Perpetuating rhythm as a traditional part of our lives

By: Rodger Bailey

Do we have an instinct for rhythmic movement? Do we need to be rhythmic? Is there an instinct for us to be performing rhythmic movements?

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Instinct is the inherent disposition of a living organism toward a particular action. Instincts are generally inherited patterns of responses or reactions to certain kinds of stimuli. In humans they are most easily observed in behaviors such as emotions, sexual drive, and other bodily functions, as these are largely biologically determined."

We often see people performing rhythmic behaviors with small children. People will hold a child and bounce the infant to calm the infant. This might be an up-and-down movement or a rocking movement or a jiggling movement. The children tell the people which movement is most tranquilizing for them. People want crying children to stop, so they quickly know which form of rhythmic movement this infant responds to best. No one needs to tell the people that the infant needs their favorite movement. The adult knows. This certainly seems to be an 'inherent disposition . . . toward a particular action' as defined for an instinct. People naturally jiggle the child. It's possible that the need for this movement may be the reason that the infant is crying.

When children have enough strength in their legs to hold themselves up (with help), they often start performing rhythmic movements. They bob up and down while 'standing'. Many children at this age, are given bouncy seats which hang by bungee cords from the ceiling and the children use these seats to bounce themselves. Infants in these seats do not sit still. As soon as the find they can make the seat bounce, they bounce and every time they get in the chair, they bounce. This also seems to be an 'inherent disposition . . . toward a particular action' as defined for an instinct. The children naturally take action to bounce. Because of the bungee cords holding the chair, the movements the baby makes are rhythmic.

When we stand a child on a bed, the child naturally starts to bounce. We adults might tell the child to stop moving up-and-down, but the normal tendency of the child is to bounce. Again, this seems to be an 'inherent disposition . . . toward a particular action' as defined for an instinct. The child naturally starts to move up-and-down.

Primitive people all over the the earth have many ongoing rhythmic activities. The majority of activities for children require rhythmic movement. The majority of the ceremonies for these people require rhythmic movement. When they get together for a task, they usually perform activities in rhythm to a chant. Primitive people all have a strong tendency to be rhythmic in all activities (work, play, and ceremony). When all these primitive people around the world focus strongly on rhythmic behaviors, this is another example of an 'inherent disposition . . . toward a particular action' as defined for an instinct. If there is a strong tendency for all primitive people around the world to be rhythmic, this universal tendency toward rhythmic activities did not come about by chance. There must be a biological drive of some kind for all these rhythmic activities to be so universal across primitive people.

One African village has a wonderful rhythmic game for boys. They stand in a circle facing the back of the boy next to them. They put their right hand on the right shoulder of the boy in front and lift their left leg. They use their left hand to take the left leg of the boy in front of them. Now they are all balancing on their right legs, in a circle. The leader starts the chant that goes with this game, and the boys start jumping in unison to the beat of the chant. The groups of younger children jump a few inches, and the groups of older children jump 12 to 15 inches high. They continue the rhythmic jumping, in unison, until one of them loses the rhythm and they all fall down. Usually, they fall on the one who lost the beat. This game teaches group rhythmicity and provides strong group pressure to have good rhythmicity.

We have seen that rhythmic activities seem to be normal across primitive people all over the globe. We have seen that adults and infants and children will start and maintain rhythmic activities. We have seen that children ask for rhythmic activities. We have seen that all over the world primitive people emphasize rhythmic activities for all members of that village. And, even though we may be more culturally advanced, patty-cake, jump-rope, bouncing, rocking, dancing, toe-tapping to music, and other rhythmic activities still remain fully engrained in our modern people.

We know from our work experience that the ability to maintain rhythmic activities is directly related to attention. We also know that those with poor rhythmicity are usually considered to have developmental difficulties. When these children who have developmental difficulties learn the ability to maintain rhythmic activities, they pick up where they were developmentally stuck and start to grow up in a normal way.

We suggest that there is an instinct for rhythmic activities, and the biological need supporting this instinct is for the appropriate development of some rhythm circuits in the brain; these rhythm circuits are needed for attention and good mental performance. We suggest that these rhythm circuits are the biological motor that maintains the functioning of the normal developmental process.

We know that sustained, appropriate rhythmic activities re-programs and maintains these circuits. So the biological need is for the appropriate development of these circuits, which drives appropriate human development and maturity and drives the on-going maintenance of a person's attention and good mental performance.

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Rodger C Bailey, MS has degrees in Social Science and Educational Counseling. His world-wide consulting program (in English and Spanish), is unique because it concentrates on movement through the developmental milestones and reliably gets it back on track. Checkout his Blog and his free Developmental Checklist.

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