As mentioned in the research section, the sense of touch has a magnanimous effect on a child's development in both the short-term and the long-term. A proper development of touch improves the social, emotional, and intellectual attributes of a developing child.
A baby's first experience with the surrounding environment occurs through touch, developing prenatally as early as 16 weeks. This sense is essential to children's growth of physical abilities, language and cognitive skills, and social-emotional competency.
Ethnographers have long noted a striking phenomenon: Inuit and African babies generally tend to be much calmer than western babies. In fact, they cry very little – certainly much less than babies in much of the rest of the world.
