Emotions and child development
The process of a baby learning about the world around him occurs in several stages. The first stage is the time from the moment of his birth until approximately two months of age. The emotional connection between mother and child at this stage is strengthened with the help of ordinary touches. This happens while the mother rocks her baby in her arms, bathes him, feeds him and cares for him. The little baby moves, waves its legs and arms, constantly changes poses. Thus, through emotions, the baby’s physical condition develops and the muscles of his body become stronger. During this period, the baby’s taste buds and sense of smell are intensively developing, which are at this stage the most powerful drivers of progress in the baby’s development. After all, the most important thing for a newborn at this age is mother’s milk and its familiar smell.Then, when the baby is two months old, the next stage of his development will begin. At this age, children already actively begin to use hearing and vision to learn everything new and interesting to them. They turn their heads in the direction of the sounds being made and try to focus on objects located near them and on their mother’s face.
Until the age of six months, the expression of pain, joy, and some desires in babies occurs exclusively through the manifestation of certain emotions. By a child's cooing, smiling, and hand movements, many mothers easily understand the emotional mood and desires of their baby. These reactions are called the “revival complex.” The more often and more a mother communicates with her baby, touching him, the more clearly and vividly his emotions appear.
At the age of six months, a child’s communication takes on a different form. Babies at this age already clearly recognize their mother and are drawn to her, demanding attention. Children, like pioneers, try to copy the facial expressions and all the gestures of their mother. The emotional connection between mother and child during this period is especially clear. If mommy is in a good mood, then the baby is happy with everything. Mommy begins to get nervous, and the baby begins to cry bitterly. The older a child gets, the more emotions he shows towards his mother - he kisses her, hugs her, and cannot part with her for a long time. These reactions in children are called “attachment behavior.”
The stronger the connection, the stronger the emotions
You need to watch your baby. His emotional behavior will be able to tell a lot - whether he is happy with everything, whether he is full, whether you are looking after him correctly, or maybe he is even upset about something. It often happens that the emotional connection between children and their mothers passes through glances. Scientists have long proven that eye contact teaches babies to concentrate their attention.When a mother touches her baby, he tries to tell her something, making all kinds of sounds that express his emotional state. Smile at your children more often and they will grow up open and emotional.
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1.1 Features of building relationships between mother and child in the context of theoretical research
Child-parent relationships are the most important condition for the mental development of a child. It has been scientifically proven that insufficient communication between the baby and the mother leads to mental development delays and various types of deviations.
Thus, the characteristics of maternal behavior can influence the development of the child.
The problem of psychological readiness for motherhood is the most important in terms of developmental, preventive and correctional work in the field of psychology of motherhood and the relationship between mother and child in the first years of his life.
According to D. Bowlby, innate means of stimulating maternal care are such manifestations of child behavior as crying, smiling, sucking, grasping, babbling, etc. According to D. Bowlby, a child’s crying affects the mother at the level of physiological reactions. In turn, the child’s smile and babble encourage the mother to take various actions that demonstrate their approval.
It has been proven that for the formation of communication, establishing contact between the views of an adult and a child is of great importance. At the same time, a social smile and eye contact are a kind of encouragement, a reward for maternal care. “Can we doubt,” writes D. Bowlby, “that the more and better a baby smiles, the more he is loved and the more he is cared for. For survival purposes, babies are designed to exploit and enslave their mothers.”
In addition, in addition to the ability to attract and maintain attention, the child is also endowed with an avoidance mechanism. Vivid signals of interruption of interaction are crying, screaming, hiccups, yawning, and vigorous movements of arms and legs.
Thus, when communicating with the mother, the child is not a passive object of influence; he is able to regulate maternal behavior through the available means of communication.
Filippova G.G. studied the problem of readiness for motherhood of women expecting a child.
Personal readiness: general personal maturity; adequate age and gender identification; ability to make decisions and take responsibility; strong attachment; personal qualities necessary for effective motherhood.
Adequate model of parenting: the adequacy of the models of maternal and paternal roles formed in one’s family in relation to the model of personality, family and parenting of one’s culture; optimal parental attitudes, position, educational strategies, maternal attitude for the birth and upbringing of a child.
