mobile magic (Symphony In Motion Mobile)

Member Name: west_jenn

Product:	Symphony In Motion Mobile
Date:	02/09/05 (1157 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: great fun for scarlett, visually stimulating, aids development

Disadvantages: a bit flimsy

For Scarlett’s first Christmas one of the presents we got her was a mobile. She’s too young for a mobile I hear you say, yes we’ve heard that one before! Her first Christmas has coincided with us finally moving her from her moses basket to her cot, so the mobile was a good buy

DESIGN

I always thought that baby’s mobiles were quite unsophisticated things that just blew around a little, I was wrong! The mobile is a very bright eye catching concoction. It has three different animals hanging from a bright green pole that crooks at the top. Each animal is hung from a bit of string that is attached to a something that looks like a lampshade. Each of the three lampshades are the same colour as the animal and have black stripes on the underneath of the lampshade.

There is a bright green frog with big bulgy eyes and black striped legs that can be pulled when baby manages to grab it. There is a monkey with a bright pink head, orange noise, pink tail, pink top and orange bottom this has the same black striped legs which are easily pullable by children. The strangely pink monkey has to be Scarlett’s favourite!

The last animal is a strange looking parrot,thats blue with yellow wings, and an orange beak, claws and bow tie. The colours used in the mobile are bright, primary colours. According to the booklet that comes with the mobile at about 4 months babies start to distinguish betweens colours and will favour bright colours so their use of primary colours in the mobile helps baby’s growing awareness of colour.

MOTION

The mobile has the traditional kind of circular motion. In addition you can activate the mobile to perform a kind of dance with parts of the mobile and parts of the mobile being still. This means that the mobile has an interesting motion to look at. The movement is really slow, gentle and rhythmic.

Scarlett particularly likes it when we hold the mobile directly above her and it brushes her face as the creatures swirl around, she is able to reach out and grab the figures which must be good for her development.

MUSIC

There are three different pieces of classical music that can be activated from pressing the composer’s name on the control panel. They are Mozart Andante Grazioso from Piano Sonata K.331 in A major. Beethoven second movement from Piano Sonata in E major and Bach Prelude in C major from Das Wohltempierte.

According to the instruction booklet these pieces of music were picked for specific purposes by professional musicologists. Mozart to aid cognitive development because in the piece Mozart introduces a melodic phrase and than varies it which apparently may enhance your baby’s later ability to think abstractedly. I’m not sure how true this is but Scarlett does seem to like music!

Beethoven was chosen to be stimulating, because the most emphasised melody will help the infant group different notes and learn to differentiate the melodic structure or line. Whilst Bach was chosen for its’ relaxing properties, although I can’t find in the booklet why this is so!

WHY MOBILES ARE SO GOOD

Mobiles help to stimulate baby’s sight by giving them something visually stimulating to look at. The mobile will help with baby’s focusing up to the age of two months a baby’s focus is very narrow and this mobile is designed to be placed right in their narrow field of vision, when the baby gets older it can be moved back so the baby can look at all parts of the mobile. Once a baby can track motion the constantly changing motion will help aid their tracking abilities

The different shapes in the mobile will help with shape recognition and differentiation whilst their spatial intelligence will be helped by constantly viewing the mobile. According to the booklet music has been shown to be good for babies emotional, linguistic and spatial intelligence. And you thought it was just something pretty for a baby to look at.

WHAT DID A REAL LIFE BABY THINK OF IT

Anyway enough of what the booklet says what did little Scarlett think. Scarlett thought it was the best think ever and looked at it as it whirled around above her head in fascinated awed silence. She then proceeded to make appreciative little cooing noises which proceeded to become over excited babbling and the mobile had to be taken away! Her favourite trick is to grab one of the animals and to have to have it prised away from her fingers

Scarlett is very interested in brightly coloured objects at the moment (the Christmas tree was very exciting for her), so I think that’s a big appeal with the mobile, she also likes to look at things moving above her head and is always very interested in trees moving above her. I’m not so sure how she feels about the classical music, I think the other two factors are more interesting for her.

AGE RANGE

Up to the age of five months the mobile can be used on the baby’s cot. From the age of about five months onwards babys may start to pull themselves up and could use the mobile to do this with, so its advised that you stop using the mobile as a cot mobile. From the ages of about seven months onwards your baby may be operate the control box themselves. From the age of about nine months onwards you mat be able to get your baby to play with basic musical instruments in time with the music.

Tiny love has a range of soft developmental toys which can be viewed at www.tinylove.com. This mobile cost £34.99 and can be brought from mother care and I’m afraid I don’t know of any other stores.

We’re glad that we brought this for her. I think the booklet made it sound a little bit like this mobile will make your child a genius. However, I think that at nearly four months Scarlett has reached the stage when she needs more and more stimulation to help her develop. The only downside is a little bit flimsy and looks as if it may not stand up to too much handling. She’s really started to get into toys just recently and loves her mobile even though at times we fear she will eat

Summary: bright, stimiulating and enjoyable entertainment for scarlett