Attachment Theory for Childcare Providers: An Annotated Bibliography Mardell, B. (1992). A Practitioner’s Perspective on the Implications of Attachment Theory for Daycare Professionals. Child Study Journal, 22(3), 121-128. Retrieved from https://www.esc.edu/library/ In this article Benjamin Mardell, from the Elliot-Pearsons Department of Child Study at Tufts University, synthesizes and evaluates a wealth of attachment theory literature, as well as his own eight years of observations as a teacher, in an attempt to find ways for practitioners to promote healthy attachments in daycares. The article contains two sections. The first section gives an overview of attachment theory that is pertinent to childcare providers. He discusses
Attachment is one of the most complex and critical issues for professionals working with infants/toddlers and their families. Review the information on attachment presented in Chapter 5 of Diversity in Early Care and Education. Think about a family behavior related to attachment that might cause you, as an infant/toddler professional, to pause. Using this example, describe two or more possible explanations for the behavior and explain why it might be difficult for an infant/toddler professional to discern the meaning behind a family’s actions. Then explain how recognizing that the complexity of such a situation could inform an infant/toddler professional’s interactions with the baby and
A mother and child’s bond is one of the most precious things ever, but have you ever wondered why? Most importantly, how does the attachment between a mother and child affect the development of the child? This paper will depict the main ideas of attachment as it is theorized by John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth and it will further show how their theories relate to the theory of Erik Erikson. I will also share my personal experience of attachment and how I can use these theory aspects in my professional career.
Bowlby, the founder of the attachment theory, “hypothesized that children are born with a predisposition to attached to their caregivers and the children will organize their own behaviors and thinking in in order to maintain those relationships (Bettmann, p.2, 2006).” Bettmann (2006) further explained that the attachment theory maintains that children’s psychological and physical survival depend on a secure attachment with a caregiver. Furthermore, Bettmann (2006) reported that attachment theory asserts that often children will try to maintain the attachment to their caregiver at a cost of own functioning and distortions. Most children are able to form a secure attachment, as a parent needs to be a “good enough parent” for secure attachment. Additionally, another adult can assume the role of an attachment figure in a child’s life.
Pioneered by John Bowlby, the formation of attachment theory, stems from the concept that intimate and comforting relationships between child and caregiver, establishes a sense of security and fosters positive social and emotional development (Ogilvie, Newman, Todd & Peck, 2014). Although attachment theory was primarily focused on understanding the temperament of infants, it has since been illustrated that attachment can define human experience from ‘cradle to grave’ (Chopik, Edelstein & Fraley, 2013). Those described as securely attached, (who receive supervision and discipline from a caregiver) develop a healthy perception of the world, displaying high levels of self control; beneficial in steering themselves away from delinquent
Practitioners can do this through promoting attachment both at home and at nursery (through the role of the key person). Attachment provides children with the necessary personal, social, emotional and cognitive skills that form the foundation for the child’s future relationships. Children who have less secure attachment may have problems with social and emotional development. Furthermore, during transitions it is important that practitioners support children as they may suffer from emotional withdrawal, which will consequently greatly affect their social and emotional development.
Attachment theory is the concept of the development, of a psychological and emotional bond, that creates a secure or insecure attachment to a caregiver. Attachment bonds are very important, in regards to personal development. Formulated by John Bowlby in the sixties, he discovered that a child’s development depends significantly, on the strong attachment they form with a caregiver. Functions of Bowlby’s attachment
Everyone has an attachment style from which they developed in the first two years of their life. This attachment style tends to stay consistent with each person throughout their lifetime and affects their social-emotional development, and thus relationships with other people. Attachment styles greatly affect the choice one makes in life partners, and how they parent their own children. It is important for everyone to gain insight on their own attachment style if they are to know their emotional limits and how to strengthen their flaws in order to develop a better-self and stronger relationships with other people (Norcross, 2011). It is even more so important for caregivers to be aware of their attachment style and how sensitively available they are to the children in their lives. How the primary caregiver responds to the child’s needs, determines the attachment style the child will acquire. To develop a secure attachment the child needs to establish confidence in a reliable caregiver. In this paper I will be talking about the behaviors and interactions that I observed while watching the film “Babies”, and what attachment styles may be formed as a result of those interactions.