Motivational readiness: maturity of motivation for the birth of a child, in which the child does not become: a means of gender-role, age and personal self-realization of a woman; a means of retaining a partner or strengthening a family; a means of compensating for their parent-child relationships; a means of achieving a certain social status, etc.
Formation of maternal competence: attitude towards the child as a subject of physical and mental needs and subjective experiences; sensitivity to stimulation from the child; the ability to adequately respond to the child’s manifestations; the ability to focus on the characteristics of his behavior and his own condition to understand the child’s conditions; a flexible attitude to the regime and an orientation towards the individual rhythm of the child’s life in the early period of his development; necessary knowledge about the physical and mental development of the child, especially the age-related characteristics of his interaction with the world; ability to work together with a child; parenting and teaching skills that are appropriate to the child’s age.
Formation of the maternal sphere.
Motherhood as part of a woman’s personal sphere includes three blocks, the content of which is sequentially formed in a woman’s ontogenesis. In the emotional-need aspect: reaction to all components of the gestalt of infancy (physical, behavioral and productive-activity characteristics of the child); unification of the components of the gestalt of infancy on the child as an object of the maternal sphere; the need to interact with the child, to care for him; the need for motherhood (to experience states corresponding to the performance of maternal functions). In operational terms: operations of verbal and non-verbal communication with the child; adequate style of emotional support for interaction with the child; child care operations with the necessary style characteristics (confidence, care, gentle movements). In value-semantic terms: adequate value of the child (the child as an independent value) and motherhood; optimal balance of maternal values and other need-motivational spheres of a woman.
In the works of S.Yu. Meshcheryakova highlighted the concept of “maternal competence”. According to the author, maternal competence is determined not only by the mother’s ability to provide physiological care for the child, but also by her knowledge of the basic psychological characteristics of the child and her ability to satisfy them. The level of maternal competence already in the first months of a child’s life is determined by how she provides the conditions for the development of emotional communication and the formation of attachment in the infant.
It is emotional communication at this stage that is the main condition for the full mental development of the child. Communication is an interaction between mother and child when partners alternately address each other as a subject, an individual, expressing their attitude and taking into account the influence of the partner, and both partners are proactive.
S.Yu. Meshcheryakova identifies the following reasons for the lack of communication between mother and child:
The amount of communication is reduced due to the child’s refusal to rock the child to sleep, refusal to talk to the child, and ignoring the child’s crying;
Failure to satisfy the baby’s need for attention, which is signaled by the child’s crying, due to which parents are deprived of the opportunity to express their love and tenderness to the child in a timely manner, and thus make it difficult for him to develop confidence in parental love, security, and in his “need” to others;
Interacting with a child only on their own initiative, acting not based on the interests and needs of the child, adults deprive the child of the opportunity to develop his own initiative, since they do not allow him to feel like he is the cause of what is happening.
E.O. Smirnova also highlights communication as an important condition for a child’s development in childhood. Communication for a child, according to the author, is the main source of the child’s experiences and becomes for him the main condition for the formation of personality. In communication, the formation of such mental qualities of the child as: self-esteem, thinking, imagination, speech, feelings, emotions, etc. occurs.
E.O. Smirnova believes that a child’s personality, his interests, self-understanding, consciousness and self-awareness can only arise in relationships with adults. Without the love, attention and understanding of close adults, a child cannot become a full-fledged person.
M.I. Lisina considered communication between a child and an adult as a kind of activity, the subject of which is another person. The psychological essence of the need for communication, according to M.I. Lisina, consists in the desire to know oneself and other people.
In accordance with the research of M.I. Lisina, throughout childhood, four forms of communication appear and develop in a child, which characterize his mental development.
In the normal development of a child, each form develops at a certain age. Thus, the situational-personal form of communication appears in the second month of life and remains the only one until six to seven months. In the second half of life, situational business communication with adults is formed, in which the main thing for the child is joint play with objects. This communication remains leading for up to 4 years. At the age of four to five years, when the child already has a good command of speech and can talk with an adult on abstract topics, non-situational-cognitive communication becomes possible.
