What are your baby’s two hidden senses?
You will know that we have 5 senses: sight, sound, taste, touch, smell. These are our extrinsic senses, senses that we have some control over. But did you know we have 2 intrinsic senses: vestibular and proprioception?
These two senses along with vision, combine to make our vestibular system (our balance system). Your vestibular is located in your inner ear and forms part of the fluid system of your body. You have one in each ear – a mirror image of each other – and the structure is designed to cope with gravity and a 3D world.
The vestibular has been part of our human structure from early on in our development and can be found in very early fossils. It is part of our primitive brain and affects all our other senses.
Why is it important?
- Your vestibular is one of the first senses to develop (this is at 5 months in utero)
- It helps you know where you are in space and if you are moving or still
- It helps combat the forces of gravity – without it we would be flopping around like a jelly fish
- It enables us to function within our 3d world
- Controls 4 different areas which are important for baby’s development…
1. Head & Eyes
Your vestibular system helps you coordinate your head and eye movements, so that you can:
- read
- visually track a moving object
- recognise if it’s the object moving or our head moving
2. Muscles
The developing desire to remain upright and to control your bodies balance and position in space prompts development of muscle tone and development of our proprioception (spatial awareness and the senses within our muscles
Sitting still is an advanced skill that can only be achieved when the whole balance system is fully developed and something we expect of our children well before they are physically confident at doing this!!
3. Balance & Equilibrium
Messages from your inner ear canals are sent to the brain to tell you the position of your head, so that you can control your body and stop yourself from falling over – and what is walking really other than not falling over continually whilst leaning forwards? That is the case initially anyway as toddlers take their first few steps.
4. Symmetry
We need a healthy vestibular (with both ears working in perfect harmony) in order to help coordinate the left and right sides of our bodies in order to:
- Ride a bicycle
- Crawl
- Catch
- Clap
- or later on more advanced skills like play the piano
At Baby College we believe that healthy development of our vestibular and proprioception systems is vital for good overall development and will help to compensate for our modern sedentary lifestyle – which especially affects babies!
