Movement and sound are  fundamental. Sound is resonant movement. As a fetus in our mother’s womb we first perceive being alive in the world through movement and sound. The vestibular system of our inner ear is the first perceptual system to fully develop in utero. It registers all movement and sound resonance in relation to the gravitational field of planet Earth. All of our other senses are oriented and developed based on this movement and sound foundation.

The vestibular system was evolved by our early fish ancestors in a need to better orient their moving bodies in gravity, space, speed, and sound. It is though this sensing information from the vestibular that core body muscles of fetuses, newborns and toddlers are triggered, thus engaging reflexes and developmental movement patterns to assist in the birthing process, in orienting in Earth’s gravitational field, and in the multiplicity of movement mile stones that result in coming to sitting, crawling, standing, walking, and moving two-legged in the world.

All of a baby’s movement-sound perceptions, developments and experiences correspond with emotional-relational-mental developmental counterparts. This is our psycho-biological reality. Biological development begets emotional-psychological development which in turn begets further biological development—a reciprocal, spiraling process.

Through this movement base all of our senses and perceptions are organized. This is motor-sensory-perceptual integration—more recently shortened to sensory-integration. This is the learning process. Fetus, infants, toddlers, children, and humans all need movement and sound to live, develop, relate, and learn.

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Photo Credits: Rebecca R. Burrill