touch therapy

treatment that involves touching or manipulating parts of an individual’s body to ease physical pain or to promote relaxation and a general sense of well-being. Touch therapy has been shown to have numerous benefits for children (among others), such as improving the physical and psychological development of preterm infants and bringing about a greater tolerance of touch by children with autism, which has resulted in enhanced bonding and communication with their parents. Also called therapeutic touch. See also complementary and alternative medicine; massage.

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Psychology term of the day

January 15th 2025

prescriptive grammar

an approach to grammar in which a series of rules is used to distinguish proper from improper usage and a standard version of the language is identified and promoted (see standard language). It is often contrasted with descriptive grammar, in which the goal is to provide an accurate account of language use without specification as to correctness. Prescriptive grammarians seek to correct nonstandard forms, such as I can’t get no satisfaction, whereas descriptive grammarians seek to characterize the rule system that produces such utterances.