ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the recurrent features of haptic compassionate responses to children’s pain-occasioned distress. It shows an intricate interplay between emotion regulation as embodied, physical, and emotional soothing. Caregivers’ sensorially rich responses signaled intimacy and compassion through the assemblage of sustained embracing and skin-to-skin (between the participants’ faces) surface of bodily contact. Physical intertwining between the caregiver and the child served allowed co-perception and affective attunement. Skin-to-skin touch within particular bodily areas was an important haptic modality that converged multiple functions: examining and diagnosticizing trouble, soothing pain, and comforting distress. The adults’ haptic responses were oriented at the children’s emotional stance of distress rather than a specific space of physical pain. Touch was used as a mediator between the child and the caregiver, bringing about emotional bonding between them.
