ABSTRACT
Touch is critical to the establishment of human health in childhood and the maintenance of optimum well-being throughout the lifespan — it is associated with robust immunity and physical health; normal physical growth; increased longevity; greater cognitive ability; positive self-esteem and body image; and general psychological well-being.
Physical contact can save lives; ‘Kangaroo Care’ (24-hour-a-day skin-to-skin contact between mother and baby), for example, has significantly reduced the mortality rate of premature infants.
Conversely, touch deprivation can result in physical and psychological damage — even death. In 20th-century America large numbers of infants died as a result of ‘marasmus’ (non-organic failure to thrive) due to lack of ‘mother love’, central to which is loving touch.
Children who do survive extreme touch deprivation can suffer a range of psychophysiological problems such as immune deficiencies, stunted growth, mental ill-health, cognitive deficits, premature ageing and shorter life spans.
In certain professions, such as nursing, caring touch is critical; it provides relief from pain, anxiety and depression, and despite the present touch-avoidant education policy, physical contact is important also in teaching, particularly of young children.
In addition, touch has wider societal value; it encourages co-operation, goodwill and social harmony.
