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Why do Swings attract Babies as well as Adults
By: Nosttaalgia
I have always seen this in my stores or in the trade shows that we participate in, whether its a baby in the mothers arm or a grown up person, male or female, all just love to come and sit on the swings we display. Seems like its a human tendency that we all get attracted to swings. I thought, there ought to be logic to this and started reading about this liking of humans. This is what I found:
In his article: ‘What’s the Big Deal About Swinging?’ Tom Norquist says: “When we think about why most humans truly enjoy swinging, we need to break down what is actually happening. While swinging, we experience a full range of sensation, from the calming rhythm of our to-fro movement to the excitement of rapid travel through space and time. These experiences are linked to pre-birth movement in the mother’s womb and the child’s first sensation of gravitational forces.”
Norquist goes on to say: “Swinging stimulates our bodies’ sensory systems, namely our vestibular and proprioceptive systems. Vestibular stimulation occurs when we experience movement through time and space in combination with the earth’s gravitational forces. During swinging, the three semicircular canals in the inner ear are responding to movement and acceleration in the horizontal, vertical and diagonal planes, stimulation that is directly related to our sense of balance.
“When we think of man’s evolution, we are reminded of our relationship to chimpanzees, which are reported to have 98.5 percent of the same genes as humans and spent millions of years swinging and moving freely in the tree canopy. During this time, the swinging stimulated the cerebellum, further developing the balance, planning and language systems, and improving the ability to establish emotional regulation. Swinging also fires up the emotionally responsive connections of the brain in the prefrontal cortex, helping us to feel calm and revitalised.
“Stimulation of the vestibular system through swinging helps us develop and maintain the body’s proprioceptive system, which draws information from our muscles and joints as our bodies move through space. This information is processed by our central nervous system and causes us to react to the stimuli.”
