The Role of Maternal Touch on Language Development in Children

Abstract

This study recorded and analyzed tactile interactions between mothers and their 2 and 5 year old children during a structured play session lasting about 10 minutes. Touch initiated by the mother, as well as maternal speech as the control behavior, were then examined with respect to their relationship with the child?s speech.

Results showed a significant negative relationship between the maternal instrumental touch subtype ?holding? and child mean length utterance for the 2 year olds. There was also a marginal negative relationship between maternal instrumental touch subtype ?pushing? and child mean length utterance for the 5 year olds. Moreover, the only maternal behavior that seemed to promote language development was maternal utterance length in 2 year old children. These results suggest that providing the foundation for mother-child bonding and more general aspects of social development may contribute to how children acquire linguistic sophistication later in life.