Peaceful Touch®

Peaceful Touch® began in Stockholm, Sweden, in the early 1990s. The beginnings of Peaceful Touch® focused on teachers and school aides learning basic Swedish massage techniques in order to provide

massage for children. Everywhere they began to introduce the program, the children themselves assimilated the basic massage strokes, and children as well as adults gave and received Peaceful Touch®.

Now we are excited to introduce Peaceful Touch® in the US and Canada. Liddle Kidz founder, Tina Allen, has played an important role in bringing Peaceful Touch® to the children and families of the North America and feels passionate about introducing the many benefits of nurturing touch through the use of specially designed curriculum.

 

As we launch the Peaceful Touch® program in North America we include the lesson that Swedish children taught the program founders, that the gift of a child's touch carries the full value of human touch. Adult touch is not required for the program to produce full benefits. Adults can guide and educate children with or without touching them, according to school and local guidelines.

More than a century of scientific research and observation gives evidence to what many know by instinct: that touch is essential to human growth and development. Yet circumstance and custom too often raise obstacles to the day-to-day practice of healthy touch in children's lives.

One of the top priorities of Peaceful Touch® is to bring the work to children living in communities that face the obstacles of poverty and violence.

Peaceful Touch® in Sweden

When Axelson Institute began Peaceful Touch® in Stockholm in the early 1990s, it focused on teachers and aides learning basic Swedish massage techniques in order to massage children. But everywhere the Peaceul Touch program was used, the children themselves assimilated the basic massage strokes, and children as well as adults gave and received Peaceful Touch®.

Peaceful Touch® Launches in North America

Peaceful Touch® in North America includes the lesson that Swedish children taught the program founders, that the gift of a child's touch carries the full value of human touch. Adult touch is not required for the Peaceful Touch® program to produce full benefits. Adults can guide and educate children with or without touching them, according to school and local guidelines. One of the top priorities is to bring Peaceful Touch® to children living in communities that face the obstacles of poverty and violence.

Peaceful Touch® In Schools

Peaceful Touch® Benefits

In Swedish classrooms where the children's programs are now institutionalized and in the American classrooms just beginning the Peaceful Touch® program, teachers report positive results for children including:

• Greater empathy for peers
• Improved concentration
• Less fighting and aggressive behavior
• · Better functioning in groups
• · Lower levels of anxiety and stress

Fundamentals

More than a century of scientific research and observation gives evidence to what many know by instinct: that touch is essential to human growth and development. Yet circumstance and custom too often raise obstacles to the day-to-day practice of healthy touch in children's lives.

The Peaceful Touch® curriculum systematizes healthy touch among children in classrooms and other structured settings. Through games, storytelling, and learning exercises, children learn to respect their own bodies and the bodies of other children.

Understanding and implementing Peaceful Touch® depends on three fundamentals of the program:

• · Need for Human Touch
• · Oxytocin Factor
• · Permission Process

These three fundamentals of Peaceful Touch® are like the legs of a three-legged stool; together they support the integrity of the program. Linking the three fundamentals of the Peaceful Touch® program will allow for successful teaching and implementation.

Getting Started with Peaceful Touch®

Ideally, an elementary school or preschool expresses an interest in Peaceful Touch® and the full teaching staff completes the 12 hours of Level I Training. As another option, individual teachers are always welcome to take the Level I Training and bring Peaceful Touch® into their own classrooms, and when possible, to the wider school community. Many school teachers took the introductory Level I Peaceful Touch® trainings held in 2005 and, with the agreement of school administrators, successfully merged the Peaceful Touch® games and exercises into their classroom activities.

Peaceful Touch® Training

• The Peaceful Touch® training is for elementary and pre-school teachers, usually held at the school site or in a college early childhood education program. It gives participants not only an expanded personal awareness of the benefits of touch, but multiple hands on practices to integrate into their work with children.
   
• The focus is on children ages 3 through 8, but the workshop experience can also benefit infant caregivers as well as teachers of children in later elementary grades.
   
• The workshop is best presented in versions of between 8 and 12 hours, over 2 or 3 sessions.
   
• If the training group is more diverse than a school staff, the 12 hour Peaceful Touch® training can be given in a single weekend.

Training Objectives:

• To train teachers and other professionals in the implementation of Peaceful Touch® in the classroom.
   
• To promote awareness of the value of touch and the healthy use of touch in the classroom.
   
• To promote awareness of the relationship between healthy touch and non-violence, socialization, and learning.
   
• To outline and clarify the highest ethical standards for all Peaceful Touch® activity.

Please see our Calendar for upcoming Peaceful Touch® Training Dates and Registration Information

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Articles by Tina Allen

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