Maternal touch predicts social orienting in young children

This study explored the relationship between maternal touch and a child's spontaneous orienting towards social versus non-social information. Thirty-nine mothers and their 4-6 year old children participated in a 10-min play session. Following this session, children completed an object categorization task with face and house distractors. A social orienting index (SOI) was quantified as increased distraction by faces relative to houses. The frequency of maternal touch positively predicted the SOI and some touch actions (e.g., holding) were more relevant for this than others (e.g., pushing). The frequency of maternal vocalizations, recorded as a control behavior, had a non-significant relation with the SOI but was negatively associated with the children's object categorization accuracy. Together, these results point to a specific role of tactile care in the development of social orienting and the emerging "social brain".