Support Positive Attachments In The First Three Years Of Life Essay
Present an argument to support the belief that a young child’s social and emotional wellbeing is enhanced through the development of positive attachments in the first three years of life.
The first relationship a child has with their parents or carers acts as an enduring model, shaping the capability to enter and maintain a positive relationship with family, friends and partners. It is understood that the initial and influential experiences with the people who first raised the child will affect their long-term emotional wellbeing.
The most important and crucial time for the brain to develop is the first twelve months of a child’s life. It is vital for creating relationships with parents, caregivers and other family members. Attachment is a natural instinct which compels the young child to search …show more content…
for intimacy with their parent or main caregiver. An infant’s relationship with their parent or caregiver, and the attachment they experience to that person, impacts a child 's long-term impending development.
There are four different kinds of attachment relationship between a child and the parent or caregiver, these categories being secure, avoidant, ambivalent and disorganised. They affect the growth of a child in various ways, some being good and some bad for the child’s development.
Secure attachment is considered as a relationship with a caregiver, which is loving, safe, quick to respond and predictable. Secure attachment influences a child’s development positively and is correlated with the development of strong relationships with others, the capability to display efficient social and emotional principles, acquire better educational outcomes, and a superior degree of spirit and optimism.
Child Psychiatrist, Dr Caroline Goossens, appeared in front of the Education and Health Committee in September 2011 and defined secure attachment as “where you have a fairly robust relationship with your parent; where the parent usually is enjoying parenting; they have a capacity to tolerate both positive and negative emotions in their child; they are physically affectionate; and they can think about what they do as a parent,” (Education and Health Standing Committee. Transcript of Evidence, September 28, 2011, p. 8).
The avoidant attachment has a tendency for the child to avoid parents and caregivers. This avoidance often becomes distinct after there is a long time of absence between caregiver and child. The children suffering from avoidance may not refuse the attention from a parent, however, they don’t seek any comfort or interaction with them either. Children that have an avoidant attachment relationship with the caregiver display no preference between a complete stranger and their own parent.
Ambivalently attached children have a habit of being very distrustful and suspicious of strangers. The child can display significant distress when they are parted from a parent or caregiver, however, the child will not appear comforted or relieved by the reappearance of the parent. In some instances, the child may unresponsively refuse the parent by declining the comfort offered, or they may become very aggressive and angry towards the parent.
Ambivalent attachment is relatively uncommon, with only 7% to 15% of infants in the United States displaying this attachment style (Cassidy & Berlin, 1994). In a review of ambivalent attachment literature, Cassidy and Berlin also found that observational research consistently links ambivalent-insecure attachment to low maternal availability. As these children grow older, teachers often describe them as clingy and over-dependent.
Disorganised attachment is viewed as having the utmost negative influence on intellectual, emotional and social development. Dr Goossens clarified to the Committee the long-term consequences of disorganised attachment on the child’s development: “We know that children who have a disorganised attachment, for example, they struggle in the classroom. They have a lot of issues; they struggle with attention and concentration, and their capacity to settle themselves enough emotionally to be available for learning. They have struggles with their peers and they have far more conflictual relationships, often,” (Education and Health Standing Committee. Transcript of Evidence, September 28, 2011, p. 4).
Positive attachment hinges on the ability that the young child is projecting out signs and the caregiver receiving these signs and responding to them in a way that the infant feels it is supported, loved, cared for and safe. There are emotional needs that need to be fulfilled when caring for the child, these being attention, acceptance, appreciation, encouragement, affection, support, comfort, approval, and security.
Attention needs are experienced by focusing on the interest in feelings and activities. Spending time with the child on a regular basis and understanding their needs can create a sense of importance and value for both the parent and child.
Acceptance is met through accepting people for who they are without being judged. Children have to know that they are loved and are accepted whatever the circumstances and that they will be forgiven.
Appreciation is displayed by celebrating activities that they have done well whether they are big and small. Telling a child why they are proud of them enhances their sense of purpose.
Encouragement involves inspiring and motivating the child, giving them a sense of the parent’s confidence in their abilities. The child needs to have goals and be pushed little more than they thought they could go.
