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Power of Touch
March 9, 2017
Fundamental change is an endeavor, it’s a real enterprise, it’s not something that just happens. You make a choice to keep evolving and keep growing.
-Twyla Tharp

"Touch has long been understood to be important in nurturing relationships—so much so that babies raised in orphanages without it often died," writes Lydia Denworth in her article, "The Surprising, Undeniable Power of Touch" (Psychology Today, November 29, 2015).

"Psychologists have proposed a number of explanations of why that should be so, such as attachment theory and increases in oxytocin. Yet those suggestions do not adequately elucidate the immediacy and power of touch, and leave the underlying biology unexamined.

"[A] growing body of research has uncovered another dimension of touch...[A] newly recognized system, known as affective or emotional touch, consists of nerve fibers triggered by exactly the kind of loving caress a mother gives her child. These fibers may help our minds construct and integrate a sense of self and other, informing our awareness of our own bodies and our ability to relate to people around us.

"There’s a sense among those in the field of being in uncharted and thrilling territory. As we come to understand this sense better, we may be able to identify and develop new treatment solutions based on touch—particularly for conditions as diverse as Rett syndrome, autism, neuropathic pain, and spinal cord damage. In a society that so often substitutes virtual communication for personal contact, the findings on affective touch remind us to relish every embrace—and hold it just a few seconds longer."





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Comments (1)

Displaying 1 Comment
Terry · March 09, 2017
Spirit Child Yoga and ECE
Aurora, ON, Canada


Thank you for highlighting this. As Educators who who work in Ontario Full Day Kindergartens are hearing messages about not hugging children, I fear that the emotional and physiological needs of children are not being met.



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