In the works of S.V. Kornitskaya studied the influence of mother-infant communication and the formation of the child’s sense of attachment to the mother. The author's research describes an experiment in which children of the first and second half of life were offered various forms of communication. Infants of the first half of the year were equally pleased with all three types of communication. Their need for friendly attention was satisfied by the gentle, calm voice of an adult and individual attention to him.
By the end of the first year, children preferred situational business communication with adults. Which indicates attachment to an adult as an object to satisfy the need for communication. The emergence and development of situational business communication affects the attitude towards an adult and sensitivity to his influences. In the first half of the year, infants react equally to the positive and negative influences of an adult, in both cases showing positive emotions. In the second half of the year, the picture of the child’s behavior changes.
Thus, a child is able to evaluate himself as a person, compare himself with other people, form self-esteem and evaluate others when communicating with other people. In addition, by experiencing a certain connection with another person (love, friendship, respect), the child learns about the world by joining a community of people. In such a connection, new knowledge is not acquired (we do not learn anything new), but at the same time, it is in relationships with others that the child finds, realizes himself, discovers and understands others in all their (and his) integrity and uniqueness and in this sense knows himself and others.
In the works of L.I. Bozhovich's mother is seen as a source of satisfying the child's need for impressions. At an early age, it is the mother’s behavior that ensures the emergence, based on the need for impressions, of the need for communication (in the form of emotional interaction).
According to N.N. Avdeeva, a child’s attachment to his mother is the most important acquisition of infancy. At the same time, signs of attachment are manifested in the fact that the object of attachment can calm and comfort the baby better than others; the baby turns to him for comfort more often than others; In the presence of an attachment figure, the infant is less likely to experience fear.
M. Ainsworth connects the infant's attachment to the mother and the quality of care for him. According to M. Ainsworth, the baby is more attached to the mother, the more mothers show the greatest sensitivity and responsiveness to the child.
The author identified some characteristics of mothers that contribute to the formation of a secure attachment: sensitivity, expressed in quick and adequate reactions to the baby’s signals; positive attitude (expression of positive emotions, love towards the baby); support (constant emotional support for the child’s actions); stimulation (frequent use of actions that guide the child).
Attachment has a certain value for the infant in terms of security and self-preservation. First of all, it gives the child a feeling of confidence when interacting with the surrounding world of objects and people, and also contributes to the adequate socialization of the child.
Abulkhanova – Slavskaya K.A. notes that the child is not an object of educational influence, but is an ally in common family life. A special feature of the interaction between a child and his mother is the fact that in the process of this communication, children have an educational impact on the parents themselves. Under the influence of communication with their own children, engaging in various forms of communication with them, performing special actions to care for the child, parents change significantly in their mental qualities, their inner mental world is noticeably transformed.
Thus, only in the productive joint activity of a mother and an early child, in the process of its implementation, does a constructive dialogue occur between mother and child.
In short, the role of the mother and her behavior are decisive in the further mental, emotional and social development of the child.
1.2 Psychological aspects of the formation of the maternal sphere
Psychological research proves that readiness for motherhood develops in stages. In psychology, there are 6 stages in the formation of the maternal sphere. And the main driving factor in the development of a child in the first years of life is the full implementation of the maternal sphere.
A.I. Zakharov identifies the following periods in the development of the “maternal instinct”: the girl’s relationship with her parents; gaming behavior; stages of sexual identification - puberty and adolescence. At the same time, the features of the manifestation of motherhood entirely depend on the psychological content of the stages of ontogenesis and create the prerequisites for harmonious relations between mother and child.
Interaction with the mother at an early age occurs at all stages of the girl’s development in the process of her communication with her mother. At the same time, the most important thing for the formation of a full-fledged maternal sphere at this stage is the age of the girl up to three years. This stage is characterized by the assimilation of the emotional meaning of the parent-child relationship.
According to L.S. Vygotsky, insufficiently formed attachment of the expectant mother to close adults can lead to fragile attachments with her own child in the future. In addition, the quality of the mother-daughter bond and its influence on the daughter's maternal sphere is determined not only by attachment, but also by the style of emotional communication and the mother's participation in the daughter's emotional life.
Representatives of the psychoanalytic approach are of the opinion that the mother’s attitude towards the child is laid before his birth. At the same time, the unborn child receives emotional experience of communication with the mother already at this stage of its development. Subsequently, this emotional experience influences the formation and content of the girl’s maternal sphere.
