Thoraiya DyerUnderachiever? You Should Have Started Earlier: Prenatal Education Part 1
June 25th 2008 01:40
Austega ( Really Long Link ) defines gifted children as:
“…those children who possess an untrained and spontaneously expressed natural ability in at least one ability domain significantly beyond that typically seen in children of the same age.”
Sounds pretty good. Who wouldn’t want their child or children to be a genius?
In a 2001 Australian Senate inquiry into the schooling of gifted and talented children, which looked at methods of identifying and tailoring the school curriculum to benefit intellectually gifted children ( Really Long Link ), it was estimated that:
“…between ten percent and twenty five percent (not two percent as believed earlier) of a population is potentially gifted in some field.’”
The definition of giftedness specifically mentions “untrained” and “spontaneous” – these are talents you are just born with.
But what if there was a way to cheat the system? What if there was a way to start educating foetuses BEFORE they’re born??
In some cultures, that idea is not new.
For example, here’s an excerpt from Garbha Sanskar (Prenatal education) by Dr.Mrs. Sushama Patwardhan ( Really Long Link ):
“The Indian History of Prenatal education.
The story of Abhimanyu is well known in the Mahabharata. Abhimanyu, the son of Arjuna, learned how to enter the Chakravyuha (the strategic arrangement of warriors to entrap and defeat the enemy) when he was in his mother's womb. Abhimanyu had heard and remembered the narration of the technique by Krishna to Subhadra during her pregnancy.”
Something for the Australian Army to keep in mind, eh? The site goes on:
“Establishing a dialogue with the foetus: The main requirement to transmit 'good values' is to establish communication with the baby in the womb. Thoughts and feelings of the parents affect the baby. Even before the thought is expressed, it remains in an unexpressed form in the mind. At that time, its wavelength is the shortest and its energy is at the maximum level. Intentional, directed, selfless, unspoken thoughts lead to maximum sanskar on the foetus.”
Dear me. There it is again. Putting scientific terminology such as “wavelength” and “energy at maximum level” in with the fairy tales to try and legitimise it.
Needless to say, unexpressed thoughts cannot reach your foetus. Brain waves are not very powerful ( Really Long Link ):
“It is well known that the brain is an electrochemical organ; researchers have speculated that … if all 10 billion interconnected nerve cells discharged at one time that a single electrode placed on the human scalp would record something like five millionths to 50 millionths of a volt. If you had enough scalps hooked up you might be able to light a flashlight bulb.”
It would take lots of determination (and from the sound of it, wires and pain!) for you to transmit from your brain through about a metre of solid flesh and bone to reach an unborn baby in the womb.
But the Indians haven’t got it all wrong. They do mention the capability of unborn children to hear sounds. That is verified in a number of studies ( Really Long Link ):
“Ultrasound studies have shown that at 16 weeks gestation the fetus can respond to outside sound (Hepper, 1994, Shahidullah & Hepper, 1992). The sounds of the blood flow through the placenta can be heard at a very loud level in the womb. For the lower sound frequencies below 500 Hz, mean sound levels are 80 decibels with peaks to 95 decibels (Gerhardt & Abrams, 1996). … sounds and rhythms in the womb may contain information important to the development of the fetal brain (Devlin, Daniels & Roeder, 1997, Shetler, 1989). The newborn can differentiate a recording of his own mother's prenatal womb sounds from a recording of another mother (Righetti, 1996). The newborn can also differentiate emotional content in the recording of his prenatal womb sounds and respond with changes in movement and heart rate (Righetti, 1996).”
Interesting, hey? It’s not all just swimming around in jelly, waiting to be born. Says the Indian web site:
“It is possible to give energy for the development of body mind and sole of the child in the womb by listening to special music. The sound of the veena (Indian string instrument which is held by the Goddess Saraswati), flute and Samaveda mantras gives health to the pregnant woman and the child within. Some music cassettes and CD's –like "Garbh Sanskar : Blessings For The New Arrival", "Garbha sangeet" are published.”
Sadly, the sound of the veena flute is NOT in the lower frequencies.
University of Florida research ( Really Long Link ) reported by Science Daily in 2004, tells us that:
“In a series of unique experiments on a pregnant ewe designed to record exactly what sounds reach the fetal ear, UF research has bolstered previous findings suggesting that human fetuses likely hear mostly low-frequency rather than high-frequency sounds. That means they hear vowels rather than consonants and are more sensitive to the melodic parts of speech than to pitch, said Ken Gerhardt, a UF professor of communication sciences and disorders and an associate dean of the Graduate School.
