Kids just love to spin around and around ‘til they all fall down. I remember whirling around in play and delighting in the dizzy sensation afterwards. Was I nuts? To my adult sensibilities now, yes, I was. How I could have enjoyed seeing the world tilt around sickeningly is beyond my matured comprehension. Now, I just don’t see what the spinning fun was all about.
What happens to spinning delights between childhood and adulthood? Scientists are not exactly sure but their theories involve the maturity of the balance sensors and the necessity for balance training until a child reaches the age of 15.
The Vestibular System
At 36 weeks, a fetus’ balance sensors in the inner ear are fully developed. These sensors form part of the vestibular system, a network of organs that regulates your sense of balance and spatial orientation when you move about.
Within the vestibular system are semicircular ducts that hold fluids of the inner ear. Movement agitates these fluids which in turn bends tiny cilia or hair. The small hair movements relay messages to the brain which decodes the position of the body. These work in tandem with systems concerning our sight and joint and muscle receptors in order to give us our balance.
Babies are born with highly developed vestibular systems which help them make sense of themselves in relation to the physical world. The vestibular system helps an infant learn to orient himself, given his surroundings. It sends the necessary signals to the areas in the brain concerned with our vision and muscle functions, learning to work with them to keep the child upright. The brainstem and the cerebellum process all the information coming from these systems so that macro and micro movements---head rolling, jumping, crawling, and walking-- are all recorded by the wiring and rewiring of the neurons.
Getting around needs to be learned; so, babies and young kids have to establish their skills of balance and movement coordination. Spinning around is one invaluable movement that stimulates the brain to help children build a sense of body control.
Why Spinning Fun Stops in Adulthood
Spinning around is just another fun to-do for kids until they grow into adults, a stage in which spinning suddenly loses its entertainment value. Adults stop liking the sensation of spinning which simply causes unpleasant feelings of dizziness and nausea. The older we get, the worse spinning gets for us. Spinning around can cost seniors their balance and may precipitate serious injuries.
Where the fun ends and the unpleasantness begins is not very clear. What scientists suspect is an aging vestibular system. As the balance system in our inner ear ages, the degradation often returns more information about linear movements rather than rotational movements. Balance after rotational movements is therefore compromised in adults who are then more prone to nauseous feelings. Adults, however, can be retrained to tolerate spinning. This is why astronauts and fighter pilots can be trained to handle all those flipping, rolling, and spinning requirements that go along with their jobs.
Why Kids Should Spin
Spinning, hanging upside down, rolling, and rocking are whole body movements essential to learning balance. These motions stimulate the young vestibular system and this is why infants and young children love these movements.
In a study of infants aged 3-15 months, researchers spun in a swivel chair with babies seated on their laps about ten times before coming to an abrupt stop. The babies exhibited great pleasure in the exercises which covered a total of 16 sessions. A control group of infants were also seated on the researchers’ laps but were not spun around. The experiment was quite revealing. The babies who were spun around exhibited more advances in their reflex and motor skill development in that they could sit, hold their heads up, stand, crawl, etc. earlier than those in the unstimulated control group.
Aside from balance and better motor development, spinning challenges kids to learn how to focus. Toddlers usually get a kick out of watching the world going around them after some spins. These kids make a game of focusing and “bringing the spinning world to heel.” The more they practice this game, the faster they gain control of their bodies and their focus.
Another intangible benefit of spinning is of course, the good ol’ clean fun it brings. Unless they are infants, kids don’t need a toy or help from an adult to indulge in the motion. All they need is themselves, the space, and their natural joie de vivre.