Affection is using physical contact to connect and show care and support. The amount of affection is dependent on the seriousness of the issue.
Support is essential when a child is undergoing challenges in whatever way, so they can feel that when they need help they can signal or ask.
Comfort is desired when a child is upset, sad or distraught. It is essential that they know that their feelings will be recognized and heard. When upset they have physical touch and listened to.
In order to give the child approval, the parent must give them regular feedback and rewards for good behaviour. While in the presence of the child, the parent should speak highly of them so it makes them to feel satisfied and gain a sense of value.
Security is vital to permit the child to feel embraced and confined securely. Boundaries and limits are needed to be put in place that is thoroughly conveyed through in a reasonable way to offer the basis of security.
With the purpose of supporting the emotional wellbeing of a child, it is essential to contemplate the ways in which the parent or caregiver can meet the emotional needs successfully. They not only need to care for the child’s emotional needs but also their looking after themselves and they are meeting their own emotional needs through the contribution of family members, friends and coworkers.
Early years practitioners must keep in mind that each child has complicated emotional needs that have to be experienced in various ways. When a child’s needs are met, they feel safe, content and assured. Correspondingly, if their emotional needs aren’t met the child can feel anxious, unhappy and can become timid. If there is a major absence of emotional nourishment, serious consequences can affect the child development in areas such social and emotional, mental and sometimes physical growth and wellbeing.
Children should receive majority of their emotional needs at home by their family, giving them a chance to develop feelings that are secure and emotionally constant. Constantly failing to give the child these needs at home can create negative and disobedient behaviours which can result in long-term difficulties throughout childhood, adolescence and adulthood.
Accountability is placed on the early childhood practitioner to provide the child with a nurturing environment that helps to support parents in meeting the needs of the child in the home. Sometimes it can be hard for parents to support their children emotionally if they don’t have emotional resources. They need to seek the chances of meeting the emotional needs of parents so they can improve their competence to meet their children’s emotional needs.
In people, both genetics and the environment cooperate to control how the primary events that they have been exposed to form their development. Biological, social aspects and the environment, in particular the family and home environment, together with the broader community and the socio-political situations, can affect a young child’s overall health and development.
The positive and negative incidents that a person has undergone become embedded in parts of the brain and body, continuing into the future of their adult life and manipulating the adults general health and well-being.
When it comes to the development of a child, the family environment is usually believed to be one of the more significant environments for a child’s growth in attachment as families have an essential part in bestowing the infant with physical and emotional support, encouragement and care. A families characteristics, such as the parent or caregiver’s health, socioeconomic status, social support, and education, has an impact on the ability that a family can be responsible for and support a child. A young child’s overall health and wellbeing, along with their ability to socialise with others, their emotional capability and success in learning, are affected in both positive and negative ways by its family environment.
The public and broader socio-political environment in the same way can influence a young child’s development, access to health care and parental care services, a satisfactory education system, safe community and a steady economic environment are all significant for making sure health and wellbeing are sustained.
The environment and individual issues to which a child is subject to, contribute to and form brain development, social and emotional wellbeing, and primary attachment occurrences during the most influential years of a child’s life, “optimum development occurs when children and families are within a supportive environment that actively contributes to social and emotional wellbeing, physical health, sound nutrition, positive attachment,” (Education and Health Standing Committee. Transcript of Evidence, September 28, 2011, p. 12).
A young child’s social and emotional wellbeing is regarded as an important indicator for their development in the future. Like brain development, social and emotional wellbeing has an effect on biological, environmental and relational influences.
Social and emotional wellbeing is encouraged by access to secure and steady care, chances for social contact and reliable parent-child relationships. Young children who show higher abilities of social and emotional wellbeing have a greater chance of being resistant in demanding circumstances, performing well at school, shows a voluntary behavior intended to benefit others, and is capable to control emotions efficiently.
In comparison, exposure to domestic violence and parental substance abuse, social seclusion, disability, mistreatment and poor parenting can have an effect on a child’s relationships and negatively impacts on the child’s social and emotional wellbeing. If social and emotional wellbeing is interrupted, the young child’s growth can be damaged, instigating poor performance in school, a higher chance of developing a mental health disorder, weak relationships with others and conflict in antisocial behaviour.