As for music, "they're not going to hear the violins, but they will hear the drums," said Gerhardt, who led the research reported in the November-December issue of the journal Audiology and Neuro Otology.”
No violins. No veena flute. Deal with it!
Drums, now…does that mean we should cart our foetuses along to TaikOz ( Really Long Link ) performances?
(Anyone who wants to buy me tickets, leave a message below
)
Well, just because can hear something doesn’t mean you SHOULD hear something (think Tosser Of The Year, Kyle Sandilands, or perhaps John Howard's farewell speech), and though there’s plenty of evidence to show that foetuses can hear lots of things, we seem to be a bit short on evidence to show that it’s good for them.
In fact, sometimes it’s pretty bad for them.
HearIt.org ( Really Long Link ) warns against exposing foetuses to too much sound:
“Even in the mother's uterus the hearing of the foetus is vulnerable to noise. If a pregnant woman spends time in excessive noise she risks that her baby will be born with noise-induced hearing loss. The hearing of the foetus is fully developed 20 weeks after conception and is unprotected.
Excessive noise during pregnancy may also lead to preterm delivery. According to Pediatrics, a US magazine, women exposed to 80 dB for an 8-hour shift are at increased risk of preterm delivery.”
Maybe the Chinese have it right, when they insist that pregnant women talk softly.
From Chinese Pregnancy at Cut The Knot ( Really Long Link ):
“Prenatal education has come into being for over 2000 years in China. It was believed that a good pregnant mother should eat only meat which was cut only in square cubes, sit only on properly built chairs, walk unswingingly, talk softly, etc. By doing so, the foetus would be able to learn the most valued virtues. Although in present days the above mentioned practice is no longer common, pregnant women in China still behave very carefully so as not to do anything which affects the foetus.”
Excellent advice about the properly built chairs – although, if anyone understands the square cubes thing, I am waiting eagerly for your comments!
In Part 2, we will look at Western versions of Prenatal Education – specifically, the claims of BabyPlus to be able to make your foetus gifted.
Stay tuned.
“…those children who possess an untrained and spontaneously expressed natural ability in at least one ability domain significantly beyond that typically seen in children of the same age.”
Sounds pretty good. Who wouldn’t want their child or children to be a genius?
(c) FarWorks
In a 2001 Australian Senate inquiry into the schooling of gifted and talented children, which looked at methods of identifying and tailoring the school curriculum to benefit intellectually gifted children ( Really Long Link ), it was estimated that:
“…between ten percent and twenty five percent (not two percent as believed earlier) of a population is potentially gifted in some field.’”
The definition of giftedness specifically mentions “untrained” and “spontaneous” – these are talents you are just born with.
But what if there was a way to cheat the system? What if there was a way to start educating foetuses BEFORE they’re born??
In some cultures, that idea is not new.
For example, here’s an excerpt from Garbha Sanskar (Prenatal education) by Dr.Mrs. Sushama Patwardhan ( Really Long Link ):
“The Indian History of Prenatal education.
The story of Abhimanyu is well known in the Mahabharata. Abhimanyu, the son of Arjuna, learned how to enter the Chakravyuha (the strategic arrangement of warriors to entrap and defeat the enemy) when he was in his mother's womb. Abhimanyu had heard and remembered the narration of the technique by Krishna to Subhadra during her pregnancy.”
Something for the Australian Army to keep in mind, eh? The site goes on:
“Establishing a dialogue with the foetus: The main requirement to transmit 'good values' is to establish communication with the baby in the womb. Thoughts and feelings of the parents affect the baby. Even before the thought is expressed, it remains in an unexpressed form in the mind. At that time, its wavelength is the shortest and its energy is at the maximum level. Intentional, directed, selfless, unspoken thoughts lead to maximum sanskar on the foetus.”
Dear me. There it is again. Putting scientific terminology such as “wavelength” and “energy at maximum level” in with the fairy tales to try and legitimise it.
Needless to say, unexpressed thoughts cannot reach your foetus. Brain waves are not very powerful ( Really Long Link ):
“It is well known that the brain is an electrochemical organ; researchers have speculated that … if all 10 billion interconnected nerve cells discharged at one time that a single electrode placed on the human scalp would record something like five millionths to 50 millionths of a volt. If you had enough scalps hooked up you might be able to light a flashlight bulb.”
