time you can do it yourself, but most parents let the kids play with ipad or tv switched on.

Thanks so much! As of now we'll just keep the stimulation at our home, so far so good with everything.. We even just got back from Japan, been travelling twice this year just to keep her stimulated lol.. Also been taking her to activities outdoor and last week she went to Little Kickers, a bunch of toddlers kicking footballs indoor