Tiffany Field – författare

An essay on the importance of touch to children''s growth and development and to the physical and mental well-being of people of all ages.

The first sensory input in life comes from the sense of touch while a baby is still in the womb, and touch continues to be the primary means of learning about the world throughout infancy, well into childhood. Touch is critical for children''s growth, development, and health, as well as for adults'' physical and mental well-being. Yet American society, claims Tiffany Field, is dangerously touch-deprived.

Field, a leading authority on touch and touch therapy, begins this accessible book with an overview of the sociology and anthropology of touching and the basic psychophysical properties of touch. She then reports recent research results on the value of touch therapies, such as massage therapy, for various conditions, including asthma, cancer, autism, and eating disorders. She emphasizes the need for a change in societal attitudes toward touching, particularly among those who work with children.

Why we need a daily dose of touch: an investigation of the effects of touch on our physical and mental well-being.

Although the therapeutic benefits of touch have become increasingly clear, American society, claims Tiffany Field, is dangerously touch-deprived. Many schools have “no touch” policies; the isolating effects of Internet-driven work and life can leave us hungry for tactile experience. In this book Field explains why we may need a daily dose of touch.

The first sensory input in life comes from the sense of touch while a baby is still in the womb, and touch continues to be the primary means of learning about the world throughout infancy and well into childhood. Touch is critical, too, for adults'' physical and mental health. Field describes studies showing that touch therapy can benefit everyone, from premature infants to children with asthma to patients with conditions that range from cancer to eating disorders.

This second edition of Touch, revised and updated with the latest research, reports on new studies that show the role of touch in early development, in communication (including the reading of others'' emotions), in personal relationships, and even in sports. It describes the physiological and biological effects of touch, including areas of the brain affected by touch, and the effects of massage therapy on prematurity, attentiveness, depression, pain, and immune functions. Touch has been shown to have positive effects on growth, brain waves, breathing, and heart rate, and to decrease stress and anxiety. As Field makes clear, we enforce our society''s touch taboo at our peril.

Originally published in 1982, Emotion and Early Interaction is a collection of papers by investigators who had been attempting to integrate emotion and interaction processes in early development. None professed to have all the answers, yet each paper challenges us to question some of our notions about the boundaries between the individual and society. The first part includes chapters on the face-to-face interaction of infants and others during early infancy. These early interactions had become miniature natural laboratories in which many investigators found a wealth of opportunities to study infant emotions and their development. The second part covers play interactions in older infants and toddlers. Here the methods and concepts are different due to the increasing complexity of the infant’s behavior, and the increasing use of linguistic, in addition to non-verbal expressions of emotion. The final part on methodology covers a wide range of issues in the study of early interactions. Today it can be read in its historical context.

Originally published in 1982, Emotion and Early Interaction is a collection of papers by investigators who had been attempting to integrate emotion and interaction processes in early development. None professed to have all the answers, yet each paper challenges us to question some of our notions about the boundaries between the individual and society. The first part includes chapters on the face-to-face interaction of infants and others during early infancy. These early interactions had become miniature natural laboratories in which many investigators found a wealth of opportunities to study infant emotions and their development. The second part covers play interactions in older infants and toddlers. Here the methods and concepts are different due to the increasing complexity of the infant’s behavior, and the increasing use of linguistic, in addition to non-verbal expressions of emotion. The final part on methodology covers a wide range of issues in the study of early interactions. Today it can be read in its historical context.

In the late 1960s, after a period of intense acceleration of the pace of research on human infancy, a number of investigators – some anthropologists, some psychologists, some psychiatrists and paediatricians, and even a few ethologists – developed the conviction that certain contributions to the understanding of infancy would come from, and perhaps only come from, cross-cultural and cross-population studies.

This book, originally published in 1981, represents part of the first fruit of that conviction, and its impressive range of chapters justifies not only the belief itself but also the several rationales behind it.

In the late 1960s, after a period of intense acceleration of the pace of research on human infancy, a number of investigators – some anthropologists, some psychologists, some psychiatrists and paediatricians, and even a few ethologists – developed the conviction that certain contributions to the understanding of infancy would come from, and perhaps only come from, cross-cultural and cross-population studies.

This book, originally published in 1981, represents part of the first fruit of that conviction, and its impressive range of chapters justifies not only the belief itself but also the several rationales behind it.