Thus, a positive experience of communication with the mother is a favorable condition for the formation of a subjective attitude towards other people and one’s own children.
An equally important stage in the development of the maternal sphere is the stage of including the content of motherhood in play activities. During the game, the girl takes on the role of a mother for the first time, and depending on the plot of the game, the child experiences different roles in the relationship and interaction between mother and child. Such a child’s implementation of the mother’s role in game situations and the modeling of real behavior during the game makes it possible to play out female options for a woman’s gender-role behavior, as well as to consolidate maternal motives and actions and gain emotional experience associated with motherhood.
During the babysitting stage, the child gains real-life experience with babies, as well as skills in handling a small child.
The most sensitive age for the formation of the maternal sphere at the nursing stage is the age of the child from 6 to 10 years. During this period, the child has a clear idea of the peculiarities of interaction between an adult and an infant. And the main content of this stage is the transfer of the features of interaction with a doll mastered in the game to real interactions with the baby. During adolescence, girls develop an emotional and positive attitude towards the baby during the babysitting stage.
The complete absence of the babysitting stage in ontogenesis can form negative emotional reactions to children.
The next stage in the formation of the maternal sphere is the stage of differentiation of the sexual and maternal spheres. The gender component is included in the structure of the female role in adolescence. At the same time, disharmony between sexual and sexual behavior is the main reason for the defective development of motherhood. This subsequently leads to distorted maternal functioning.
Another important basis for the disharmony in the development of the sexual and maternal spheres is the mental and social infantilism of the expectant mother, which manifests itself when demonstrating her own sexuality and in sexual behavior in general.
It has been proven that the most significant stage in the development of the maternal sphere is the stage of interaction with one’s own child. Since the main filling and structuring of the maternal sphere occurs during bearing, caring for and raising a child. This stage includes: pregnancy, childbirth, the postpartum period, and the period of infancy of the child.
There are 9 main periods of this stage of development of the maternal sphere:
Identification of pregnancy;
The period before the sensation of movement begins;
The appearance and stabilization of sensations of the child moving;
Seventh and eighth months of pregnancy;
Prenatal;
Childbirth and the postpartum period;
Newborn;
Joint-shared activities of mother and child;
The emergence of interest in the child as a person.
The final stage in the development of the maternal sphere is considered to be the stage of formation of the mother’s emotional attachment to the child. This occurs on the basis of the dynamics of the mother’s emotional relationship with the child in the process of its development.
Thus, even in the womb, close and emotional contact between the mother and the unborn child is established.
The mother’s ideas about childbirth and the postpartum period, as well as her ideas about raising the child and his individual characteristics, are, according to G.G. Filippova, an indicator of the successful development of the maternal sphere and, as a consequence, a positive attitude towards the unborn child.
The formation of emotional closeness in relationships with a child begins in the prenatal period and continues to develop after childbirth. In this case, a special role in the formation of emotional intimacy is given to mutual sensory stimulation while caring for the baby.
The ability to identify the child's needs and organize the mother's own actions, which are formed in the process of caring for the newborn, depend on maternal competence and attitude towards the child.
Within the framework of the psychoanalytic approach, the mother’s competence is determined by the peculiarity of her condition, which allows her to identify with the child.
In social learning theory, this process is considered as mutual learning of mother and child to send and recognize signals about their states in the process of interaction.
Thus, the attitude towards the child is formed, stabilized and consolidated during pregnancy, going through phases of symbiosis and separation.
Initially, in the symbiosis phase, the woman’s attitude towards the child is identified with the attitude towards herself, while the child appears to the woman as something one with herself, she does not differentiate the child as a separate being.
At the separation phase, the subjects of the “mother-child” relationship are separated in the consciousness of a pregnant woman, and the child is already presented as independent in his needs and behavioral reactions. Individualization of the child and attitude towards him as a subject is an important characteristic of the maternal relationship, which allows the mother not only to take into account the individual characteristics of the child, but also to flexibly vary the styles of communication with him. Therefore, timely passage of the separation phase contributes to the establishment of optimal maternal-child relationships in the newborn period.
