Dr. Tania Stegen-Hanson, along with colleagues Kristine Snell and Joyce Fisher Ahrens, was among just 62 presenters accepted to share important research at the recent Zero to Three conference in San Diego, CA. Stegen-Hanson, Snell and Ahrens prepared a poster, “Are We Losing Touch? Promoting Bonding and Attachment with a Sensory Focus” to share with attendees. Their work was accepted from a field of more than 400 submissions subjected to a three-tiered, blind review process. The annual conference presented by Zero to Three, an organization committed to ensuring that all babies and toddlers have a successful start in life, featured 96 informative sessions, 236 top-notch speakers, 70 Marketplace vendors, and more than 3,400 attendees who work in the field of early childhood development.
The “Are We Losing Touch?” poster (featured below) suggests that families may be missing out on opportunities for nurturing touch, and provides evidence for supporting the importance of positive, intentional touch for children and caregivers. Citing more than a dozen insightful studies into this topic and illustrating the work of The Devereaux Early Childhood Assessment Program, the poster highlights the Documented Benefits of Infant Massage. Among these are:
- Improved medical outcomes for infants.
- Increased serum insulin and IGF-1 levels.
- Sleep apnea reduction in low weight infants.
- Lower incidence of late-onset sepsis.
- Improved sleep patterns
- Reduced irritability in mothers.
- Enhanced development.
- Weight and bone density gain in pre-term infants.
Dr. Stegen-Hanson and colleagues were tremendously honored to be able to share this valuable information at the conference and hope it made an impression on the esteemed roster of presenters and attendees.
If you would like more information on Achievement Therapy Center’s Infant Massage Program, please read more here.
