Healthy Touch
Healthy Touch Awareness of sexual abuse creates questions about healthy touch. Warmth and encouragement are an important part of how children learn and grow. Knowing about child sexual abuse makes us more mindful about how we interact with children. From infancy a caregiver's touch can make the difference between proper attachment and lack of attachment. Healthy touch effects brain development. It helps a child develop a sense of self. Who they are, and that they are loved and supported. Lack of healthy affection may make a child feel needy, vulnerable, or decrease the child's self-worth. Those characteristics may make a child more vulnerable to child sexual abuse. If a child is touch starved, attention starved, love starved or desperate to fit in, it is very easy for a person with skills to manipulate those needs for love, affection, touch and attention into abuse and exploitation. Affection in families gives children a deep sense of belonging and trust and minimizes the op...