By Tash Reddy
They are the "Gifted Generation" - trend-setters for the next millennium - super babies who are born with their eyes open, without crying, who are smarter, more creative, more socially adept, more empathetic and more advanced than ever before.
It's a genetic evolution that's caused babies to be smarter than their ancestors and most of it is attributed to prenatal stimulation.
Many professionals in paediatrics believe it is a fact, while others dispute the numerous tests and research results that claim the evolution is true.
Professor Prakash Jeena, a specialist paediatrician at Umhlanga Hospital and the University of KwaZulu-Natal, said he had no doubt that babies born today did, in fact, have better cognitive skills than those born in previous decades.
"The genetic evolution of species from the dinosaur age to current day clearly shows advancement in knowledge and intellectual functions.
"This process can best be seen by the increasing brain size of different evolving species of primates. It's usually an adaptive response to adversity which results in survival of the fittest for reproduction.
"Similarly, in the human species, there is a constant process of evolution in the intellectual capacity in individuals from generation to generation.
"Several factors contribute to this process of change, namely evolving genetic makeup, greater environmental exposure and the increasing challenges, especially during the period of brain growth and maturity.
"Likely, the next generation will be better genetically endowed than this one," Jeena said.
According to various websites
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research done by paediatricians and cognitive scientists around the world over the past 30 years found that early prenatal stimulation through voice, music and environmental factors will lead to transformation of the structural and cognitive organisation of a child.
This results in newborn babies exhibiting accelerated ability in visual, linguistic and motor development.
The research said that a foetus is able to communicate with parents as early as the first trimester (first three months of pregnancy) provided that proper stimulation takes place. The results of this kind of stimulation are far more intelligent, alert and advanced babies.
The research also suggests that prenatal stimulation can enable the foetus to recognise sounds and voices at birth, including their parents' voices. Many children are now born with their eyes open - observing everything around them. In some cases they don't even cry at birth but are born relatively calm and content.
These babies are also, according to the studies, more attentive, relaxed, smiling and friendly as compared to children who are not stimulated. They also show superior learning capacity and are more active at birth.
But one doctor who is not totally convinced, is Dr Lawrence Mabaiwa, a paediatric neurologist at Inkosi Albert Luthuli Hospital.
"If one studies anecdotal results, then it is obvious that such conclusions can be created, but there aren't sufficient controlled research results that prove advanced cognitive skills to be true.
"We know stimulation contributes to cognitive development and patterning but genetic factors obviously play a role as well in development.
"It's a combination of nature (genetics) and then the nurturing environment which will lead to optimal neurocognitive development," he said.
"If you look at society, it has gone through an evolution as well. Compared with the past we now know what we need to do to promote cognitive development and more people are practising it.
"As long as prenatal stimulation occurs there should be no difference between the cognitive skills of a baby from a rural area and an urban area."