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Learning Steps - A Learning community
Volume 2
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Schooling the Kid
Step-6
Learning aggressive behaviour at the foetal
stage
Many
gynecologists used to advise the pregnant women about the need for maintaining
a positive environment where they used to live. The need for having nutritious
food, reading books which deal with healthy emotions, avoiding quarrels and
bitterness and leading a life full of joy was always emphasized. Research also
indicates that mental aggression and violent behaviour at the later stage of
life are consequent to certain exposures during the prenatal growth.
David
chamberlain, the renowned prenatal psychologists observes the following based
on
his research:
Much of the violent crime in society can be traced
back to a brain that was undernourished, mal-constructed, and is functioning
poorly. Most obvious brain problems found in these criminals is in the
prefrontal cortex where perceptions, decisions and judgments are made. Violent
criminals are not working with a full set of brains and the mistakes they make
are predictable. Another powerful factor favoring later criminal behavior is a
failure of attachment and bonding between parents and babies. As many as 15% of
US children may enter life without such an attachment, feel no intimate, safe,
and loving connection with anyone, and have no concern for other people’s
feelings, posing a high risk of criminal violence.
Prenates "know" a lot of things they are not
expected to know. They know if they are wanted or unwanted. Unwanted newborns
have 2.4 times the risk of dying in the first 28 days after birth. Planned
babies, compared to unplanned babies, show superior cognitive processing when
only 3 months old. Babies learn violence in the womb when their mothers are
injured and abused. About ten percent of newborns first experience violence in
the course of neonatal intensive care and other medical procedures.
The above
observations do indicate the need for nutrition and health care of pregnant
women in the best interest of the society. It is important that the health
education curriculum of the schools include vital inputs on the above to make a
healthier and less aggressive society for the future.
David
Chamberlain further observes:
Traumatic events in neonatal intensive care are indelibly
imprinted in memory and intrude on adult life, often in the form of fear.
Edward, who was born prematurely and entered the NICU at 29 weeks, learned to
fear the sound and sight of adhesive tape. He learned this from the experience
of having sections of his skin accidentally pulled off during removal of
monitor pads. When he was a young man, he still feared adhesive tape.
Babies can learn their mother's emotional state.
Experiments in Australia
revealed that unborn babies were participating in the emotional upset of their
mothers watching a disturbing 20-minute segment of a Hollywood
movie. When briefly re-exposed to this film up to three months after birth,
they still showed recognition of the earlier experience. Studies of a thousand
babies whose mothers had experienced various degrees of depression during
pregnancy themselves displayed depression at birth and in proportion to the
depression scores of their mothers.
An important message of these diverse findings is that
memory and learning seem to be a natural part of being human, including the
first nine months in the womb and the years of infancy, defined as the time
before speech. Perhaps the biggest surprise is that life in the womb is
extremely active and interactive and the womb is, in fact, a classroom.
Ensuring a positive,
conducive, cool, calm and relaxed climate at the prenatal stage appears
extremely important for a healthy and holistic growth of a citizen in the
offing! I feel there is a need for a proactive campaign in educating the future
mothers of the country, which many of the voluntary organizations working in
the field of women’s welfare can take up.( I don’t exempt the male folks to
understand the implications of the above and enable an appropriate environment
in their own interests!)
I don’t think I need
to add anything further to the explicit message the research has given. One of
our readers wondered whether we would be going towards “Prenatal Schooling.”
Who knows – the way knowledge dynamics has impacted our thought processes, it
might lead to a venture of such nature (especially in a globally marketing
world). All things which were questioned – why, are now being questioned again
only with a subtle difference – Why Not?
G.Balasubramanian
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Learning Steps - A Learning community
Volume
2
|
Schooling the Kid
Step-7
Acoustics, emotions and foetus
Research shows that you begin learning in
the womb and
go right on learning until the moment you pass on.
Your brain has a capacity for learning that is virtually limitless,
which makes every human a potential genius." ~ Michael J. Gelb
go right on learning until the moment you pass on.
