Upside Down!

Being upside-down provides our babies with a quite different perspective on the world (and makes them laugh! Well, Jarvis does anyway!).

It also provides their developing brains with some important information about gravity and movement, our place in space. Deep inside our middle ear is a very complex place, with an awful lot going on.

A very basic explanation of what's happening in there is that there are three tiny canals deep inside each ear, all filled with liquid. When we move this liquid swishes around, and pushes on a structure called a cupula, which contains tiny hair cells. The tiny hair cells translate the movement into electrical signals, which our brains can then process!

In other posts I've mentioned the importance of sensory stimulation for our littlest people, (stop and smell the flowers), and the stimulation of the Vestibular System is one of the most important sensory experiences of them all.

Our vestibular system keeps us standing upright, maintaining our balance, and moving around. It helps our brains to process what our eyes can see, it helps our brains to process the millions of messages which come from the rest of our bodies about the environment around us (our fingers, hands & feet for example).

There are many wonderful ways to stimulate the vestibular system! I'll offer a couple, and I'd love to hear your ideas :)

• Hammocking, like we do at Kindermusik! The gentle rocking action gets the liquid in the inner ear swishing :)
• Gently rocking side to side, and back to front
• Holding our babies in a variety of ways - upright, upside down (be careful to judge how much your child likes this one! I don't think it would appeal to everyone!), facing you, facing away...Every new position makes a new connection.

Remember - be gentle & be aware of your baby's response to different kinds of stimulation, everyone has a different perspective of what's enjoyable & what isn't :)

Enjoy finding new & exciting ways to get that Vestibular System going!