Improvements in neuroscience and the advances of early brain scanning have revealed that feelings, empathy and emotional understanding are instinctive in the brain through early relationship experiences in the first years of life (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2011).
Level amounts of serotonin and cortisol can encourage social and emotional development, mood adjustment and self-control are released through contact with the early care-givers. The child’s brain has a natural conceptual idea and understanding about emotions and relationships based on these interactions. Therefore, the pathways in the brain are molded or not molded according to the attachment and relationship with the first care-givers.
There is a high amount of biological and environmental issues that affect the quality of the child and caregiver attachment.
These include domestic violence, diet, maternal depression and poverty.
Sleep deprivation and feeding issues in the young child can be an indicator that there are attachment issues between the caregiver and child. In order to improve a child’s development and attachment with their caregiver, negative factors that can impact the relationship can be discussed with a child health nurse in order to make the attachment balanced and secure.
Although attachment is merely one aspect that influences a child’s general development, when starting their life with attachment problems between caregiver and child is a great disadvantage and can result in long-term developmental complications, including social and emotional dysfunction. If parents and caregivers are not coping with poor attachment with their child then they need to be offered with the support and intervention that is necessary to certify the development of strong, safe and secure attachments.
REFERENCES
Brown, G. L., Mangelsdorf, S. C., & Neff, C. (2012). Father involvement,
paternal sensitivity, and father-child attachment security in the first 3 years. Journal of Family Psychology, 26(3), 421-430. doi: 10.1037/a0027836
Cassidy, J., & Berlin, L. J. (1994). The insecure/ambivalent pattern of attachment: Theory and research. Child Development. 65, 971–991.
Child Welfare Information Gateway. (2011). Understanding the effects of maltreatment on brain development. Retrieved from: http://dcfs.co.la.ca.us/katieA/docs/Maltreatmnet on Early Brain Development.pdf
Duhn, L. (2010). The Importance of Touch in the Development of Attachment. Advances in
Neonatal Care, 10(6), 294-300. doi: 10.1097/ANC.0b013e3181fd2263
Education and Health Standing Committee. Transcript of Evidence, September 28, 2011, p. 4.
Retrieved from: http://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/Parliament/commit.nsf/%28Evidence+Lookup+by+Com+ID%29/3B03AA52951989D048257A3E0025D6DD/$file/edu110928+f.pdf
Education and Health Standing Committee. Transcript of Evidence, September 28, 2011, p. 8.
Retrieved from: http://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/Parliament/commit.nsf/%28Evidence+Lookup+by+Com+ID%29/3B03AA52951989D048257A3E0025D6DD/$file/edu110928+f.pdf
Education and Health Standing Committee. Transcript of Evidence, September 28, 2011, p.
12. Retrieved from: http://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/Parliament/commit.nsf/%28Evidence+Lookup+by+Com+ID%29/3B03AA52951989D048257A3E0025D6DD/$file/edu110928+f.pdf
The first relationship a child has with their parents or carers acts as an enduring model, shaping the capability to enter and maintain a positive relationship with family, friends and partners. It is understood that the initial and influential experiences with the people who first raised the child will affect their long-term emotional wellbeing.
The most important and crucial time for the brain to develop is the first twelve months of a child’s life. It is vital for creating relationships with parents, caregivers and other family members. Attachment is a natural instinct which compels the young child to search …show more content…
for intimacy with their parent or main caregiver. An infant’s relationship with their parent or caregiver, and the attachment they experience to that person, impacts a child 's long-term impending development.
There are four different kinds of attachment relationship between a child and the parent or caregiver, these categories being secure, avoidant, ambivalent and disorganised. They affect the growth of a child in various ways, some being good and some bad for the child’s development.
Secure attachment is considered as a relationship with a caregiver, which is loving, safe, quick to respond and predictable. Secure attachment influences a child’s development positively and is correlated with the development of strong relationships with others, the capability to display efficient social and emotional principles, acquire better educational outcomes, and a superior degree of spirit and optimism.
