Prenatal and Postnatal
Stimulation
Research |
An Open Window to
the World
Short summary of pre and postnatal stimulation research conducted in Venezuela by Dr.
Beatriz Manrique over a period of sixteen years.
This study stems from the author
and her team's extensive experience while working in the Ministerio del Estado para el
Desarrollo de la Inteligencia (State Department for Intelligence Development) and Proyecto
Familia (Project Family) in Venezuela. The core idea of this technique is to encourage
parents to learn the potential of their unborn child during gestation and postpartum
development. "Make Way for Baby!"was not made just to increase
intellectual results, but to conceive an emotional, mental and socially developed human
being.
Methodology
Problem: The goal was to analyze the relationship between the integral development
of children, family integration, health, nutritional education and stimulation techniques
in uterus babies, newborn and children up to the age of six.
Statistic Design: The research structure comprised 4 groups: 2 Control and 2
Experimental. Analysis was performed with the ANOVA (Varianza analysis) method.
Population:
The research was divided in three
experimental steps:
Prenatal Program: Relaxation, calisthenics, respiration types and stimulation
techniques.
Neonatal Program: Post-natal exercises, breastfeeding, analysis of baby's
functional reflexes: Suction, press, vision, audition. Other reflexes like cervical tone,
repetition, automatic march, Moro, Babinski and baby's five senses were stimulated.
First year and subsequent measurements until six: Evaluation of his/her
development, motor skills, space-time notion, anticipation, causality and language.
RESULTS
The following is a brief summary of the results from this extensive research. These
results show the relevance of this process and how is it possible to induce substantial
changes in a society at a very low cost.
Qualitative
From the very moment of birth, babies of the experimental group were more alert and turned
their head to the place they heard their parents' voices, over other ambient noises. They
recognized the music they heard when they were in the womb. These are dynamic and relaxed
children, they had initiative and were very curious. They had good eye-hand control, hand
movement, more coordination and harmonic movements. These babies laugh easily and were
very social.
Quantitative
What you are about to see is just a short summary of the results obtained during the
investigation, from delivery until 6 years of age.
MOTHERS
Mothers of the experimental
group showed more adequate behavior
during delivery.
Graph 1: Mother's behavior during delivery
BABIES:
SECOND DAY
At second day, babies of the
experimental group showed more capacity of following visual and auditory stimuli, animated
or inanimate. They have better cephalic control, movements and muscular tone.
Graph 2: Baby development at second day
neurological and conductual scale (T.B. Brazelton).
BABIES:
25th. DAY
At 25th day, stimulated
babies, in comparison with control group, have
better sight and hearing, and better reactions to stressful situations (such as too
much noise or light). All these show a more developed central
nervous system.
Graph 3: Baby development at 25th day
neurological and conductual scale (T.B. Brazelton).
CHILDREN:
18 MONTHS
A better development of mental
and motor skills is seen in the stimulated babies. There are significant differences in
language, eye-hand coordination and problem-solving.
Graph 4: Mental and Motor development at 18 months.
Nancy Bayley Scale
Graph
5: Sub-tests: Mental and Motor development at 18 months.
Nancy Bayley Scale
CHILDREN:
3 YEARS
An experimental group of
children at 3 years of age showed a better development of mental and motor skills measured
according to certain variables such as: language, visual/motor ability, memory, social
intelligence and reasoning.
Graph
6: Intelligence scale at 3 years
Stanford-Binet/McCarthy
Graph
7: Sub-tests: Intelligence scale at 3 years.
Stanford-Binet/McCarthy
CHILDREN:
4 YEARS
Children arriving at 4 years
of age had a higher verbal, execution and global IQ compared against the control group.
They had better information of the world around them and better management of daily
situations. They had a higher level of common sense and could solve problems adequately.
They were good observers and had a great capacity of analysis and synthesis
and a good concept of space and direction.
Graph 8: Intelligence scale at 4 years
(Weschler)WPSSI
Graph 9: Verbal Sub-test:Intelligence scale at 4 years
(Weschler)WPSSI
Graph 10: Execution Sub-test: Intelligence scale at 4 years.
(Weschler)WPSSI
CHILDREN:5
YEARS
Results with children five
years old showed significant differences between stimulated and control groups. The
experimental group showed better vocabulary and knowledge of their surroundings. They had
either better abilities related with reading and writing. Improved school performance is
expected in the beginning of formal schooling.
Graph 11: Intelligence scale at 5 years
(Weschler)WPSSI
Graph 12: Sub-test: Intelligence scale at 5 years
(Weschler)WPSSI
CHILDREN:
6 YEARS
Former observations apply.
Children have excellent vocabulary, abstraction capacity and motor coordination.
Graph 13: Intelligence scale at 6 years
(Weschler)WPSSI
Graph
14: Sub-test: Intelligence scale at 6 years
(Weschler)WPSSI
SUMMARY
Evaluation began upon delivery, where it was
found that mothers in the experimental group showed adequate behavior during contractions
(relaxation and breathing) and during childbirth. They did not need anesthesia and a great
percentage breastfed their babies. All these mothers also showed a strong self esteem.
Newborns had better head and general movement control, excellent visual and auditory
tracking and could pass from one state to the other (Brazelton conscience states) in a
gradual and smooth way. These babies had a good central nervous system.
At 18 months differences between control and experimental group are more evident,
especially in the mental scale.Through a factorial analysis differences were found
in the following areas: language, eye-hand coordination and problem solution.
At 3 years, differences were stronger in mental and motor scale. Children of the
stimulated group showed an excellent language development, motor coordination, memory,
social intelligence and reasoning.
IQ's of children at 4, 5 and 6 years old ranked higher in the experimental group than the
control group. Stimulated children had a stronger common sense and adequately solved day
to day problems. They were good observers with great analysis capacity.
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