Effects of the Firstart Method of Prenatal Stimulation on Psychomotor Development: The First Six Months

This paper explores the effectiveness of the Firstart prenatal stimulation
method applied to a sample of maternity patients at University Hospital “La Fe” in Valencia, with 71 women in
the control group and 101 in the experimental group. Both groups were enrolled in the birth preparation course
offered at the hospital. In addition, future mothers in the experimental group wore a waistband equipped with
small speakers connected to a tape recorder which played a series of eight tapes of violin sounds. Mothers
exposed the unborn babies to an average of 70 hours of music from about 28 weeks to the end of pregnancy.
After birth the Observational Scale of Development” originated by F. Secadas was used by mothers to chart the
onset of behaviors from 0 to 6 months. On 22 items of the scale, behaviors of the experimental group babies
were significantly advanced from those of the control group. Findings reveal the superiority of prenatally
stimulated children in gross and fine motor activities, in linguistic development, in some aspects of somatosensory coordination, and in certain cognitive behaviors.