This essay will examine key research of attachment theories, parenting styles and emotional needs of children and how parents and carers support that. Attachment theory is the basis of building relationships with your care givers and people around you. I will be describing how attachment theory relates with the emotional needs of the children and how parenting can influence this. Children either develop a secure or an unsecure attachment with their caregiver, either plays a huge part in their children’s emotional development. It needs to be explained throughout this essay what it is that parents and carers can do to provide secure attachments with our children, and support their children’s emotional needs.
In this essay the reader will gain an insight into the importance of services such as The Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Scheme in relation to attunement and attachment, the importance of healthy attachment behaviors, how and why ECCE workers must be able to provide a secure base for healthy attachments and what can happen if healthy attachment behaviors are not learned. John Bowlby first introduced his theory of attachment and its central role in child development more than 50 years ago. “The attachment theory focuses on how children develop within relationships, and the impact that this has for later social and emotional development. This in turn impacts on cognitive development, the way in which the child learns and understands
Detail and critical analysis of understanding the attachment styles by Bowlby and Ainsworth would be evaluated. In order to fully understand the significance of the attachment theory to social work practice with family and children, the fourth section of the research study deals with the impact of the theory on children placed with foster carers, adoption centres and briefly looked-after children. However, in the fifth section, implications of the disrupted attachment for children, care providers, social work professionals and policy makers would be thoroughly investigated. Following this analysis, positives and negatives impacts of the attachment theory to children, family and care providers would be highlighted and discussed in the sixth section of the essay.
Attachment theory is the idea that a child needs to form a close relationship with at least one primary caregiver. The theory proved that attachment is necessary to ensure successful social and emotional development in an infant. It is critical for this to occur in the child’s early infant years. However, failed to prove that this nurturing can only be given by a mother (Birns, 1999, p. 13). Many aspects of this theory grew out of psychoanalyst, John Bowlby’s research. There are several other factors that needed to be taken into account before the social worker reached a conclusion; such as issues surrounding poverty, social class and temperament. These factors, as well as an explanation of insecure attachment will be further explored in
Attachment refers to the emotional connection that matures between infants and their primary caregivers throughout the first year of life. Attachment appears to be a universal feature of development in all cultures. Its importance has led to a continuing debate about the value of attachment in infancy on children’s later development. (Wallace & Caulfield, 1998). There are three key theories that have dominated the literature on attachment: Sigmund Freud, Konrad Lorenz and John Bowlby. Bowlby’s theory proposes justifications of how parent-infant interactions shape their adaptive behavioural capabilities in response to emotional and social involvements. (Colin, 1994). The multifaceted nature of attachment creates a dynamic theoretical perspective. There are two fundamental dimensions: attachment as a behavioural system, and as a development system. The behavioural system is the idea that human infants – like other mammals – are endowed with a specific behavioural system and the aim is to maintain close contact with their caregiver. (Sperling & Berman, 1994). Attachment as a developmental process states that parental sensitivity and the child’s ability to trust the caregiver’s accessibility is the root of a person’s formation of healthy processing. (Erickson, 1950).
The current study is influenced heavily by the work of both John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth, who laid the foundation of modern attachment theory through their studies of children and caregivers. Attachment theory is generally defined as a psychological model that attempts to describe dynamics of human, interpersonal relationships through the breakdown of attachment into three distinct
Attachment is described as an "affectionate reciprocal relationship between an individual and another individual." Much psychological research has been carried out into the types of attachments that infants form with their caregivers, and the results gained from these studies show how early attachments can affect children whether positively or negatively.
The first years are an important stage in an child’s life. They are learning an abundance of information about themselves and the people and world around them. During this time when there is a great amount of development taking place, one of the major components is establishing some sort of attachment with their primary caregivers. There are two different perspectives on the attachment to consider. Those of John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth, who emphasized the importance of infants creating relationships to have a healthy up bringing for later adulthood.