As I feel the fetid breath of incipient geezerhood on my neck, I take comfort in the realization that what goes around comes around. About twenty years ago, I ran across a advertisement for a "pregaphone" which allowed mom and dad to communicate directly with the fetus by means of a pair of speakers attached to the mother's abdomen. The studies to support this device were the old ones which showed that an infant would resond positively to familiar nursery rhymes that mom had recited while the infant was a fetus. The fact that the fetus is going to hear anything that the mother hears either by pregaphone or normally obviates the need for such a device. Maybe ther is something to this after all, though, my son, who is 30, listens to the Stones, Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and the Holding Company and Quick Silver Messenger Service, all of which he undoubtedly heard in the womb. Harry Avis PhD Sierra College Rocklin, CA 95677 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Life is opinion - Marcus Aurelius There is nothing that is good or bad, but that thinking makes it so - Shakespeare >From: Rick Stevens <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: TIPS <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: Prenatal Mozart effect marketing >Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2001 13:25:08 -0500 > _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp
I just thought that some people on this list might be interested.http://slate.msn.com/culturebox/entries/01-08-17_113948.asp
A selection from the above link:
But there is no reason to wait until your child is actually born: The trend now extends to dozens of CDs for parents to play to their unborn children. Prenatal music classes are offered in New York, Houston, Los Angeles, and even Hong Kong. At least two products—Tummy Tunes and the WombSongs Prenatal System—help expecting mothers deliver music to their fetuses directly by attaching speakers or headphones to their bellies.The article is rather critical of the marketing effort:
Perhaps most notably, though, the popular Mozart for Mothers-To-Be CD tells us that "Mozart was a child prodigy, a brilliant musician, and one of the most beloved composers of all time. But, at one time, he was—just like all of us—a sweet, innocent, ordinary, baby." This is the essential fiction at the heart of the prenatal music movement...--
__ Rick Stevens
__ Psychology Department
__ University of Louisiana at Monroe
__ http://www.ulm.edu/~stevens
