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Touch matters. Humans need nurturing touch for optimum emotional, physical, and cognitive development and health-especially in infancy. Daily touch plays a significant role in early brain development. Babies can actually die from lack of loving touch.
Some experts believe that a baby's face-soft, round, and so kissable-has evolved precisely to invite needed touch from loved ones (Levy & Orlans 1998). By understanding the vital part touch plays in development and by learning to apply physical touch in varied and appropriate contexts, early childhood teachers can enhance children's lives in many and meaningful ways. Learning what policies and procedures guide appropriate and beneficial touch also allows teachers to feel more comfortable offering this needed human contact.
Cognitive implications of touch
So important is the role of touch for humans that life begins with touching. In Ashley Montagu's (1986) classic, Touching: The Human Significance of the Skin, he points out that at the time of delivery, "the uterine contractions of labor constitute the beginning caressing of the baby" (p. 68). When an infant is born, touch is needed to support and sustain healthy brain development (Shore 1997).
Touch, it seems, plays a critical role in the brain's ability to weather stress without adverse effects. Touch lowers levels of the stress hormone cortisol in the human brain (Holden 1996; Field et al. 1997; Shore 1997; Blackwell 2000).
Cortisol is in the bloodstream at all times but only accumulates in unhealthy high levels when extreme stress is present. When cortisol levels are too high, the hippocampus, the part of the brain that controls memory and learning, is negatively affected. A malfunctioning hippocampus can lead to lower mental and physical abilities in children (Blackwell 2000). Children who sustain chronically high cortisol levels demonstrate cognitive, social, and motor delays in greater numbers than children with more normal levels of cortisol (Shore 1997; Blackwell 2000).
Positive touch reduces levels of cortisol in the bloodstream (Holden 1996; Field et al. 1997; Shore 1997; Blackwell 2000). Good touch then may lead to increased mental and physical functioning in children.
Physical implications of touch
The earliest recorded evidence of the significance of touch was in the thirteenth century when Frederick II, emperor of Germany, attempted to discover what speech children would develop if no one...