Disturbances in the interaction between mother and child during the newborn period have negative consequences not only for the child’s personality, but also for the further formation of the woman’s maternal sphere.
During the period of joint-separation activity between mother and child, the woman has already formed a certain style of emotional interaction with the baby, the operational-behavioral side of motherhood has been fixed, and the life situation has been built taking into account the presence of a child. Further filling of the maternal sphere occurs in connection with the care and care of the child in the process of its development, the development of parenting styles, and living through situations that require the mother to realize her function as the object of the child’s attachment.
The next period in the formation of motherhood is the emergence of interest in the child as an individual, and occurs in the second year of the child’s life. During this period, the mother’s functions are complicated by the need to change her relationship with the child. Mothering must now combine security and independence. Therefore, the formation of a harmonious maternal relationship in this period depends on the degree of sensitivity of the mother to the needs and problems of the child, as well as her motivation to participate in play activities, and interest in the ways the child sets and solves play problems.
The mother’s constant participation in the child’s life, on the one hand, and giving him the opportunity to be the initiator in his motives and actions, on the other, contribute to the development and maintenance of emotional closeness in relationships, observation of the child’s personal changes, and the mother’s interest in his individual, independent path of development.
Only the stable dominance of the child’s value and an adequate style of emotional maternal relationship can provide the opportunity to develop a personal attitude towards the child and maintain his emotional well-being in life situations.
1.3 Basic conditions for the formation of emotional closeness and trusting communication between mother and child
Personal relationships between mother and child are established in the process of interaction and mutual influence on each other. V.A. Petrovsky insists that “joint activity and active communication between adults and children, their cooperation and community in real, living contacts with each other - this is the environment in which the personality of a child and the personality of an adult as an educator arise and develop.”
In the process of repeated interactions with the mother and other loved ones, the child develops “working models of himself and other people” that help him navigate in society. A positive model of communication can be formed under the influence of trusting, attentive and caring communication with the mother. Disharmonious relationships convince the child of the negativism and danger of the surrounding reality.
Also, in the process of interaction with the mother, the child develops a “model of himself.” With positive communication it is initiative, independence, confidence and self-respect, and with negative communication it is passivity, dependence on others, and an inadequate self-image.
In addition, the child transfers the primary attachment formed in childhood to communication with peers. Thus, children with secure attachment are socially competent in interactions with peers.
Due to the mother’s positive attitude towards the child and sensitivity to his needs, the baby develops a feeling of security and support, which he transfers to further communication with other people, as well as a secure attachment to the mother.
Mothers who are inconsistent in showing care for the baby, showing either enthusiasm or indifference depending on their mood, have children who demonstrate insecure attachment.
Exploring the parental position as the real direction of the educational activity of parents, arising under the influence of the motives of education, its adequacy, flexibility, predictability, A. S. Spivakovskaya attracts such a feature as the ability of a parent to see, understand the individuality of his child, to notice the changes taking place in his soul. “Constant tactful peering, feeling into the emotional state, the inner world of the child, the changes occurring in him, especially his mental structure - all this creates the basis for deep mutual understanding between children and parents at any age.” Such sensitivity to the child is determined by the general emotional a value-based attitude towards it, which is the basis of interaction between a parent and a child, and it is no coincidence that it is used to characterize parental attitudes, parenting styles, and types of family education.
In the studies of S.Yu. Meshcheryakova has proven that by quickly responding to the child’s crying and positive or negative emotions, the mother shows high sensitivity to the baby, thereby creating favorable conditions for his development.
Such a mother provides the child with personal qualities in advance; She interprets any manifestations of the baby as appeals to her.
In this case, an atmosphere of emotional communication is involuntarily organized, which awakens in the child the need for communication.
The mother's sensitivity to the child's manifestations and the emotional intensity of her calls to him ensure emotional communication between the child and mother. In the process of joint communication with the mother, the child develops such personality qualities as: attachment to the mother, positive self-awareness, and a sense of security.
The study by E. Poptsova discusses the reasons for a mother’s more or less emotionally warm relationship with her child. According to the author, it is associated with the socio-economic status, cultural level, age of the mother, and the experience of her own upbringing in the parental family.