Your brain has a capacity for learning that is virtually limitless,
which makes every human a potential genius." ~ Michael J. Gelb
Based on his extensive research on babies
during their gestational period,
Dr.David Chamberlain observes:
“Babies are leaning their native
language before birth. This is made possible by the development of hearing as
early as 16 weeks gestational age. A mother's voice reaches the uterus with
very little distortion as the sound waves pass directly through her body.
Acoustic spectroscopy, which makes possible elaborately detailed portraits of
sound similar to fingerprints, has documented prenatal learning of the mother
tongue. By 27 weeks of gestation, the cry of a baby already contains some of
the speech features, rhythms, and voice characteristics of its mother. Newborn
reactions to language are based on the sounds heard in utero: French babies
prefer to look at persons speaking French while Russian babies prefer to watch
people speaking Russian.
Unexpected evidence for prenatal
learning and memory comes from studies of taste and olfaction). Until recently,
olfaction was thought to require air, hence, learning of odors was not
considered possible before birth. Current understanding, however, recognizes
the complex interaction of chemosensory receptors in utero. Many chemical
compounds, including those from the mother's diet, pass through the placenta
and reach the baby in utero while others flow in the capillaries of the nasal
mucosa. By breathing and swallowing amniotic fluid, a baby becomes familiar
with the mother's diet, including things like garlic. Even before post-nasal
exposure to breast milk, babies already know and prefer their own mother's
milk. Abrupt changes in her diet during the perinatal period can confuse babies
and upset breastfeeding.
Traumatic events in neonatal
intensive care are indelibly imprinted in memory and intrude on adult life,
often in the form of fear. Edward, who was born prematurely and entered the
NICU at 29 weeks, learned to fear the sound and sight of adhesive tape. He
learned this from the experience of having sections of his skin accidentally
pulled off during removal of monitor pads. When he was a young man, he still
feared adhesive tape.
Babies can learn their mother's
emotional state. Experiments in Australia
revealed that unborn babies were participating in the emotional upset of their
mothers watching a disturbing 20-minute segment of a Hollywood
movie. When briefly re-exposed to this film up to three months after birth,
they still showed recognition of the earlier experience. Studies of a thousand
babies whose mothers had experienced various degrees of depression during
pregnancy themselves displayed depression at birth and in proportion to the
depression scores of their mothers.
The research
findings we have seen so far is proof enough to the fact that learning happens
even at the prenatal stage. It is necessary that parents, especially pregnant
mothers are given adequate exposure to the process of prenatal learning in
order to prepare their children to face the world. A friend of mine has just
sent me the information how a lawyer cum journalist started exposing the foetus
to the auditory inputs of classical Carnatic music when she was bearing a child
and how the child was able to identify the ragas much early in life.
Possibly some of
genetic learning can be attributed to the fact that the foetus at the prenatal
stage stays in continuous touch with the environment in which the parents live
and hence learn in context.
In the next few
issues we will also see how the trauma, pain of labour have an impact on the
development process of the kids and how the shades of the pain are carried to
the later part of life
G.Balasubramanian
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Learning Steps - A Learning community
Volume
2
|
Schooling the Kid
Step-8
Impact
of parental attitudes on the foetus
Sarah Belle
Dougherty writes in her article “Mysteries of Prenatal consciousness” about the
attitude of parents on the child during the period of pregnancy. The following
observations of Dr. Dougherty give a deep insight into some of the prenatal
experiences.
Even more intriguing is evidence of the impact of the
mother's and father's attitudes and feelings on their unborn child. Based on
the findings of many other researchers as well as his own experience as a
psychoanalyst, Dr. Verny presents evidence that the attitude of the mother
toward the pregnancy and the child, as well as toward her partner, have a
profound effect on the psychological development of the child and on the birth
experience. The mother by her patterns of feeling and behavior is the chief
source of the stimuli which shape the fetus. Communication between mother and
her unborn child takes place in several ways: physically (through hormones, for
example), in behavior (the child's kicking, the mother's job and environmental
situation), and sympathetically or intuitively (through love, ambivalence,
dreams). One of the main means for communication of maternal attitudes and
feelings is the neurohormones the mother releases, which increase when she is
under stress. These substances cross the placenta as easily as nutrients,
alcohol, and other drugs do. In moderation these hormones cause physiological
reactions in the child which stimulate his neural and psychological systems
beneficially, but in excess they can affect the developing body adversely.
