The role of touch in communication, emotion, and social learning in infants.

Abstract

Introduction

Touch is one of infants most important modalities for interacting with people and the world by birth. This sense is strongly interlinked with communication, emotion, and social learning.

Methods

A non-systematic review on this topic was conducted using the PubMed database on May 24, 2023, with the following combination of keywords: 'infant,' 'touch,' 'contact,' 'tactile,' 'communication,' 'emotion,' and 'social learning.' 28 studies were included in this review based on the analysis of their abstracts and their relevance to the objective of the investigation.

Results and Discussion

The primary research findings suggest that children are responsive to specific qualities of touch and that caregivers can elicit emotions and behaviors in their child through a communicational paradigm prevalent when words are still not developed. Touch serves a synchronizing role between the infant and the caregiver, modulating the infant’s physiological and emotional states to facilitate internal regulation in pursuit of homeostasis.

Conclusion

Tactile stimulation facilitates the regulation of emotional responses, thereby fostering the child's capacity to participate in social interactions. Tactile contact is among the most primal and genuine communication, thus deserving commensurate focus and consideration.