Reach Out and Teach by Ferrell Kay Alicyn;Spungin Susan J.;

Author:Ferrell, Kay Alicyn;Spungin, Susan J.; [EVA BRANN]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: American Foundation for the Blind Press
Published: 2012-08-28T00:00:00+00:00

Tactile Preferences

Although your child may be quite happy to touch things herself to gather information, you may find that she may not allow you to touch her to give her information. This tendency is sometimes called tactile defensiveness or tactile selectivity (also discussed in Chapter 5 in reference to touch). You may have seen evidence of it during her first year, too, but your child's preferences regarding touch may become more pronounced during this age. If that is the case, the same activities described in Chapter 5 that you did with her as an infant will tend to increase her openness to different tactile sensations, such as using a firm touch and providing lots of different textures in her environment for her to feel. As she gains better use of her hands, this tactile selectivity will, in all likelihood, gradually disappear. If you feel as though it may be going on a little too long, look at her development in other areas, particularly motor or movement skills. Is she crawling yet? If not, this could mean that she has not had enough feedback to her hands and arms and does not yet know what these body parts are to be used for, and she needs more practice in weight bearing and weight shifting on her tummy to give feedback to her hands and arms and to build her strength. Be patient, but if you think you might need some help with your child's tactile selectivity, talk with the members of the early intervention team you may be working with.

Remember that the developmental domains are interconnected, and progress in one area, such as gross motor skills, affects the development in other areas, such as fine motor skills. Similarly, progress in fine motor skills affects the development of adaptive skills, such as eating. The motor skills discussed in the Chapter 5—weight bearing, pushing up in prone (tummy) position, crawling, reaching—provide feedback to the hands and facilitate the refinement of grasp. In turn, the refinement of grasp makes independent eating possible, and eating makes spoken language possible because of the continuing development of the same muscles used in both these activities. Always try to connect what's going on in one developmental domain with what's going on in another, and keep in mind that everything's related.

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