AND I. Varga defines parental attitude as an integral system of various feelings towards the child, behavioral stereotypes practiced in communication with him, characteristics of upbringing and understanding of the child’s character and his actions. Parental attitude is a multidimensional formation, including integral acceptance or rejection of the child, interpersonal distance, i.e. the degree of closeness of the parent to the child, the form and direction of control over his behavior. Discussing aspects of the parental relationship (emotional, cognitive, behavioral), the author believes that the emotional component occupies a leading position.
A.I. Sorokina, studying the development of an emotional relationship with an adult in the first year of life, studied children with different communication experiences: infants from families and from orphanages. The results of the study showed that infants from an orphanage experiencing a lack of communication show positive emotions when exposed to negative influences from an adult, while children from families begin to react negatively to them already at the end of the first half of the year.
The experience of communication also affects the intensity and variety of emotional manifestations of infants. In the first half of the year, family children show more bright smiles, joyful vocalizations, and vigorous manifestations of motor activity than children from an orphanage. In the second half of the year, their negative emotions are more diversely expressed: family children become offended, angry, whine pitifully, and display many shades of dissatisfaction, embarrassment, and “coquetry”; orphans predominantly show constraint, fear and mild discontent.
According to Mukhamedrakhimov R.Zh., violations of the social and emotional interaction of the child and mother contribute to the manifestation of loneliness in the child at an older age. At the same time, the author argues that the mother’s presence in a stressful situation leads to negative consequences and negatively affects the child’s psyche.
Emotional deprivation that occurs in the mother-child relationship at an early age can negatively affect the mother-child relationship, as well as the child’s ability to establish contact with peers, which in turn can negatively affect the child’s emotional and social well-being.
In his research, Mukhamedrakhimov R.Zh insists that the most harmonious and emotionally favorable relationship between mother and child is established when the child and mother live in a family, in conditions of emotional, economic, social, physical stability, predictability, and security. When the mother, from the very birth of the child, is focused on understanding him, is sensitive and responsive to his signals and impulses, sensitively captures and promptly satisfies the child’s needs.
D. Stern established that the mother’s behavior in communication with the baby differs from communication with older children and is expressed in the following features: the “childishness” of the mother’s speech addressed to the baby; increased pitch of the voice and its melodiousness. According to the psychologist, this form of behavior has great meaning for the mental development of the child. During the pause between calls, an infant capable of imitation is able to respond to the mother’s initiative with vocal imitation, which in turn encourages her to continue the interaction that has begun and change behavior, adapting to the child. And the baby, receiving a positive communication experience, will subsequently respond to these initiatives, which will subsequently lead to a dialogue between mother and child.
Also, D. Stern notes the slow formation and long retention of a particularly emotional facial expression and the repetition of actions, unusual in the tempo and rhythm of movements of approaching and moving away from the baby. The repertoire of expressive facial expressions is limited and does not change: an expression of surprise - to show readiness or an invitation to interact; smiling or expressing interest to maintain contact. The mother frowns or looks away if she wants to end the interaction, and when avoiding it, maintains a neutral expression.
Thus, the stereotypical behavior of the mother when interacting with the child, consisting of constant in content and stereotypical manifestations of behavior, creates in the child a feeling of stability and predictability of the world around him, a sense of security.
Between 2 and 6 months, mother and baby learn to interact with each other. They learn to read each other's start and end signals, take turns, and build long chains of interaction.
In the second half of life, the child moves to the stage of business communication. This transition is accompanied by the following signs.
At 6-7 months, the baby tries to attract his mother to joint actions, to draw her attention to some object. He willingly plays with toys, mastering all new actions. The main task of education during this period is to create conditions conducive to bringing substantive activity to the forefront.
From 9 months, the baby is already guided by the mother’s emotional reaction. At the same time, when faced with an uncertain situation, he seeks information to understand and assess the situation from a loved one, capturing the mother’s reaction to what is happening.
Mutual adaptation, the presence of the infant’s own social activity in interactions with the mother led to the conclusion: “The child and mother change each other. They both develop. Socialization is not a one-way, but a two-way enterprise: like education, it is essentially a joint affair.”
