When To Start Teaching Your Baby (1)

When To Start Teaching Your Baby (1)By Roy Thomsitt
When is it that I should start teaching my baby? That is aquestion that may come to mind for many first time parents;other parents may never consider the question at all, and justleave things to evolve naturally.
In a way, that is an unnecessary question as, whether you likeit or not and whether you mean to or not, you begin teachingyour baby while it is still in the womb, and then continuethrough its early years, teenage years, and even into adulthood.So, perhaps it is better to rephrase that question slightly to"when should I consciously start teaching my baby?"
Even with the rephrased question, the answer is the same: whilethe baby is in the womb. How can that be?
While the baby is in the womb it starts to learn about itsenvironment after about six months of pregnancy, when it iscapable of hearing external sounds. Of course, it is aware ofits internal environment earlier than that, but there is littleyou can do to enhance that. But when it comes to the externalenvironment, you are in a position to have some influence evenfrom that early stage of development.
What Can You Teach Your Baby In The Womb?
With the baby in the womb there is clearly a very limited scopefor teaching as such. However, you can provide additionalstimulation that will form an important part of their learningat that stage. You can provide many hints as to what the outsideenvironment is like, in a way that sets a good foundation fortheir feeling of love and security.
The main external awareness of a baby in the womb is sound. Ifyou can make the external sounds comforting and welcoming thenthat will help the baby more than you may think. Music is aproven stimulation to babies, especially classical music; adaily dose of Mozart will stimulate the baby's brain and senses.With any luck, they will become a musical talent, but that isnot an issue at this stage of their development.
You do not, of course, have to restrict her to classical music.Whatever music you like, just turn the volume up a bit more thanusual to ensure she hears it. The sound will be muffled, but bythe time baby is born, she will be used to your musical tastes.Your aim should be to make the outside environment familiar tothe baby. Most of that will happen naturally, and she willbecome used to the daily sounds, such as vacuum cleaner,liquidizer, lawnmower and other domestic noises that arepenetrating.
Our baby daughter was born in the Philippines, where our usualform of transport is a tricycle. I do not think it a coincidencethat, once she was born, she was contented with the noise of atricycle; and they are noisy here, I assure you, especiallyoutside the womb! However noisy the tricycle, she would alwaysbe asleep within a minute or two, and even now at 20 months isparticularly relaxed on a deafening tricycle.
If you want to insist on having a most important sound in thewomb, then it must be the voices of the parents. Getting to knowthe voice of mum and dad will come naturally, but dad especiallycan get up close and talk to the baby in the womb. It will nottalk back of course, but you can rest assured, if she is awake,she will be intrigued by your up close and personal voice. It issomething I did every evening with Saffron. That also had theeffect of keeping her awake as long as possible during theevening, so she was less restless at night. That can be veryhelpful for mum to get a good night's sleep.
Another external stimulation which I never learnt about for mynow grown up children, and that is light. This can be even moreuseful for keeping baby awake in the evening. If you take apowerful flashlight, switch it on, and hold it close to mum'stummy, the baby in the womb will respond to it. I must say Ithought it a silly idea, until the then unborn Saffron startedmoving every time the light was switched on. So, the flashlightbecame another tool in the "keep baby awake in the evening"campaign to stop mum being kicked so much during the night.
Maybe Saffron did not appreciate my "keep her awake" tactics.She was probably wondering "who is this guy keeping me awake allthe time; doesn't he realise I want to get some sleep?"
However, she does seem to have done well on it. She has sleptlike a log all night, every night apart from one, since she wasjust a few months' old. The odd night? Apparently, a bad dreamat 11 pm. A quick cuddle and words of reassurance, and she wasback to sleep again.
Whether that has any connection to her in-the-womb experiences,I cannot say for sure. But I will definitely be using the sametactics again next time, if we are blessed with a baby sister orbrother for her.
About the Author: Roy Thomsitt is the owner/author ofhttp://www.bouncing-new-baby.com, and, ably assisted by his babydaughter, the Baby Bloghttp://feeds.feedburner.com/bouncing-new-baby/RVnf
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