Mobiles

Elliot is 8 weeks old today.  And he just fell in love with his mobile.

We have one of those crib mobiles that's designed by child development specialists: a series of interchangeable cards with various designs printed on them, each perfectly chosen to stimulate a different twist of neurons in our budding genius' brain.  Since, as everyone knows, newborns can't see in color (although it turns out there's plenty of scientific debate on the subject), there are cards printed only in black and white, and others with squiggles and lines, silhouettes of insects, circles and dots.

For the first few weeks of his life, Elliot wasn't all that excited about the mobile.  We have it mounted over the table where we change his diaper, so he's been getting regular but brief exposure to it.  And he used to glance it but also look at our faces, or look at the canary yellow wall next to his head.

In the past week, though, the mobile has developed a rhapsodizing effect.  As soon as he is placed on the changing table, his eyes lock on the little squares of plastic floating 8 inches over his head.  There are four images, and he seems to devour each one completely with his vision before moving on to the next.

Sounds great, right?  Visual stimulation occurring.  He's rapt with attention, so it must be good for his brain.  Neurons firing, connections wiring.

But here's where it gets interesting.  He's also started crying when we take him off the changing table.  And not just a little "sad to see the mobile gone" cry.  He's really upset, inconsolable for a five or ten minutes.

Which got me thinking about what it is that mobiles are supposed to be doing for children.  After all, since they're designed by child development specialists, they must be good, right?

But mobiles were invented many years before child development experts were.  And the people who invented them were not trying to improve the wiring in their kids' brains.  They were trying to get them to shut up.

And since when does rapt attention mean the child's brain is improving?  Watch a five year-old in front of a TV showing cartoons --- visual stimulation alone is not necessarily a good thing.

Am I saying that crib mobiles are the TV cartoons of the under-1 set?  That does seem a bit extreme.  Infants are still trying to learn how to see, so simple visual stimulation might be good for them in a way that it's not when a child gets older.

But I think there's something to the notion that these little squares, floating 8 inches away with clear images printed on them, are easier for an infant to look at than the complex, depth-perception-filled world where he has to live the rest of his life.

It doesn't mean throw away your mobile.  Just be aware that your infant may be using the mobile to rest his eyes.  He's staring at it not because it's more interesting than the rest of the world, but because it's less interesting, and therefore less exhausting.

But then, I'm not a child development expert.