Because of the child's resilience, it is only extreme and, generally,
long-lasting stress that leaves marked negative effects, not isolated thoughts
or incidents. Moreover, the mother's love, acceptance, and positive thoughts
for the unborn child act as a very strong protection, so he will continue to
thrive even if her own situation is troubled. But if his needs for affection
and attention are not met, "his spirit and often his body, too, begin wilting"
The birth experience itself is influential: very
detailed birth memories can be retrieved, and the more traumatic the birth
experience, the higher the correlation with physiological and psychological
problems, including serious disorders such as schizophrenia and psychosis.
Again, the mother's attitude has been demonstrated to be the most important
factor in determining the character of the birth. The vital factors in
predicting the ease and speed of labor are the mother's attitudes toward
motherhood, her relations to her own mother, and the presence of habitual
worries, fears, and anxieties going beyond normal apprehension. Along with
these, women trapped in an unsatisfying relationship fall into the high-risk
category. Many problems associated with birth trauma can be prevented or
reduced by increased understanding and sensitivity on the part of health
professionals and by the parents' choice of who delivers the baby and of a
humane and comfortable birth method and location.
Those prenatal experiences carry over after birth is
beyond dispute, as case histories illustrate. In one, a man troubled with
severe anxiety attacks accompanied by hot flushes was regressed by hypnosis to
the prenatal period, and revealed that the underlying trauma had occurred in
the seventh month of pregnancy. His mother subsequently admitted trying to
abort him in the seventh month by taking hot baths. Such "lost"
memories form the record of prenatal consciousness and they can influence us
powerfully all our lives.
Extending this view further, Hartman,
David & others write in the Journal of Heart centred therapies:
psychopathology in childhood and
adolescence is predicted by certain prenatal and perinatal influences. For
example, major depression in the child is predicted by maternal emotional
problems during the pregnancy; anxiety in the child is predicted by a maternal
history of miscarriage and stillbirth; and disruptive behavior disorder in the
child is predicted by poor maternal emotional health during the pregnancy and
birth complications; substance use disorder by the child is predicted by
maternal use of substances during the pregnancy (Allen et al., 1998). Depressed
maternal emotional health during the pregnancy also predicts conduct disorder
and attention deficit disorder in the child (Downey & Coyne, 1990).
Well, all the
above findings seem to suggest that how much the awareness and education about
prenatal care of children is important. Are we as a concerned society,
meaningfully addressing these issues so that we have a future generation which
is physically, and emotionally healthy?
Can we take some
steps in this direction?
G.Balasubramanian
|
Learning Steps - A Learning community
Volume
2
|
Schooling the Kid
Step-9
Stepping into the world
The last eight
issues have brought home more than adequately the participation of the foetus
in the process of learning and how it becomes almost a preparatory stage for
further learning. It also emphasizes the need for extensive care of the growth
process of the foetus so that the mental and emotional health of the child in
the making is holistic and sound. It also focuses on the emotional attitude of
the mother and the type of relationship parents should have at the formative
periods of the child which has an impact on the emotional state of the child as
well as in the formation of attitudes. They have all been verified been
scientific and medical evidences and testified and supported by renowned
psychologists. The objective of focusing on the above issues as a part of this
series is to make all educators understand that the process of schooling does
not start exclusively from the time the child is brought to the precincts of
the school, but it is much earlier.
