Esay #4 Revision

Make It Hurt So Good
The sense of touch is a very important sense for survival. It is used to protect the body from serious injury and even death. The human body has millions and millions of nerve endings that detect the slightest stimuli. These nerve endings send signals to the brain at a lightning fast rate so the brain can decide what to do next. If the signal sent to the brain is an urgent one, the brain will react as fast as possible to protect the body. For example, if a finger on the right hand is being burnt on a stove, the brain will send a signal to the finger to move it away from the heat source. All of this happens so fast and so regularly that it is often never given any thought at all. Even though it does not receive the recognition it deserves, the sense of touch keeps doing its job, day after day without complaint. It keeps the person relatively safe from extreme harm no matter how thankful they are for their sense of touch.
The sense of touch also brings pleasure to its owner. The touch of a lover is a heart-warming sense that engulfs an individual completely in a utopia of happiness. Children especially cherish the touch of their mother and crave the attention and physical closeness it brings. Infants in particular need the touch of their mother to develop properly and live happily. Diane Ackerman talks about how premature infants are set on touching schedules when nurses or volunteers hold and massage the baby for a certain amount of time. Ackerman herself volunteered to hold the premature infants and she massaged and stroked the babies three times a day. She describes how she performs each touch session:
“First I stroke his head and face very slowly, six times for ten seconds each time, then his neck and shoulders six times. I slide my hands down his back and massage it in long sweeping motions six times, and caress his arms and legs six times. The touching can’t be light, or it well tickle him, nor rough, or it will agitate him, but firm and steady, as if one were smoothing a crease from heavy fabric” (Ackerman 72).
These touch sessions that she and many others take part in are a vital part of increasing these premature babies’ chances for survival. “Just by stroking him I am performing a life-giving act” (Ackerman 73). Ackerman says that theses babies that are touched and massaged regularly put on weight up to fifty percent faster than those who are left in an incubator (Ackerman 73). For premature infants this is especially important since they are born underweight and undersized. They need to grow to the size of a normal, healthy baby as soon as possible if they want any chance of survival.
The importance of touch is clearly evident in that example of babies’ growth and development but touch is also essential in everyday conversation and interpersonal interactions in the world. The sense of touch is a part of conversation and is important in how a message is received by an individual. If one is touched lightly they usually think of the person they are talking with to be gentle, kind, and caring. For example, when two individuals shake hands, the firmness of each grip shows a great deal about someone. This can greatly affect how the words spoken are received, either for better or worse. If one is trying to convey compassion but roughly touches the individual they are consoling, that individual could feel even more frightened and the gentle words being spoken are rendered completely useless and ineffective. The opposite is also true, when someone is attempting to scold a child but gently touches them, the reprimand is not taken the way it was originally intended.
Deborah Chen and June Downing believe that visually impaired children especially need their sense of touch to be stimulated when they are being communicated with. They believe that this tactile dialogue helps the child to understand and trust their caretaker much more because of the physical connection between the two (Every 29-34). Trust is very important when one cannot see or when they are not familiar with the layout of a certain area because they are completely helpless when it comes to knowing what direction to go.
Although the sense of touch is put to use by everybody every single day of their lives, it is pushed to the back of their minds because they tend to take it for granted. The sense of touch loyally completes its duties quietly and quickly. Touch doesn’t care what color, race, ethnicity, religion, age, occupation, or intelligence level its owner is and has, it is completely unbiased. What would mankind be without the sense of touch? There would undoubtedly be more severe injuries due to not knowing when the body was in danger of being hurt. The feelings of pleasure would also never be felt without the sense of touch. Touch gives life to newborns, comfort or fear in conversation, and trust in visually impaired people, but should not only be cherished by those groups but by every individual that enjoys its blessings everyday.

Works Cited
Ackerman, Diane. A Natural History of the Senses. New York: Random House, 1990.
Chen, Deborah, and June Downing. Tactile Strategies for Children Who Have Visual Impairments and Multiple Disabilities. New York: AFB Press.
Every, David. “Communication. . .” MacKiDo. 1997. 18 Mar 2009. .

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