The experiences and relationships you build in the first three years of a child’s life have a huge impact on their development. In particular, the first 6 to 12 months of life are a time of explosive synapse formation, when they absorb and learn from everything around them. During this time, it’s important to ensure that children’s bodies and brains develop evenly through an emotionally stable environment, a variety of physical activities, and consistent brain-stimulating activities.

Among them, Ogambrain, founded by brain education expert Hyunjin Bae, is going viral among moms for its five-sensory play classes that help infants and toddlers develop their brains and emotions.

 

Creating differentiated educational programs with books and teaching aids for infants and toddlers

With 18 years of experience in early childhood education, Bae founded Ogambrain because she wanted to help early childhood education organizations and companies create educational content and programs that addressed gaps in the existing education system.

“It’s the nurturing environment, brain and emotional development in the early childhood years that sets the stage for good social and character development later in life,” she said, adding that the education and environment children receive during this time is critical.

Pleasant sensory experiences, along with neurotransmitters such as the hormones dopamine and serotonin, which produce feelings of happiness, develop the brain with a variety of stimuli and experiences and help it retain information. This helps improve positive thinking, self-regulation, information processing, and problem-solving skills.

Ogambrain is a two-phase program that spans two and a half years, from 6 months to 3 years of age, with 1:1 and 1:2 personalized brain development homeschooling by trained teachers who specialize in brain education and sensory play.

The flagship program, Phase 1 Toddler School, is for children between 6 and 12 months of age. It is an essential first-year brain development course that explores developmentally appropriate parishes and safe ingredients from whole foods, color foods, and nature foods, awakens the senses to produce joyful hormones, and integrates physical, emotional, cognitive, and brain principles. It also supports emotional attachment with mom bonding techniques and baby massage, which is crucial during this time.

The second stage, Child School, is aimed at children aged 1-3 years old and provides a variety of teaching materials that stimulate the five senses, ecological experiences, food, and play, and a program that encourages the development of left and right brain integration and creativity through language stimulation, fairy tales, music, art, and physical activities. 

Ogambrain is great for brain development because it lets parents know if their child’s brain is developing evenly and which stimulation is needed, and it stimulates children through all five senses. 

After the actual class, parents were satisfied by receiving a briefing on what activities were done, how the child’s expression was during the play, and how it was effective in developing the integrated left and right brain. 

“As an integrated education system that is essential for infants and toddlers, Ogambrain’s education program is highly effective because it explores the child closely and conducts classes according to the child’s condition,” she said. “The program is definitely differentiated from the classes conducted by general daycare centers and other institutions.” 

Ogambrain is currently preparing to launch a third phase of the program, Kids School, following Phase 2. 

 

Helping kids develop their brains by training brain educators 

In addition to creating educational programs for children, Bae is also committed to nurturing the next generation. 

“We are constantly improving and evolving the program through research and development,” Bae said, “and we are constantly tweaking and evolving the curriculum based on the responses and feedback we get from the field.” 

Ogambrain’s programs don’t just help raise smart kids; they aim to develop the whole brain, which includes character, social skills, and a sense of community. 

Ogambrain, which officially opened its doors in July 2022 after years of research, is currently recruiting franchisees nationwide by opening five branches across the country, training experts in five-sense play brain education, and gradually expanding visiting classes. 

“We are receiving a lot of inquiries from franchisees, and we are working to ensure that more children across the country have access to a good educational program of five-sensory play,” said Bae. “We are running a systematic brain education specialist course so that we can provide high-quality classes to more children.” 

Parents are very satisfied with Ogambrain’s visitation program, which includes coaching for both children and parents. Bae is also planning to give lectures at various media outlets and organizations to raise awareness of the importance of brain education in the early childhood years. 

“We will be giving lectures on the importance of brain education in early childhood on public television and at various organizations,” said Bae. “We want to emphasize that parents’ warm smiles and words can stimulate children’s vision and hearing and have a positive impact on their development, and we want to promote the importance of five-sense play.” 

She added “True brain development isn’t about raising IQ, it’s about teaching that makes the child happy and explaining what they need to pay attention to.”

백정준 기자  googies@naver.com