Writes Dr. David Chamberlain, a specialist in birth psychology
“Is a
baby a conscious and real person? To me it is no longer appropriate to
speculate. It is too late to speculate when so much is known. The range of
evidence now available in the form of knowledge of the fetal sensory system,
observations of fetal behavior in the womb, and experimental proof of learning
and memory--all of this evidence--amply verifies what some mothers and fathers
have sensed from time immemorial, that a baby is a real person. The baby is
real in having a sense of self which can be seen in creative efforts to adjust
to or influence its environment. Babies show self-regulation (as in restricting
swallowing and breathing), self-defense (as in retreating from invasive needles
and strong light), self-assertion, combat with a needle, or striking out at a
bothersome twin!
Babies are like us in having clearly manifested feelings in their
reactions to assaults, injuries, irritations, or medically inflicted pain. They
smile, cry, and kick in protest, manifest fear, anger, grief, pleasure, or
displeasure in ways which seem entirely appropriate in relation to their
circumstances. Babies are cognitive beings, thinking their own thoughts,
dreaming their own dreams, learning from their own experiences, and remembering
their own experiences.
Because of all these capabilities, we know babies remember at a very
deep level of consciousness their primal journey, the way they entered this
world.
It is also said
that the arrival of the foetus into this beautiful world is something
remarkable and has to be handled with care. While the labor is indeed a painful
activity, very often the associated fear, psychological depressions, traumas
have an impact on the nascent child.
Apart from the
trauma and experiences associated with the birth, there are several other
occasions when the just-born is exposed to a variety of unwanted experiences
which have a direct impact on their life patterns in the future years. We would
be examining in the future issues some of the experiments and research work
carried out on the first few months of the life of a baby. All these have a
great and significant meaning both to the parents and the teachers in schooling
the kid.
Dr. Terry M. Levy .Psychologist writes in his article Effects of Attachment Trauma
“Severe childhood trauma is
correlated with a wide variety of symptoms which include difficulties with
sense of self, modulating affect and relating to others. Attachment trauma
often produces symptoms in the following DSM IV categories: Disruptive Behavior
Disorders (Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Conduct Disorder, Attention-Deficit
Hyperactivity Disorder). Separation Anxiety Disorder, Reactive Attachment
Disorder of Infancy and Early Childhood, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and
Depression. Dissociative and characterological symptoms may emerge as the child
develops. Behavioral acting-out includes aggression, destruction of property,
lying, stealing and self-destructive behaviors. Extreme oppositional and
defiant behaviors are common.”
Well, so
much within a small brain? And a teacher is expected to deal with this wonderful
phenomenon to shape a human being! How do we face this challenge?
Let’s
learn more.
G.Balasubramanian
|
Learning Steps - A Learning community
Volume 2
|
Schooling the
Kid
Step-10
Basics of the brain
Having known so much about the
prenatal happenings, it is equally important to know the structure, functions
and development of the brain. This physiological entity to me is the basic
hardware of the system. A million supercomputers possibly cannot do certain
things which our brain does. It is important to understand, cultivate, nourish
and nurture the brain (through several indirect inputs) and also taking care of
its physiological safety.
While I don’t intend to deal with
the external structure of the brain (because it is available anywhere in a text
or on the internet) we will deal only with such issues which have a direct
impact on the process of learning.
- The largest and most developed portion of the brain
is called the cerebrum.
- the cerebrum is made up of billions of nerve cells
(neurons) and is divided into two hemispheres
- The right side of the cerebrum controls the left
side of the body and vice versa.
- It is the cerebrum which is responsible for higher
order thinking and decision-making functions.
- The cerebrum is made up four primary areas called
lobes. They are occipital lobe, prefrontal lobe, parietal lobe and
temporal lobe.
- Each lobe has a specified function and all lobes related to each other and interdependent.
Functions:
- Occipital lobe: vision and related activities
- Prefrontal lobe:
judgment, creativity, problem solving and planning
- Parietal lobe: higher sensory functions and
language processing
- temporal lobe: hearing, memory, meaning and
language
The above functions are
certain specific functions that happen in the identified part of the brain but
most functions are inter related and we would see in the next few issues how
they coordinate with each other.
G.Balasubramanian
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