"Studies suggest that listening to music during the first three years of life helps the brain form patterns that are essential to the learning process. "
Pam Schiller, PhD
Turtles
One baby turtle alone and new.
Finds a friend, and then there are two.
Two baby turtles crawl down to the sea.
They find another, and then there are three.
Three baby turtles crawl along the shore.
They find another, and then there are four.
Four baby turtles go for a dive.
Up swims another, and then there are five.
Squirrels
Counting poem
Five little squirrels sitting in a tree.
The first one said, "What do I see?"
The second one said, "Some nuts on the ground."
The third one said, "Those nuts I found."
The fourth one said, "I'll race you there."
The Fifth one said, "All right, that's fair."
So they shook their tails and ran with glee.
To the nuts that lay at the foot of the tree.
Art experiences for children teach
the following skills:
Cause and effect
Fine motor skills and coordination
Competence
Social skills
Language skills
There is a four-year period of "potential" growth, which is the most critical period of human development. This time is from conception until about the third birthday. During this time, all things are possible - learning to walk, learning to talk, learning how to "fit in" to society. There is a need for many experiences in order to master skills.
(Families and Work Institute, 1996)
What a baby needs:
#1 Interaction
Even while still in utero! Capture a baby's attention and engage the child in interaction.
Interactions with people and objects are as necessary to the baby as protein, fat and vitamins. All are vital nutrients for the growing and developing brain.
#2 Touch
Touch is critical to development! Touch literally sends signals to the brain telling it to grow (make connections).
#3 Stable relationship
A loving, consistent relationship can offset even the most stressful situation. Without it, growth can by stunted both mentally and physically. Every time a child learns something new, the brain works seven times harder than normal. This in itself is a stressful event.
#4 Safe, healthy environment
#5 Self esteem
The root of all emotional feeling is in the brain stem. It takes nearly one and a half years for a child to learn how to control her feelings. How well she does this depends solely on the parents.
#6 Quality care
Only people who want to interact with babies should care for them.
#7 Communication
A child's ability to communicate begins at birth. Language is a complex skill which contains many nuances. Researchers believe that the reason some children have problems with language is because their brains cannot process sounds fast enough to make the necessary neural connections.
#8 Play
Play is essential to a child's development. Everything is learned through play. The first ability to symbolize their experiences is through play.
#9 Music
Children have an affinity for music from birth. They need to be involved in music, not just listen to it. Parents and children should make music together.
From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development
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Twelve Prenatal Senses, Not Five By David B. Chamberlain, Ph.D
During most of the 20th Century, scientists doubted the presence of functioning senses during fetal life. Touch seemed merely “reflexive”; hearing was dampened, if not drowned, in the liquid environment of the womb; vision was primitive, blocked by closed eyelids, and was distorted under water; and the sense of smell was judged “impossible” without air. By the end of the century, however, experts seemed to be approaching a consensus that there might actually be touch, hearing, and tasting in utero. Considering the immaturity of the brain, skepticism remained about how sensory information could have any real meaning. I was in the minority in making the case for five meaningful senses operating at birth. Today, a few authorities are declaring that the idea of “five” human senses--dating from the Renaissance--is a dubious oversimplification. The correct number, some suggest, is between 5 and 17. With that encouragement, I have taken another look at the full range of prenatal research, including clinical data from my own clients, and I now believe that at least twelve senses can be documented. Briefly, this is my list of twelve.
(1) Touch (receiving touch, and reaching out to touch) is the first sense to develop. (2) Thermal sensing of hot and cold is indeed real, but is usually ignored (3) Pain sensing (now termed nociception) involves crushing and nerve damage. The reality of pain was tragically overlooked in creating the protocols of modern obstetrics. (4) Hearing begins as early as 14 weeks after conception, then improves greatly in ten weeks with cochlear resources and full growth of the external ear. (5) Balance, gravity, and orientation in space develops from week 7 to 12. (6) The chemosensors of smell operate in close association with the chemosensors of (7) Taste as both are bathed by amniotic fluids passing through the nasal area. (8) “Mouthing”is used to explore texture, hardness, and contours of objects; mouthing is not about food and eating. (9) Sucking and Licking in the womb are mouth-related pleasure senses. Sucking of fingers and toes in utero is not nutritive. Male thumb sucking, seen as early as 13 weeks, is often paired with erections, suggesting sexual sensations. Ultrasound reveals prenates licking the placenta and twins licking each other, suggesting pleasure in bodily contact. (10) Vision in utero is paradoxical because limited by eyelids being fused shut for about six months, yet it seems functional in hitting targets like needles during amniocentesis at 14 to 16 weeks of age. Some form of vision seems to facilitate twins boxing, kicking, kissing, and playing together in the womb. (11) Although prenates have never been acknowledged for their psychic gifts, they do demonstrate clairvoyance and telepathic sensing of things clearly out of range; womb babies know whether they are wanted or not, and discern the character of their parents. (12) Finally, prenates also demonstrate transcendent sensing during near-death and out-of-body experiences. When out-of-body, no senses should work for either babies or adults, but they do. Undeveloped senses in babies function well in transcendent states.
Babies in the womb are superbly equipped for sensing their surroundings!
