Early signs of sensualism in going for pampering (9)
I believe the answer is:
cosseting
'pampering' is the definition.
('cosset' can be a synonym of 'pamper')
'early signs of sensualism in going for' is the wordplay.
'early' indicates taking the first letters (I've seen 'earliest of' mean this).
'of sensualism' becomes 'e' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'going for' becomes 'costing' (I've seen this in another clue).
The initial letter of 'signs' is 's'.
's'+'e'='se'
'se' placed into 'costing' is 'COSSETING'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for cosseting that I've seen before include "tender care needed" , "Mollycoddling, pampering" .)