Prenatal Exposure
- His IQ is 163. He invents things for NASA. He now owns his own aerospace company as well as two other companies. Musically, he can play any instrument he picks up.
- Because of her enhanced abilities, she was promoted into the 3-4 year old class after her first lesson in the toddler class. Three months later, she performed her piano solo with singing, and five-finger positioning… and is still a 2 year old.
- He began speaking words at eight months and by eighteen months had a vocabulary of 250+ words. By age two he had mastered such shapes as octagon, parallelogram, hexagon, parabola, and trapezoid.
- He skipped kindergarten and first grade and was placed directly into the 2nd grade class as a five year old. His IQ is genius.
- At three years old, he is learning to read on his own. He also initiates topics regarding money, the presidents and classical composers.
What do all of these people have in common? Prenatal exposure…to music.
Several years ago, we began to see pictures of moms with headphones stretched about their swollen tummies. At that time, physicians began to see significant advancement in babies who had this type of stimulation. Scientists are becoming increasingly aware of the power of the prenatal environment. Modern researchers can now see into the womb… to observe babies in their natural environment.
What scientists are learning is astounding. To understand their research, we must gain some understanding as to how a baby’s brain grows and functions. (Forgive me in advance for this article being so medically technical, but this information is necessary to understand what is going on in a prenatal baby’s development.)
Scientists explain that a human brain is made up of cells called neurons. These cells form networks of connections. About 100,000 nerve cells per minute sprout in your unborn baby’s brain. Eventually an adult brain will contain 100 billion neurons. What is most important is not how many brain cells we have, but how they interconnect.
These neurons communicate through electrical signals traveling the length of the nerve cell. These signals travel across the synapse from one cell to another strengthening the neural pathways used most. Every time the brain is stimulated in an adequate way, new connections are created. The more connections, the more neurons integrated the higher the intelligence, social and emotional skills.
If a baby is exposed to a prenatal impoverished sensory environment, few neuronal connections will be found in their brain. Babies stimulated in an enriched sensory environment will create many more connections. Once brain wiring is complete, it remains for the remainder of that individual's life.
The greatest form of prenatal stimulation enters through the sense of hearing. Through the autonomic nervous system, the auditory nerves connect the inner ear with all the muscles in the body. The ear controls the entire nervous system. So muscle tone, equilibrium and flexibility are directly influenced by sound. The ear’s vestibular function influences the eye muscles, affecting vision and facial movements and also affects chewing and taste. Through the vagus nerve, the inner ear connects with the larynx, heart, lungs, stomach, liver, bladder, kidneys, the small and large intestines. This suggests that auditory vibrations from the ear drum interact with parasympathetic nerves to regulate, control and "sculpt" all the major organs of the body.
Babies move to the beat of the music they hear as early as sixteen weeks gestation. Their ears are fully functionally by twenty-four weeks. They are born with 'natural rhythm.'
In his book, 'The Mozart Effect' Don Campbell lists physical benefits of listening to music. This is quite a list: Music changes brain waves to calm, boosts the immune system, lowers blood pressure, reduces respiration rate, stimulates digestion, releases stress and stress hormones, enhances brain development, improves coordination, reduces muscle tension, causes release of endorphins elevating mood, relieves pain and the need for medication, aids in achievement of emotion equilibrium, generates a sense of safety and well-being, strengthens learning and memory and more. Who needs these benefits more than an expectant mom and her developing baby?
Researchers insist that we have been wired for music since conception. This has further implications for our whole development as human beings. Babies in utero listen all the time. What they hear makes a difference in their development. Here are some things to keep in mind.
- Mom’s singing voice is the number one brain function enhancer in prenatal babies. It is documented that babies prefer high pitched sounds; and God in his awesome creative knowledge, created mom’s singing voice to be high pitched. Amazing!
- The music that is proven to have the most benefit is that which contains repeated patterns and is paced around 60-70 beats per minute (bpm). Certain selections of Baroque classical music fits this criteria. Listening to this type of music for 30 minutes at one setting, will bring the same stress release as taking one valium.
- Your baby develops prenatal memory of tunes that they hear repetitively while in utero. After birth, they will calm and stimulate your baby.
If you sing to and play classical music for your prenatal baby, will he/she become a rocket scientist or perform at Carnegie Hall? Maybe… and maybe not. But your focus as an aware parent is to give your child the very best start that you can. It has been documented that other than good prenatal medical support and a nutritional diet, prenatal music is the best thing that you can provide for your child’s early development.
Come on parents-to-be; let’s make music.
Suggested reading materials: Don Campbell’s "Mozart Effect"; Dr. Thomas Verney’s "Tomorrow’s Child"; "Give them the Best Start Prenatal Course" by Denie Riggs. More information…on line at www.earlychildhoodmusic.net.
