Infancy and Early Childhood

A healthy or secure attachment develops over time because of a caregiver’s consistent, sensitive care that they have towards a young child. Each time a caregiver interacts in ways that focus fully on the individual child, it furthers connections. When a caregiver attempts to read a baby’s cues and tries to respond to the child’s needs and wishes, the baby learns the caregiver is a source of comfort and security. Children with secure attachments learn that their world is a safe place because the people in it are caring and understanding. They also learn that their ways of communicating result in others responding and understanding them. This reinforces their efforts to continue to express themselves to others. Consistent back-and-forth exchanges that happen over time are one of the ways to build positive relationships. Children with secure attachments feel confident in exploring their environment, which allows them to learn. It’s the accumulation of intimacy during these numerous interactions that turns ordinary tasks into a relationship-based curriculum.

Infant attachment is the first relationship a child experiences and is crucial to the child’s survival (BOOK). A mother’s response to her child will yield either a secure bond or insecurity with the infant. Parents who respond “more sensitively and responsively to the child’s distress” establish a secure bond faster than “parents of insecure children”. (Attachment and Emotion, page 475) The quality of the attachment has “profound implications for the child’s feelings of security and capacity to form trusting relationships” (Book). Simply stated, a positive early attachment will likely yield positive physical, socio-emotional, and cognitive development for the child. (BOOK)

The idea of attachment theory is that infants become attached to adults who are sensitive and responsive in social relationships with them, and who remain consistent caregivers for some months during the period of early six months to two/three years of age.

The secure attachment bond is the emotional relationship between an infant and primary care giver, defined by emotional responses to the baby 's cues, as communicated through movements, signs, and sounds. The achievement of relationships enable children to feel secure enough to progress fully in their life, and affects how he or she will interact, connect, and form relationships during life. A secure attachment bond teaches babies to trust, to communicate their feelings, and eventually to trust others as well. As babies and their primary care giver connect with one another, the baby learns how to have a healthy sense of self and how to be in a loving relationship. When babies develop a secure attachment bond, develop satisfying intimate relationship, they maintain emotional balance; they feel confident and good about themselves, they enjoy the company of others; recover from disappointment and loss, they also share their feelings and seek support (Segal, 2014).

Attachment in newborns and infants is a strong connection emotionally. This attachment is normally with their primary caregiver due to the fact they are with them the most. This is in most cases the mother of the child. When in the company of the one they are attached to, infants feel the sense of safety, comfort, and happiness. Infants and newborns tend to develop an attachment based on the amount of time they spend with the person, the quality of the care they give to them, the investment that is put into the infant, and the time spent in their life over time.

In the future, a child with a secure attachment is empathetic and eager to try new things in life (Perry; Romero). A typical child has an optimistic attitude and they enjoy interacting with other people (Perry). Also, “Kids who were secure as infants

According to Sroufe (2005) attachment is where the child uses the primary caregiver as a secure base from which to explore, feel safe, and be comforted. As mentioned by Bowlby (1973) as cited by Sroufe (2005), individuals tend to return to trajectories of development following perturbations. Therefore, by promoting resilience and strength in the face of challenges, attachment is considered a protective factor, which emphasizes the importance for parents to

Parents play many significant roles in their child’s life, including teacher or guidance, playmate, disciplinarian, caregiver, and attachment figure (Benoit, 2004). However, the most important role for parents is as an attachment figure, which can predict the child’s later social and emotional outcome. The first six months, therefore, is the most crucial period for parents and infants to develop this connection. Many people often have mistaken attachment with bonding. Bonding is referring to physical contact, and in this case depended on skin-to-skin contact child during early infant years. This concept of bonding is not the same with the attachment theory, however, providing physical contact when an infant cry until they are calm may help with forming a secure base for a child. According to Diane Benoit, the attachment is where the child uses its caregiver as a secure base from which to explore and, when necessary, as a haven of safety and a source of comfort (Benoit, 2004).

Based on this theory, attachment relationships are emotional bonds between individuals that serve a biological function, particularly for infants and young children (Hardy & Bellamy, 2013). These relationships protect infants and young children during a period when they are too small to protect themselves by keeping them in proximity to their caregivers. Since infants and young children develop an emotional bond to attachment figures who constantly offer care and comfort, they experience less stress levels and a high sense of calm and safety. The basis of attachment theory is the need for infants to feel safe and secure because of their inability to care for and protect themselves.

As humans, building relationships between others is a form of connecting and communicating. It is a social situation that is experienced every day through the course of a lifetime. The initial relationship that is made is between the mother and the child. This bond that connects two people is known to be called attachment. The theory of attachment begins at birth, and from that, continuing on to other relationships in family, friends, and romance. Attachment is taught through social experiences, however the relationship with the mother and her temperament are the key factors in shaping the infants attachment type, which

Attachments are formed in the very earliest months and years of life. These have a significant influence on emotional development as well as providing a template for the child as he or she grows into adulthood.

Although, researchers demonstrated most babies turn out to be attached by the second half of their first year of life. It is amazing that the environment and bond can be different with each child. Some infants are calm and protected by their mother, and some seem uneasy and uncertain. I would concur with the author 's idea of ethological-evolutionary theory. The attachment is the strong emotional bond that develops between infant and mother, providing the infant with emotional security (Berk, 2014). The reciprocal action that infants sometime have is attachment behavior and exploratory behavior in the Strange Situation with caregivers. An attachment may be identified as a feeling that bonds a person or animal forms between self and other beasts. While, Ethology has to do with the familiarize yourself, survival, behavior and its evolutionary history. Agreeing with the ethologist assessment, which babies are physically motivated to participate actively to form a bond with their mother and improves the infant 's genes to live.

When a child is securely attached, they show signs of courage to explore new experiences while their attached person is around, they go to their attached person when they are injured, they easily agree to what is asked of them, and they do not try to take control over their attached person (Appleyard and Berlin). A caregiver’s

Attachment theory is a concept that explores the importance of attachment in respect to direct development. “It is a deep and enduring emotional bond that connects one person to another across time and space” (Bowlby, 1969; McLeod, 2009). It is the relationship that develops within the first year of the infant’s life between them and their caregiver. The theory also relates to the quality of the attachment that is shown in the behavior of the infant (Rieser-Danner, 2016). Attachment theory shows that infants need a close nurturing relationship with their caregiver in order to have a healthy relationship. Lack of response from the caregiver

“As infants grows older, they form close and enduring emotional attachments with the important people in their lives”. Reference 1. This essay will discuss the developmental period of infancy. Infancy is categorised as the development stage of a human from birth to 2 years of age. Infancy is a time in the human life that involves rapid growth and extraordinary changes in the first two years of life. Infants not only grow dramatically physically, their brains develop, and there is the start of locomotor skill development as well as the start of reflexes and sensory growth. The essay will also discuss anxiety and the role it plays with infants in regards to physical, cognitive and psychosocial stages an infant experiences. This essay will argue that the attachment of an infant to its mother is highly important. It will discuss the different way in which attachment affects an infant. This essay will discuss typical development milsetones in the first year years of human life. It will then go to analysis the relationship between infants being in day care or at home with their mother. T The typical physical development of a babys starts at borth. When a Baby is born on average it will weigh 3.4 kilograms and measure to be around 51 centimeters. A baby is typically 25 percent of its final adult weight when it is born but by its