Professional Resource Inquiry

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Professional Resources Inquiry

I have always felt that the simple action of human touch is an underrated aspect of our lives. Only now, with the advances in neuroscience, we are finally able to prove the science behind why touch is so important in our lives. For the purposes of this paper, I will be focusing on the benefits of touch for infants and small children. I think that a lot of people don’t realize how important it is to have touch in our lives. I have always been interested in the ways the simplest of human contact like a hand on a shoulder or a hug can change people’s lives for the better. It is easy for those of us who have lots of physical touch in our lives to imagine that there are people out there who don’t get any physical contact with other people in their daily lives. We also live in a society where touch is an aspect of daily life that is being pushed farther out of mainstream culture. Canadian society is led by a prime minister who publicly gives his own five year old son a hand shake instead of a hug and even a simple hand shake is now being shied away from due to increasing fears of communicable diseases and infections. Lack of touch in early childhood can lead to developmental problems both mental and physical. This can lead to feelings of disconnection from society and problems with forming interpersonal relationships.

Finding Resources

When I began to look up resources for this paper, I decided to first decide how I would go about finding my sources. A good place to begin to research a particular area of medical or scientific practice would be a textbook dedicated to the related field. Textbooks are generally regarded as excellent sources of information and are usually based on a lot of peer reviewe...

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...ll get smaller, if not removed entirely. At the moment there are gaps between the more subjective studies that talk about how touch affects us as people and the more objective studies that have been conducted on the brains neuro-chemistry and development. For now, I think these gaps are best overcome by conducting thorough research utilizing both qualitative and quantitative methods in order bring together the information in as professional a manner as possible without sacrificing the quality and humanity of the study.

Works Cited

Canadian Fundamentals of Nursing, Perry and Potter, 2010

http://library.adoption.com/articles/the-importance-of-touch.html

http://www.nytimes.com/1988/02/02/science/the-experience-of-touch-research-points-to-a-critical-role.html?pagewanted=1

http://www6.miami.edu/touch-research/

http://www.healthyfamily.org/cs/user/print/article/2

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