CHAPTER 2

Two Brains Are Better Than One

Integrating the Left and the Right

Thomas’s four-year-old daughter, Katie, loved her preschool and
never minded saying goodbye to her dad when it was time for him
to leave—until the day she got sick in class. Her teacher phoned
Thomas, who came to pick her up right away. The next day, Katie
began crying when it was time to get ready for school, even though
by then she was feeling ɹne. The same thing happened morning
after morning for the next few days. He could eventually get her
dressed, but things only got worse when they arrived at school.
As Thomas put it, Katie would increasingly “freak out” once they
got out of their car in the school parking lot. First she’d begin to
practice some sort of civil disobedience as they approached the
school building. She would walk alongside her father, but as she
somehow made her tiny body heavier than a grand piano, her
resistance would turn their stroll into more of a drag. Then, when
they reached the classroom, she would squeeze her dad’s hand
harder and harder and perform the classic “power lean,” putting all
of her baby-grand weight on Thomas’s leg. When he could ɹnally
extricate himself from her clutches and exit the room, he would
hear her shout above all the noise of the other kids, “I’ll die if you
leave me!”
This type of separation anxiety is very normal for young
children. School can be a scary place at times. But as Thomas
explained, “Katie absolutely lived for school before she got sick.
She loved the activities, the friends, the stories. And she adored her
teacher.”