Be it with water, sand or wood, children first discover the world by using their hands. Even before they utter their first words, they learn all about touch, resistance and material – and quite literally begin to grasp their surroundings. This article tells you all about why the sense of touch is a central learning organ and how tactile experiences shape early childhood development.
Grasping the world: why the sense of touch is so essential for kids
Higher and higher, until all the building blocks come tumbling down: Whether grabbing, feeling or prodding and poking, children discover their surroundings and develop an initial understanding of connections thanks to their sense of touch.
Tactile experiences with smooth blades of grass, grainy sand and soft water all enable children to get to know the world around them with their hands. In fact, babies already start to explore their surroundings as early as during their third month in the womb. After birth, the mouth also becomes an important ‘exploration zone’ that babies use to familiarise themselves with different shapes and materials.
Various behavioural studies have revealed that even newborns who have only been in the world for a few hours already show interest in simple geometric forms and try to grab them with their hands.
“When children are born, their senses are not yet evenly developed,” explains Dr. Gerd E. Schäfer, Professor Emeritus of Early Childhood Education. “Only through interaction with the environment – moving and feeling their surroundings – do they gain orientation.”
Early childhood development: learning begins with touch
The sense of touch is the first sense to be fully developed in the womb – and the last to remain prior to death. For babies, it is essential for their survival. In fact, studies have shown that newborn babies can already feel and recognise different shapes just hours after their birth.
A study conducted by the University of René Descartes in 2005 additionally revealed that exploring the feel of things with the mouth is a basic instinct that enables babies to find their mother’s breast time and time again. When they then move on to putting every item they discover into their mouths, this isn’t just for fun, but actually represents an essential stage of their development – and an early introduction to their own perception.
Babies and toddlers use their sense of touch to establish an initial understanding of who they are and what the world around them entails. They learn that “this is me and I can distinguish myself from my environment and help shape it”.
A baby’s first tools are their hands, credit: ooh noo
First touch, then thought: the findings of developmental psychologists
Back in as early as the 1980s, the developmental psychologist Jean Piaget wrote that up to the age of seven, children learn mainly through play and touching objects.
A long-term study by scientists from the University of Florida also found out that children who played with building blocks and similar toys from a very early age later developed a better understanding of mathematical problems.
In her mathematics experiments conducted in 2010, Susan Goldin-Meadow of the University of Chicago demonstrated that when solving mathematical equations, children often already indicated the correct solution with their hands, although they were not yet able to express it verbally. In her publication, she wrote that “often the hands were already one step ahead and apparently equipped with a knowledge that is not accessible to the consciousness.”
The hands are a step ahead of the mind, credit: afilii
Montessori education: action leads to thinking
The Montessori method of education, also states that tactile experiences, or handling items (a verb that fittingly contains the word “hand”!), precede thinking, because thinking is nothing other than an inner reflection on those actions. With her observations of childhood development, the educator Maria Montessori recognised that children’s tactile exploration of certain materials played a key role in enabling them to understand and further consider various ideas and concepts.
She claimed that the sense of touch is the central “learning organ” – everything that children quite literally “grasp” and experience becomes a stronger and more permanent memory. Dr Gerd E. Schäfer adds that “In the first two years of their lives, children do not really need many toys. They can, of course, be offered to them as an additional activity, but toys are no substitute for the experiences made in everyday life.”
Montessori children’s furniture supports the development of the sense of touch, credit: coclico
Digital media: are children losing touch with their sense of touch?
As screens and computers become increasingly present in children’s bedrooms and sometimes even in nursery schools, children are losing – or even failing to acquire – their instinctive connection not only with objects and their surroundings, but also with their own bodies.
“Modern media require audiences to already have real references and an understanding of images,” explains Dr Gerd E. Schäfer. “But, for example, if a child only sees a parrot on a screen, it doesn’t actually know what a parrot really is. To get to know the bird properly, the child needs to go to the zoo or at least experience birds in person.”
Furthermore, many classroom environments mainly require children to sit at their desks quietly and learn in a passive way. However, the opposite applies: Children need movement and tactile experiences to acquire and to lastingly process various knowledge.
A cube is a cube, credit: Qukel
Encouraging the sense of touch: while haptic learning is still so essential
As the first sense to develop in the womb and the last to fade before death, the sense of touch is essential for survival. You can close your eyes, block your ears and hold your nose – but without the sense of touch, you would be unable to survive for even one day. For healthy childhood development, it is therefore absolutely essential that the need and desire for children to interact with their surroundings are promoted and fulfilled. Ways of doing so include:
• offering them materials with different surface textures
• enabling them to experience nature
• allowing free play
• getting them involved in day-to-day tasks and activities
• promoting movement above constant screen time
The sense of touch: a basic human need
The world is complex, but it becomes more understandable with tactile experiences. This is why it is so important to encourage exploring our surroundings with all our senses, supporting the sense of touch from a young age and continuing to do so throughout youth and adulthood.
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About the author
Alexandra Brechlin is a cultural journalist with many years of experience – and the mother of a young daughter. Since becoming a mother, she has taken a particular interest in topics related to children: sustainable toys, educational books and everyday family life. For afilii, she writes about everything that affects children in their everyday lives – with a clear focus on quality, sustainability and meaning.
Translation: Jessica Schewel
This interview was updated in May 2026; it was first published in November 2020.
