Dr Rene Van de Carr - The Prenatal Classroom
Dr Rene Van de Carr is one of the earliest pioneers of prenatal stimulation and teaches parents how to stimulate their unborn babies through music and other exercises at his Prenatal University in Hayward, California.
In his most recent book, While you are expecting.your own prenatal classroom, he says, "There is a critical time in an infant's development beginning at about five months into pregnancy. Interaction between the baby and its environment stimulates brain growth both before and after birth."
This is the fundamental principal on which he bases his program which he developed in 1979 after his research showed how babies were benefiting from prenatal stimulation. Since his initial research, Dr Van de Carr, along with co-author Dr Marc Lehrer, has collected data on more than 3000 children born after going through the Prenatal University program. His remarkable findings show the following points in children who were stimulated before birth;
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Time frame - The critical time window begins at five months into pregnancy and continues until the age of two. |
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Orientation - Babies who received pre-natal stimulation were better able to deal with the world outside of the womb. |
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Movements - Babies are often more in control of their movements after birth. |
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Emotions - Babies appear more calm, alert, and happy. |
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Dr Van de Carr says, "The Prenatal Classroom program shows you a practical, everyday way of teaching your baby before he or she is born." So how can you use this program to help your baby? The following will help you decide whether this program is best for you and your baby.
The Basics
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Time – Set aside 5-10 minutes, twice a day. Van de Carr says that their years of research and practical experience have shown that this is the ideal schedule for both you and your baby. It is also beneficial to make these 'special times', one in the morning that Mom can do alone, and another one in the evening with both Mom and Dad, or another helper. |
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Starting – Van de Carr recommends you begin using the Prenatal Classroom program from the end of your second trimester. He uses a series of repetitive drum rhythms to enable your baby to become aware of sounds other than your heartbeat. In his book he says, "This is the first step in teaching your baby about the world outside the womb." However, even if you are starting the program later in pregnancy, he guides you through an alternative adapted program tailored to late starters. |
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Verbal and tactile – From about five months, your baby is ready to learn communication through both sound and touch. The Prenatal Classroom shows you exercises to optimize your baby's learning at this stage. The research carried out by Van de Carr shows how deep, baritone voices and bass drum thumps penetrate the womb wall better than higher pitched sounds and because of this he recommends "you introduce your baby to his or her first external rhythms by playing them on a small drum placed on the mother's abdomen." At five months, when you begin to feel your baby's movement, you can begin to play games that involve and stimulate your baby's sense of touch. This part of the Program is designed to encourage your baby to respond with others. |
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Teaching – By seven months you will have had a few weeks interacting with your baby and it is at this stage that Van de Carr says you should begin 'teaching' your preborn. He says at this stage it's important to practice talking to your baby and being aware of his responses. "This is a two way conversation," he says in his book, "And you need to be aware of your baby's responses as well as your own." |
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Primary words - The Prenatal Classroom uses 26 words which aim to teach your baby to associate specific sensations with specific words. These are divided into seven groups; touch-related (pat, rub), movement (sway, up), sounds (music, noise), body functions (cough, hiccup), visuals (light, dark), thermal (hot, cold), and baby moves (kick). The final Primary word is 'not' which can be introduced once your baby has learnt the other words. For example, he may have learnt 'kick' so you can teach him to stop kicking with 'not kick'. |
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Word Groups – Van de Carr says that from about 8 months you can start to put words together into simple phrases. His research has shown that in doing this you further your baby's pre-awareness of language. |
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Stories and songs – As part of the Prenatal Classroom you are encouraged to sing to your unborn baby and tell him stories. Van de Carr says that both reading and singing is a method of prenatal stimulation that enhances rhythm, adding "The human brain has different centers that receive and process speech sounds and musical rhythms, so both these activities stimulate different brain areas. |
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Secondary words – By your final month of pregnancy, your baby will be aware of the importance of words. The list of secondary words introduces your baby to things that will be important after he is born but that he cannot experience in the womb. It will also help him learn your own speech patterns and dialect. |
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Birth – Van de Carr's research has shown that if you continue with the Prenatal Classroom learning games during labor, it will provide a reassuringly familiar environment for your baby as he is born. |
Whether or not you choose to follow Van de Carr's Prenatal Program is up to you, but in the preface to the book, the authors state, "We believe that everyone, the developing baby included, has a right to education. When you are consistent in using the Prenatal Classroom exercises, your baby has an opportunity to learn what might be forever lost".
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