Your brain may have a different opinion from mine on the value of brainstorming. Are many ideas, even the majority, unworkable? Probably. Fortunately that didn’t stop inventors such as Edison, Bell, Einstein, and daVinci. Brainstorming can speed creative thinking, especially as related to solving a specific problem. Out of the ideas that are unworkable often emerges one that is truly brilliant. Try this formula:

• List every playful, serious, weird, or unlikely idea you can generate
• Avoid judging or censoring any of the ideas as you list them
• Select the best two or three ideas
• Evaluate the ideas carefully for viability or for variations that may work

The benefits? You are more likely to hone your ability to think “outside the box” and may discover an option that wasn’t self-evident.

This is a somewhat complex question. The brain has a built-in potential for creativity. However, based on a person’s own brain advantage, the type of creativity that is easiest to access, may differ. For example:

• Frontal Left Lobe: creative in setting and achieving goals, in analyzing data (research), and in problem-solving based on data.
• Frontal Right Lobe: creative in artistic areas such as painting/drawing, writing stories/poems, interior design, and problem-solving in a crisis situation. 
• Right Posterior Lobes: creative in harmonizing activities such as singing, cooking, between people, with nature/animals, and in the environment.
• Left Posterior Lobes: creative in tracking data (e.g., filing, data entry, accounting) and in providing services that are necessary to sustain life.

Creativity often involves aspects of thinking outside the box, and can be honed. I believe that developing your creativity can enhance your ability to brainstorm options when problem-solving.

This is a somewhat complex question. The brain has a built-in potential for creativity. Based on a person’s own innate and unique brain advantage, however, the type of creativity that is easiest for that brain to access may differ. For example:

• Prioritizers tend to be creative in setting and achieving goals, in analyzing data (research), and in problem-solving based on data.

• Envisioners tend to be creative in artistic areas such as painting/drawing, writing stories/poems, interior design, and problem-solving in a crisis situation.

• Harmonizers tend to be creative in harmonizing activities such as singing, cooking, between people, with nature/animals, and in the environment.

• Maintainers tend to be creative in tracking data (e.g., filing, data entry, accounting) and in providing services that are necessary to sustain life.

Do about it? Why not help your child to hone that brain-function ability and use it appropriately? Imagination can be critically important in learning to problem-solve effectively. It can bridge the conscious and subconscious minds and is associated with intuition, brainstorming, and creativity.

Studies have shown some gender differences. The generalized female brain, with prefrontal cortex differences and more integrated hemispheric functions, tends to excel at imagining future outcomes in innovative ways. Regardless of gender, the ability to apply an active imagination to a variety of settings can be invaluable.

I’ve included it below.

-minds eye