Thus, the mother’s influence on the child’s mental development is great, since the development of the child’s personality occurs in the process of objectifying the need for communication. The need for a “different” person, contact with him during communication and interaction is the driving force behind the formation and development of a child’s personality.
The famous children's doctor A. Nauri wrote: “...Over 35 years of practice, it became clear to me that the most difficult thing a child can experience is interaction with an eternally worried mother. Why? Because the connection between mother and child is extremely strong and it is established during pregnancy. A mother who is worried all the time introduces negative emotionality into her relationship with her child.”
How strong is the bond between mother and child in the womb?
This is not the first time that the question of the special sensitivity of the fetus to the emotional state of the mother has been raised, and it is this phenomenon of the “emotional response of the fetus” that is confirmed by many researchers. What is certain is that the baby is not passive in the womb, but is an extremely sensitive being that holds many things in its brain.
Of course, no one would under any circumstances undertake to draw analogies between the abilities and developmental possibilities of a child during childhood (say, after three years) and a fetus, but the fetus has some ideas about the outside world thanks to taste, smells, tactile sensations, and sounds. It detects the mother's movement, her caresses, the taste of the food she eats and physiological changes associated with maternal emotions.
A group of French researchers experimentally proved that during the last three months of pregnancy, the fetus can distinguish voices and knows two syllables, two phrases, two smells and two tastes. He is capable of learning, more intensively than any newborn, even if he is a natural genius.
Repeatedly reading the same text aloud or playing a piece of music resulted in a decrease in heart rate measured over six weeks, while hearing music for the first time resulted in an increase in heart rate. The mother-child bond is strong. The fetus, like the premature baby, distinguishes between the mother's speech addressed to him and that addressed to another person. At the end of pregnancy, the baby prefers light noise to silence, voices to noise, female voices to male voices. In addition, he loves joyful sounds more than sad or angry ones, which means he distinguishes the mood of adults.
Communication between mother and child
As F. Dolto argued, communication with the fetus during pregnancy can have psychotherapeutic significance: “It is necessary to talk with the child about everything that concerns him and tell the truth from childhood. What is more difficult for a human being is that which is devoid of meaning and does not pass through speech.”
It is Dolto who asserts that even an unborn child is already a person: “Every child gives himself life by his desire to live.”
The fact that the embryo lives and that the mother's body does not reject the fetus indicates a general desire for life. Thus, from the moment of conception, the fetus is a future human being and is in constant communication with the mother: “Her emotional state and all the events she experiences influence its psychological structure.” A mother who “forgets” that she is pregnant may end up with a child with severe mental disabilities.
Emotional connection between mother and child
Psychologists and psychiatrists have identified the presence of another significant factor - the quality of the emotional connection that exists between mother and child. The love with which she carries the child, the thoughts associated with his appearance, the wealth of communication that the mother shares with him, influence the developing psyche of the fetus.
Do you know that from the end of the third month the fetal finger often ends up in the mouth? The cause of thumb sucking may be the mother's prolonged sad or anxious state. Joy, excitement, fear or anxiety affect the rhythm of her heartbeat, blood circulation and metabolism: when the mother is happy, the blood carries joy hormones endorphins; when sad or anxious - stress hormones catecholamines. The child also experiences corresponding sensations (safety or danger). The embryo, of course, still perceives these signals unconsciously, but with his whole being he already feels how he is treated - with joy or anxiety, calm or fear.
The mother's attitude towards the unborn child directly affects its development. Moreover, external stress factors do not directly affect the baby; only the mother, passing them through herself, allows or not their influence on the child. Strong positive emotions of a pregnant woman do not harm the child at all - on the contrary, hormonal changes and the diversity of the mother’s inner life have a beneficial effect on the development of the baby. It is worse if the mother is in the grip of negative experiences for a long time and cannot or does not want to free herself from them.
Emotions and the space surrounding a person are characterized by a very close relationship. Unhappiness and mental pain cause feelings of heart compression and lack of air. Negative emotions such as fear, jealousy, anger lead to a feeling of heaviness, poor health and enslavement. Joy gives the mother a feeling of mental comfort, which has a positive effect on the child.
Remember: In order for the bond between mother and child to be strong, a conscious positive attitude towards the fetus is necessary for the formation of a healthy psyche of the child.
