link text hereIf we talk about hugging, it is not only about the movement of pulling and clinging to your baby. Hugging for child means many things. It is like food and water, hugging is also important for child development. This is also proven by a research that done by experts in Harvard university.
It is Mary Carlson, a neurobiologist from Harvard medical School that measure the stress level at children that rises without touching and hugging in the orphanage at Rumania. She concludes that the lack of touching and attention can impede the children development and it also influences to their behavior.
To decide how much physical contact, touching, and hugging can change child’s life, 30 children participate in enrichment program that is facilitated by Carlson. One babysitter is 4 children. This babysitter will ask children to play. She also takes care and gives attention (touching and hugging). As the result, in 13 months, Carlson finds out their behavior is getting better at those children.
Paul C Hollinger M.D., M. P. H., a psychiatry professor from Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center explains that in the parents and child relationship, bonding is very needed to make child feels comfortable, wanted, precious, and confidant. One of the ways to raise bonding is by hugging them.
Giving physical touch like hugging can make the emotion between the child and parent is getting stronger because they feel intimacy. Hollinger also explains that there are some activities that can strengthen bonding by non verbal way, but sometimes it can be more intimate. Those activities are:
- Touching.
- Stoking.
- Carrying.
- Kissing.
- Massaging.
- And of course, hugging.
The ideal thing is child should be given 2 things which are affection and stimulant for child’s development. Parent should give the secure and comfortable feeling (secure bonding and attachment), which can be given by eyes glancing and soft touching when you give the stimulus.
Making child feels comfortable is the important role in building child’s confidence. This will make child trust to the environment and also be brave to explore the environment. This thing also can build child’s confidence that is the important basic for emotion and bravery developing in the future.
Maybe you haven’t known yet that hugging is very important. But now, you already know it and are ready to give the warmth hugging for your child, aren’t you?
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May 28th, 2011 at 2:54 pm
[...] babies have been born, emotional memories has worked. Babies will remember how comfortable to be hugged and how happy they are when you smile. Emotional memories will help the baby to understand emotion [...]