Safety first: But using baby seats indoors is undesirable

As a child safety measure in the car, its importance could never be underplayed.

Researchers, however, yesterday warned that the convenience of the portable car baby seat is having some far less desirable effects.

They claim many parents are using the chairs to also restrain infants in the home, which in turn is damaging their development.

The children are often left in the seats for hours to stop them crawling around floors and potentially picking up germs.

But researchers say this is preventing the youngsters from obtaining basic skills like co-ordination and balance.

Such 'cotton wool' treatment later leads to poor concentration in the classroom because children's reflexes have not been sufficiently developed, they say.

The researchers from Liverpool John Moores University examined 120 children aged ten and 11 at a school in West Yorkshire.

The youngsters were given tests in reading, non-verbal reasoning and shortterm memory and split into four groups.

One group took part in a specially designed movement programme, the second did sound therapy, the third did both programmes and the fourth did neither.

The movement programme involved 40 minutes of simple exercises, twice a week, for eight months within normal PE lessons.

Activities included crawling on a mat, hand-to-eye exercises and playground games such as skipping. Eight months later, all 120 children were re-tested.

The children who took part in the movement programme performed 'significantly better' overall in comparison to the children who did not. Their reading, memory and general reasoning had all improved.

Dr Alweena Zairi, who led the study, claims pupils made gains academically because the increased activity had improved their coordination and fine-tuned their reflexes.

She believes these reflexes such as the startle reflex, which governs the 'fight or flight mechanism', are not being allowed to develop as they should in children.

As a result, children grow up suffering poor coordination, lack of concentration and balance.

She said: 'Reflexes are integrated by normal childhood activities such as crawling, climbing, balancing and swinging.

'But with our lifestyle, the advent of the car seat, the fear of allowing children on the floor for hygiene reasons, the lack of playing out on the streets and playground games means this activity is not happening as frequently as it did in the past.

 
'People are trying to be too safe but they are causing further problems.'

Meanwhile, the separate music programme involved children listening to classical music through headphones for 30 minutes a day over eight weeks.

The music was filtered to create higher frequencies to help boost the auditory processes, which is the speed at which one can process what's being heard.

At the end of the experiment, the children performed better in reading than those who had not taken part in the music programme.

Overall, the children who did the combined movement and music programmes improved more than the comparison class.

Dr Zairi said: 'I wanted to make teachers aware that there are other aspects to why a child isn't behaving or not being able to concentrate or read.

'The Government should consider using movement programmes in schools to iron out difficulties children might have.'