Research on the practice of massaging the head of a baby with hot water and ointments in Ghana. By Dzamesi Yael (Ph.D. in Science Education)
Language
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Introduction.
It may surprise readers to see that no difficulty of learning was reported in learning the English language. In fact, most Ghanaian speak several local languages. The children had no special difficulty in learning the A B C, writing words or reading. Some children were faster than others, but all were able to read and write. They never got confused between resemble letters such as 'm' and 'n', 's' and 'c', 'u' and 'a', as they got confused in math between (+) and (-). Questions in comprehension in Primary 1 and 2 were on short texts of few sentences and in that aspect, there was not a significant problem. How ever, from personal experience, as the children face more complicated texts to read, comprehension becomes more difficult. In higher grades, there is the tendency of slow learning children to repeat on the whole sentence in answering a question which is directed to specific words in that sentence. It means that slow learning children answers with relevant and irrelevant details as well. It was observed also in Primary 1 and 2 children in Creative Foundation School. However, because the sentences in the textbook were short, we could not identify this as a significant problem. The children were too young to face complicated sentences and so, we could not check the tendency to answer on a question by repeating the whole sentence in place of answering with the relevant words alone. In 1993 I taught in the University of Ghana, in Legon near Accra at the department of Crop Science. I taught Entomology for first year students. One of the questions in the final test was to explain the concept of Economic Threshold Level of pest. I was surprised to see that all 30 students except one memorized the full paragraph in the studding book regarding this concept and wrote it word by word in the exam. It was impossible to know if the 29 students understood the concept or not.
Language versus vision and reasoning (which are the base for learning math).
Ghanaians exhibit a high level of mastery in languages, speech and memorization of sentences and texts. The question is how come this faculty is highly developed while reasoning and good decision making is less developed?
A potential answer can come from the method of the hot water massage on the head of a baby.
There are four areas responsible for the learning of language:
1. Broca’s area is in the lower portion of the left frontal lobe. It is responsible for production of words and speech [88].
2. Wernicke’s area is in the superior temporal gyrus (left hemisphere in the temporal lobe) It is responsible for the comprehension of speech [88].
3. Primary auditory cortex is in both hemispheres in the temporal lobe. It performs basic and higher functions in hearing, such as possible relations to language switching [89].
4. Angular gyrus is in the parietal lobe (both hemispheres) It has a role in speaking and writing [90].
These four areas are located on the lateral sides (right and or left hemispheres) of the brain and the towel with the hot water is used less frequently on the sides of the head. Therefore, these areas are farther from the source of the heat and are not damaged by the heat.
The towel is rather used a lot on the prefrontal cortex in the frontal lobe and on the occipital lobe at the back of the brain These areas are involved in working memory, reasoning, focusing and attention [91].
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There is a say in Ghana about what Ghanaian tend to believe: "Ghanaian tend to believe and rely on what they hear (from the radio for example) more than what they see in their eyes". In addition, the meaning of the word 'true' in different tribes in Ghana relate to what everybody says and not what everybody sees.
Why do Ghanaians rely more on what they hear and less on what they see?
The hot water is applied more on the back of the head than on the sides of the head. At the back of the head there are areas that receive vision, focus on them, and then send these signals to farther areas to be modified into language conceptions and visual memory. These functions can be affected by the hot water causing lack of attention, forgetfulness of events etc. This condition can lead to a wrong judgment because of forgetfulness of the actions of a person in the past in social issues, or past events regarding any technical issue. Meanwhile the area of audio memory in the temporal lobe is not affected by the hot water and therefore function better. This can lead people to have better memory of what they hear and not what they see.
The extraordinary talent that Ghanaian have in languages can also be contributed to the way the brain is developed and the artificial human interference of the hot water massage on the head.
The development of the brain involves proliferation of a vast number of neurons which are more than the final number of neurons the brain of a child will have at about 18 months of age. At this age, no more neurons are added, and the aggregation of different types of cells into distinct regions is roughly complete. Competition among neurons and their connections results in the selective elimination of many neurons and the stabilization of 100 trillion neurons or so, and their connections to each other. The competition between the brain cells is about nutrition and space since there is a limit of space for expansion of the skull, as the rapid growth of the skull is reduced by the closer of the anterior fontanelle at the same age of 18 months old. The aim of the competition is to let the best of the brain cells and connections between them to survive and the lesser to be pruned [167]. The hot water massage interrupts the natural competition of the cells in the brain, by worsening the condition of the cells in the frontal lobe and the occipital lobe. In consequence, it gives a greater advantage to the cells in the temporal lobes to develop and form more and better neural connections.
It can be assumed that in children that passed the hot water massaged the audio; language learning and memory centers in the temporal and the parietal lobes in the brain are more developed. They are more developed on the greater expense of the frontal lobe which is responsible among others on reasoning and making decisions, and on the expense of the occipital lobe which is responsible among others on focusing and vision memory.