Reflection On 'Facilitating Development Attachment And Loss'

The following is a discussion of my learning on completing the reading of Attachment and Loss by John Bowlby, Facilitating Development Attachment by Dan Hughes and Child Development by John W Santrock. I will also further discuss how all of the knowledge and understanding gained, informs my practice.
Child Development by John W Sandtrock is a comprehensive look at all aspects of child development. In reading this I was able to relate my own experiences of working with children to the descriptions of learning, playing and many other aspects of development. Whilst there is a lot of information I found interesting, in terms of my own career development the sections on play, relationships and the factors that can affect typical development, are
The inclusion of the ‘straight face' experiment to demonstrate the importance of reciprocal sociability, led me to seek out a video demonstration to further cement my understanding. This concept makes a greater impact when seen in action. Consequently, a mother can fulfil many aspects of the care of a baby from feeding, to potty training, but if the mother is not able to be positively responsive to her baby's attempts to interact, the baby is unlikely to form an attachment with her. Bowlby presents the example of the baby who appeared to have formed the attachment with the extremely response father despite being in the care of his mother for most of the day. Interestingly, the mother believed the father spoiled the baby with attention, suggesting she lacked enjoyment from social interactions with her child. One particular point highlighted is extremely relevant to my work with families and is that of mother's experience with clinical or post-partum depression, as both conditions may form a barrier to a mother's ability to be sociable with her
As a result of the descriptions provided by Hughes, I am now recognising attunement techniques in my practice and fine-tuning my approach. Hughes' work has also validated my belief that humour is one of the central ways to overcome the barriers children create to protect themselves. For those undertaking one to one work with children, one of the most satisfying moments with a child in emotional distress is being able to make them truly laugh. The mutual experience not only creates a very positive social experience but the subsequent release of feel-good hormones reduces anxiety allowing both the child and the worker to