Can Playing Maternal Voice and Heartbeat Sounds Benefit Premies?

Nearly five years ago, Amir Lahav became a parent of twins born prematurely at 25 weeks. They weighed just over 1 pound each.

Welcoming two newborns into the family certainly changed his life, but as a neuroscientist, it also ended up changing the course of his research.

Lahav studies how the brain processes sounds, and worked primarily with neurologically impaired adults, but with the birth of his twins, his paternal instinct kicked in.

He approached the chief of newborn medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, where the babies lay in incubators.

“Could I put a recording of my wife's voice in there?” Lahav asked, convinced that hearing their mother’s soothing tones would improve the babies’ development. The answer: It's certainly worthwhile.

Using his computer, Lahav recorded his wife’s voice telling the babies they’re fighters and urging them to be strong.

He also included some soothing piano music, figuring it could prove relaxing for preemies. Then he tinkered with the sound to make it resemble what a baby would hear in utero.

While we hear through air, babies in the womb process sound through fluid so what passes as hearing consists of more low-frequency vibrations. (Think about slipping beneath the surface of the bath as someone talks to you, or try speaking while putting a finger in each ear.) “It’s as if babies are living in a micro-subwoofer,” explains Lahav.

The twins seemed to like the recordings, and doctors and nurses in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) were intrigued.

Moreover, it proved therapeutic for Lahav and his wife. “It was not a controlled trial,” says Lahav, “but just a crazy father trying to do something because especially in the case of premature babies, you feel very helpless.”

Once his twins left the hospital, Lahav returned to thank the chief for letting him experiment.

One thing led to another, and they found themselves in a serious conversation about prematurity and how the focus of neonatal medicine has changed from saving the lives of these babies, doctors have grown expert at keeping preemies alive, to helping them grow into healthy children.

Studies have shown that premature infants are at greater risk of having low IQ and developing metabolic or chronic conditions in young adulthood that can shorten their lives.

Could keeping them bathed in mom’s comforting sounds lower the incidence of some of these adverse effects on their health? Lahav wound up with a job offer to find out.

Read more: Can Playing Maternal Voice and Heartbeat Sounds Benefit Premies?

Dyslexia Defined: Divergence in IQ and Reading ability

This graph shows the divergence between IQ and Reading ability in dyslexics.

It also shows that IQ and reading ability track together in typical readers.

Credit: Sally and Bennett Shaywitz, Yale University, Psychological Science.

For health workers, parents and guardians of children who suffer from Dyslexia it has long been known that these children are highly intelligent, despite there learning disorder. Some would say that they are above average in intelligence.

Accomplished People
Contrary to popular belief, some very famous and accomplished people cannot read well. This arguably, unexpected difficulty in reading, in relation to intelligence, education and professional status is called dyslexia.

Recent psychological research at Yale School of Medicine and University of California Davis, have presented new data that may help to explain why some bright and intelligent people struggle to read.

The Journal of Psychological Science
In January 1, 2010, the study will be published in the journal Psychological Science, and it promises to provide a validated definition of dyslexia. "For the first time, we've found empirical evidence that shows the relationship between IQ and reading over time differs for typical compared to dyslexic readers," said Sally E. Shaywitz, M.D., the Audrey G. Ratner Professor in Learning Development at Yale School of Medicine's Department of Pediatrics, and co-director of the newly formed Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity.

Cognitive v Reading
Using data from the Connecticut Longitudinal Study, an ongoing 12-year study of cognitive and behavioral development in a representative sample of 445 Connecticut schoolchildren, Shaywitz and her team tested each child in reading every year and tested for IQ every other year. They were looking for evidence to show how the dissociation between cognitive ability and reading ability might develop in children.

Tracking
The researchers found that in typical readers, IQ and reading not only track together, but also influence each other over time but in children who suffer from dyslexia, IQ and reading are not linked over time and do not influence one another. Thus confirming that a dyslexic child can be both bright and not read well.

Uncoupling
Like so many others who are working with children who suffer from Dyslexia, Shaywitz said "I've seen so many children who have a high IQ but are struggling to read. Our findings of an uncoupling between IQ and reading, and the influence of this uncoupling on the developmental trajectory of reading, provide confirmational evidence to support the concept that dyslexia is an unexpected difficulty with reading in children who otherwise have the intelligence to learn to read."

Reading Not automatic
Typical readers learn how to associate letters with a specific sound. "All they have to do is look at the letters and it's automatic," Shaywitz explained. "It's like breathing; you don't have to tell your lungs to take in air. In dyslexia, this process remains manual." Each time a dyslexic sees a word, it's as if they've never seen it before. People with dyslexia have to read slowly, re-read, and sometimes use a marker so they don't lose their place.

A Disparity
"A key characteristic of dyslexia is that the unexpected difficulty refers to a disparity within the person rather than, for example, a relative weakness compared to the general population," said co-author Bennett A. Shaywitz, M.D., the Charles and Helen Schwab Professor in Dyslexia and Learning Development and co-director of the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity.

One in Five
Sally Shaywitz estimates that one in five people are dyslexic and points to many accomplished writers, physicians and attorneys with dyslexia who struggle with the condition in their daily lives. This long list of famous and accomplished people includes Carol Greider, the 2009 Nobel laureate in medicine. She hopes to dispel many of the myths surrounding the condition.

High Performing
"High-performing people who suffer from Dyslexia, are very intelligent, often innovative, lateral thinkers and therefore, great problem-solvers," she said. "The neural signature for dyslexia is seen in children and adults. You cannot run away from or outgrow dyslexia, it is with you for life and you need to learn the best way to deal with that."

Words: Spoken and Written
Shaywitz also stresses that the problem is with both basic spoken and written language. People with dyslexia may need time to retrieve words, so they might not speak or read as fluidly as others.

Stress and Anxiety
An increases in levels of stress and anxiety, can make dealing with the effect of dyslexia worse. The time pressure around standardised tests like the SATs and entrance exams for professional schools, so the need for support and accommodations is key in helping those with the disorder realise their potential, she says.

Don't Panic!
If you do have concerns about a child or an adult who is suffering from Dyslexia consult a qualified consultant. Meantime, feel free to leave your comments about this article and don't hesitate to let me know of your success stories and concerns.