Fetal sensory abilities
The theory of prenatal education is based on the idea of the need to provide the embryo and then the fetus with the best materials and conditions. This should become part of the natural process of developing all the potential, all the abilities originally inherent in the egg.
The inner ear, which senses sounds and transmits signals to the brain, is formed at the end of the sixth month of pregnancy, and the fetus perceives and responds to sounds. For example, it is believed that choral singing improves the well-being and strengthens the nerves of the mother, who subsequently gives birth to healthy, calm babies who are able to quickly and easily adapt to a wide variety of situations. The latter is a sign of stable mental balance, which will be useful to the child in later life.
What should you tell the fetus?
Few people know, but the sensory abilities of the fetus are truly limitless. Thanks to them, the bond between mother and child only becomes stronger.
- If the father regularly talks to the fetus during his wife's pregnancy, then almost immediately after birth the child will recognize his voice. Often parents also note that children recognize music or songs heard in the prenatal period. Moreover, they act on children as an excellent sedative and can be successfully used to relieve strong emotional stress.
- As for the mother’s voice, its effect is so great that it is possible to relieve tension in children and adults and return them to a state of balance by simply listening to its recording made through a liquid medium. In this case, patients perceive the voice as they perceived it while in the womb and floating in the amniotic fluid. This return to the prenatal period, characterized by safety, allows both young and old patients to establish a new contact with the primary energy and eliminate unwanted effects.
The influence of music on the fetus
The fetus also selectively perceives the music that the mother listens to during a concert. Thus, the music of Beethoven and Brahms excites him, while the works of Mozart and Vivaldi calm him. As for rock music, only one thing can be said: it makes him go crazy. It was noticed that expectant mothers are often forced to leave the concert hall due to the unbearable suffering experienced due to the rapid movement of the fetus.
Listening to music regularly can be a genuine learning process. No one would dare to say that a mother who often listened to music or played a lot of some musical instrument during pregnancy will necessarily give birth to a composer, virtuoso musician or singer. There is no doubt that the bond between mother and child will be strong and he will be receptive to music and to various sounds. In addition to the possible development of certain abilities, the mother will certainly instill in the child a taste for music, which will significantly enrich his entire subsequent life. However, a developing creature remembers not only sensory information, but also stores in the memory of its cells information of an emotional nature that its mother provides to it.
The bond between mother and child during pregnancy is absolute: everything the mother goes through, the baby experiences as well. The mother is the child’s first universe, his “living raw material base” from both a material and mental point of view. The mother is also an intermediary between the outside world and the child. The human being forming inside the womb does not perceive it directly; it continuously picks up the sensations, feelings and thoughts that the surrounding world evokes in the mother. This being registers the first information, capable of coloring the future personality in a certain way, in cell tissue, in organic memory and at the level of the nascent psyche.
The bond between mother and child is a fact as old as time. Since ancient times, women have always intuitively felt this connection. For ancient civilizations, the importance of the pregnancy period was an absolutely immutable truth. The Egyptians, Indians, Celts, Africans and many other peoples developed a set of laws for mothers, couples and society as a whole, which provided the child with the best conditions for life and development. More than a thousand years ago, prenatal clinics existed in China, where expectant mothers spent their period pregnancy, surrounded by peace and beauty.
Psychologists and psychiatrists have identified the presence of a significant factor indicating the importance of the mother-child connection: this is the quality of the emotional connection that exists between mother and child. The love with which a mother bears a child; thoughts associated with its appearance; the wealth of communication that the mother shares with him influences the developing psyche of the fetus and its cellular memory, forming the basic personality qualities that persist throughout subsequent life.
Of particular importance is the awareness of the connection between mother and child by the pregnant woman herself. In particular, research shows that if the mother did not think about the child she was carrying in her womb. that is, she did not imagine him, did not talk to him, did not try to concentrate on his feelings, then such children at birth have a weight that did not reach the average, they more often experience various serious disorders in the digestive tract and nervous disorders. At an early age, such children cry a lot more. They also experience certain difficulties in the process of adapting to the environment and to life. Thus, mothers pay for not knowing the fact that the breeding ground for development is their own feelings and thoughts, and the need for love arises even before birth.