It would take lots of determination (and from the sound of it, wires and pain!) for you to transmit from your brain through about a metre of solid flesh and bone to reach an unborn baby in the womb.
But the Indians haven’t got it all wrong. They do mention the capability of unborn children to hear sounds. That is verified in a number of studies ( Really Long Link ):
“Ultrasound studies have shown that at 16 weeks gestation the fetus can respond to outside sound (Hepper, 1994, Shahidullah & Hepper, 1992). The sounds of the blood flow through the placenta can be heard at a very loud level in the womb. For the lower sound frequencies below 500 Hz, mean sound levels are 80 decibels with peaks to 95 decibels (Gerhardt & Abrams, 1996). … sounds and rhythms in the womb may contain information important to the development of the fetal brain (Devlin, Daniels & Roeder, 1997, Shetler, 1989). The newborn can differentiate a recording of his own mother's prenatal womb sounds from a recording of another mother (Righetti, 1996). The newborn can also differentiate emotional content in the recording of his prenatal womb sounds and respond with changes in movement and heart rate (Righetti, 1996).”
Interesting, hey? It’s not all just swimming around in jelly, waiting to be born. Says the Indian web site:
“It is possible to give energy for the development of body mind and sole of the child in the womb by listening to special music. The sound of the veena (Indian string instrument which is held by the Goddess Saraswati), flute and Samaveda mantras gives health to the pregnant woman and the child within. Some music cassettes and CD's –like "Garbh Sanskar : Blessings For The New Arrival", "Garbha sangeet" are published.”
Sadly, the sound of the veena flute is NOT in the lower frequencies.
University of Florida research ( Really Long Link ) reported by Science Daily in 2004, tells us that:
“In a series of unique experiments on a pregnant ewe designed to record exactly what sounds reach the fetal ear, UF research has bolstered previous findings suggesting that human fetuses likely hear mostly low-frequency rather than high-frequency sounds. That means they hear vowels rather than consonants and are more sensitive to the melodic parts of speech than to pitch, said Ken Gerhardt, a UF professor of communication sciences and disorders and an associate dean of the Graduate School.
As for music, "they're not going to hear the violins, but they will hear the drums," said Gerhardt, who led the research reported in the November-December issue of the journal Audiology and Neuro Otology.”
No violins. No veena flute. Deal with it!
Drums, now…does that mean we should cart our foetuses along to TaikOz ( Really Long Link ) performances?
(Anyone who wants to buy me tickets, leave a message below
)Well, just because can hear something doesn’t mean you SHOULD hear something (think Tosser Of The Year, Kyle Sandilands, or perhaps John Howard's farewell speech), and though there’s plenty of evidence to show that foetuses can hear lots of things, we seem to be a bit short on evidence to show that it’s good for them.
In fact, sometimes it’s pretty bad for them.
HearIt.org ( Really Long Link ) warns against exposing foetuses to too much sound:
“Even in the mother's uterus the hearing of the foetus is vulnerable to noise. If a pregnant woman spends time in excessive noise she risks that her baby will be born with noise-induced hearing loss. The hearing of the foetus is fully developed 20 weeks after conception and is unprotected.
Excessive noise during pregnancy may also lead to preterm delivery. According to Pediatrics, a US magazine, women exposed to 80 dB for an 8-hour shift are at increased risk of preterm delivery.”
Maybe the Chinese have it right, when they insist that pregnant women talk softly.
From Chinese Pregnancy at Cut The Knot ( Really Long Link ):
“Prenatal education has come into being for over 2000 years in China. It was believed that a good pregnant mother should eat only meat which was cut only in square cubes, sit only on properly built chairs, walk unswingingly, talk softly, etc. By doing so, the foetus would be able to learn the most valued virtues. Although in present days the above mentioned practice is no longer common, pregnant women in China still behave very carefully so as not to do anything which affects the foetus.”
Excellent advice about the properly built chairs – although, if anyone understands the square cubes thing, I am waiting eagerly for your comments!
In Part 2, we will look at Western versions of Prenatal Education – specifically, the claims of BabyPlus to be able to make your foetus gifted.
Stay tuned.
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Comment by DrNat