The Power of Nonverbal Communication signs of what the other feels about physical contact and the right opportunity to make this contact simply and well. Before it is born, a fetus feels not only the amniotic fluid that surrounds it, but also the mother’s heartbeat. And, immediately after birth, an infant is exposed to nonverbal communication when touched by others. Humans have approximately 20 square feet of skin on the body and millions of touch sensors that are connected to a brain that records pleasure, pain, temperature, pressure and a variety of other sensations. A clinical research study conducted at the University of California estimates the number of touch sensors at 19,000 per square inch. And other studies have discovered physical pain may be reduced through mental activity. The physician and author Lawrence K. Frank wrote an article entitled Tactile Communication in which he stated, “a human’s skin is the envelope that contains the human organism.” The power of touch is so effective that studies conducted at the Minnesota-based Mayo Clinic have demonstrated premature babies grow 40 percent faster than those who do not receive the same amount of stroking. Others studies also reveal early tactile experience is crucial toward later mental and emotional development in humans. Still other research indicates that children who have had little physical contact during infancy tend to walk and talk later in their development. Also, a large number of children who later became schizophrenic were found to have been deprived of handling and mothering when they were infants.
How we are touched—as well as when and by whom—means more than most of us realize. Highly intuitive people realize this without thinking about it; the rest of us can use touch to our advantage if we understand its mechanics and practice working with them.
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