Videos

The videos that were posted earlier are examples of how early in life we participate, and depend, on touch. The videos showed how touch is important through different stages of early life. Touch expresses warmth, love, and immediacy. Our first lessons in loving come through cuddling and caressing during infancy (Harlow, 1958, as cited in Gallace & Spence, 2010)

Studies have shown that touch is an important part of our life. It begins in infancy, and lasts until our death. In a study by Moszlowski and Stack, touch is a "vital means through which infants self-regulate, and explore their surroundings".

Touch is the first of the five human senses to develop, and it provides us with our most fundamental means of contact with the external world (Hickson & Stacks, 1993; Knapp & Hall, 1992). Touching others plays a very important role in our early social interactions. Newborns gain knowledge of the world around them through tactile expressions (Knapp & Hall, 1992).

cite: Moszkowski RJ, Stacks DM (2007) Infant touching behaviour during mother-infant face-to-face interactions. Infant & Child Dev 16: 307–319