Anthropologist Ashley Montague, author of Touching, states that a child’s
close relationship with his parents is a source of basic self-esteem.
“Persons who are callously unresponsive to human need, who have become
so hardened that they are no longer in touch with the human condition,
are not merely metaphorically so,” he says, “but clearly physiologically
so.” A study reported in the Journal of Humanistic Psychology confirmed
this idea, indicating that the higher the subject’s self-esteem, the
more he communicates through touch. Before the age of twelve, children
are more tactile-kinesthetic — that is, they use feeling more than sight
or hearing for information about the world.
This is an excerpt from the founder and instigator of Infant Massage here in the United States, Vimala McClure. She is talking about how massage is a great venue for older siblings to feel better about a new baby entering into the family. I would like to take it one further and teach siblings of a certain age how to massage the baby's hand or foot. They need something to do with the baby that is non-threatening. Please do click here and read Vimala's Blog post! Massage and sibling rivalry!
