ABSTRACT
It is through the touch senses that we make contact and have the power to change things. Newborns are programmed to touch, but simply making contact is only part of the equation. Passive touch provides only static information such as temperature or hardness. Newborns need active movement, stroking and forming shapes with the fingers or feeling the forces of movement, pressing and reaching to find out about form, shape, size, weight and texture. This is called haptic touch – the name is from Greek and literally means 'to grasp something’. Rhythm of movement is a root of mathematical knowledge, as well as dancing. Wheelchair movement, standing and suspension swinging through space in slings are learning experiences that give some students rare real experience of space, sequence, rhythm, frequency and time. They provide powerful contexts for communication.
