In essence, the
quality of touch conveys information to infants enabling them to be able to
discern the caretakers who genuinely “care” for them versus those that do not.
Most notably these ideas have been used in contemporary psychology within
the ethological-evolutionary theory of mother-infant attachment (Ainsworth
et al., 1978) and bonding (Kennel & Klaus, 1984). Moreover, these ideas
are the basis for interventions like infant massage training (Field, 1998) and
kangaroo care (Ferber & Makhoul, 2004).