Browsing by Author "Seikku, Tiina"

Self-regulation develops in unison with the environment, beginning at birth and continuing throughout childhood. The touch of the primary care giver is especially important during the first twelve months. The importance of maternal touch for the development of stress regulation has long been noted in animal studies. With humans, however, this connection is far less studied. The objective of this thesis is to review and analyze recent research findings regarding the connection between self-regulation and early touch. Three central perspectives are considered: experimental research, longitudinal research and kangaroo care of pre-term infants. The studies reviewed were found using PubMed, Ovid Medline and Google Scholar databases with search terms touch AND development, touch AND regulation, touch AND emotion, maternal touch AND regulation and touch AND longitudinal. In addition, some studies were included from the references of other studies. The studies were chosen on the basis of being relevant to the thesis question of connection between self-regulation and early touch. All chosen studies were published in the last twenty years. The reviewed studies suggest that early touch affects self-regulation on many levels. The effects can be seen in the behaviour of the infant, physiological processes, the cooperation of the mother-child dyad and in the long term in the broader development of the child. The effect of touch can be seen both as a support for the incomplete self-regulation abilities in stressful situations, as well as an important factor contributing to the development of these abilities. Touch is especially meaningful for pre-term infants because of their insufficiently developed nervous system. In the long term touch is connected with social competence, emotional regulation skills and problem behaviours related to them. The results are important for example for the development of early interventions. However, especially long-term effects still need to be studied more.