After spending the afternoon of Thursday, April 28th in discussion with Twin Parks Montessori School’s teachers regarding how individual’s brains input information, Dr. JoAnn Deak spoke to a packed audience of parents and educators at Twin Parks Montessori School’s newest campus, Central Park.
Dr. Deak told the attendees that there are many ways that boy’s and girl’s brains are hard-wired differently. I came away with a better understanding of how some parts of our brains are still primitive and reactions often depend on gender – especially in regards to how we respond to loud noises and voices. Most boys respond to and like louder noises – imagine that!

Dr. JoAnn Deak – challenging ourselves, and hard work stretches our brain muscle, like rubber bands! You have to work it!
“The positive emotions (love, joy, satisfaction) do not show much gender difference in feeling them but they do in expressing them. But the negative emotions DO show gender difference” For most girls negative emotions are expressed with Fear, Anxiety and Depression and for most boys negative emotions are expressed with Anger. Dr. JoAnn Deak
On Friday morning Dr. Deak gave a book talk to students and shared her Mom’s Choice and Nautilus winning book, The Fantastic Elastic Brain. The take-away message was if students challenge themselves, try hard and practice, they will help their brains grow and they will be able to accomplish many things.