Stimulate Learning in the Womb

Posted by admin Filed Under Parenting

Mothers have always talked and sang to their unborn babies, if only to express their love and happiness for the new babe. Research of the past decade has finally caught up to what every mother knows instinctively. Babies respond to stimulation in the womb. They can hear and taste and respond to movement and sound. But can babies learn during their time in the womb?

Rick Gilmore, director of the Brain Development and Cognition Laboratory at Penn State, says, “There’s ample evidence that fetuses are picking up information from the outside world. They’re especially receptive to sounds from the mother’s body and the external environment.”

One influential study from 1986 had pregnant mothers read Dr. Seuss’ Cat in the Hat twice a day. Once the babies were born, researchers checked to see if the babies recognized the story and their mothers’ voices. When the babies heard recordings of their mothers reading Cat in the Hat with its distinctive rhythms, they responded by slower sucking motions on their pacifiers, a sign they were paying close attention. When people other than the mothers read the story, the babies were not as interested. The newborns responded to both their mothers’ voices and to the story they’d heard in the womb.

Can learning be stimulated in the womb? While parents probably shouldn’t begin differentiated instruction just yet, it is true that unborn babies learn to recognize their mothers’ voices. They even recognize theme songs from television programs their moms watched while pregnant. Studies on babies who received stimulation while in the womb report that these babies have enhanced development of their senses such as sight, hearing and movement. Researchers in child development find that stimulated prenatal babies reveal superior learning capabilities later in life.

Prenatal stimulation also seems to affect intelligence and IQ. Dr. Beatriz Manrique’s study called “Project Family,” tested prenatal stimulated babies at the age of three and found these babies exhibited an average of 14 IQ points higher than children who were not stimulated. When parents stimulate their unborn babies, they strongly bond with the child, which leads to more stability and happiness after the child is born.

Babies hear and respond best to their mother’s voices. According to Gilmore’s report at Research Penn State, if a mother is bilingual, and talks to her baby in both languages, the baby’s brain might respond to the stimuli by enhancing the baby’s ability to learn those languages after birth.

Similar Posts

January 23, 2012 | Filed Under Parenting

 

Comments

Leave a Reply