Child Psychiatrist, Dr Caroline Goossens, appeared in front of the Education and Health Committee in September 2011 and defined secure attachment as “where you have a fairly robust relationship with your parent; where the parent usually is enjoying parenting; they have a capacity to tolerate both positive and negative emotions in their child; they are physically affectionate; and they can think about what they do as a parent,” (Education and Health Standing Committee. Transcript of Evidence, September 28, 2011, p. 8).
The avoidant attachment has a tendency for the child to avoid parents and caregivers. This avoidance often becomes distinct after there is a long time of absence between caregiver and child. The children suffering from avoidance may not refuse the attention from a parent, however, they don’t seek any comfort or interaction with them either. Children that have an avoidant attachment relationship with the caregiver display no preference between a complete stranger and their own parent.
Ambivalently attached children have a habit of being very distrustful and suspicious of strangers. The child can display significant distress when they are parted from a parent or caregiver, however, the child will not appear comforted or relieved by the reappearance of the parent. In some instances, the child may unresponsively refuse the parent by declining the comfort offered, or they may become very aggressive and angry towards the parent.
Ambivalent attachment is relatively uncommon, with only 7% to 15% of infants in the United States displaying this attachment style (Cassidy & Berlin, 1994). In a review of ambivalent attachment literature, Cassidy and Berlin also found that observational research consistently links ambivalent-insecure attachment to low maternal availability. As these children grow older, teachers often describe them as clingy and over-dependent.
Disorganised attachment is viewed as having the utmost negative influence on intellectual, emotional and social development. Dr Goossens clarified to the Committee the long-term consequences of disorganised attachment on the child’s development: “We know that children who have a disorganised attachment, for example, they struggle in the classroom. They have a lot of issues; they struggle with attention and concentration, and their capacity to settle themselves enough emotionally to be available for learning. They have struggles with their peers and they have far more conflictual relationships, often,” (Education and Health Standing Committee. Transcript of Evidence, September 28, 2011, p. 4).
Positive attachment hinges on the ability that the young child is projecting out signs and the caregiver receiving these signs and responding to them in a way that the infant feels it is supported, loved, cared for and safe. There are emotional needs that need to be fulfilled when caring for the child, these being attention, acceptance, appreciation, encouragement, affection, support, comfort, approval, and security.
Attention needs are experienced by focusing on the interest in feelings and activities. Spending time with the child on a regular basis and understanding their needs can create a sense of importance and value for both the parent and child.
Acceptance is met through accepting people for who they are without being judged. Children have to know that they are loved and are accepted whatever the circumstances and that they will be forgiven.
Appreciation is displayed by celebrating activities that they have done well whether they are big and small. Telling a child why they are proud of them enhances their sense of purpose.
Encouragement involves inspiring and motivating the child, giving them a sense of the parent’s confidence in their abilities. The child needs to have goals and be pushed little more than they thought they could go.
Affection is using physical contact to connect and show care and support. The amount of affection is dependent on the seriousness of the issue.
Support is essential when a child is undergoing challenges in whatever way, so they can feel that when they need help they can signal or ask.
Comfort is desired when a child is upset, sad or distraught. It is essential that they know that their feelings will be recognized and heard. When upset they have physical touch and listened to.
In order to give the child approval, the parent must give them regular feedback and rewards for good behaviour. While in the presence of the child, the parent should speak highly of them so it makes them to feel satisfied and gain a sense of value.
Security is vital to permit the child to feel embraced and confined securely. Boundaries and limits are needed to be put in place that is thoroughly conveyed through in a reasonable way to offer the basis of security.
With the purpose of supporting the emotional wellbeing of a child, it is essential to contemplate the ways in which the parent or caregiver can meet the emotional needs successfully. They not only need to care for the child’s emotional needs but also their looking after themselves and they are meeting their own emotional needs through the contribution of family members, friends and coworkers.
Early years practitioners must keep in mind that each child has complicated emotional needs that have to be experienced in various ways. When a child’s needs are met, they feel safe, content and assured. Correspondingly, if their emotional needs aren’t met the child can feel anxious, unhappy and can become timid. If there is a major absence of emotional nourishment, serious consequences can affect the child development in areas such social and emotional, mental and sometimes physical growth and wellbeing.
Children should receive majority of their emotional needs at home by their family, giving them a chance to develop feelings that are secure and emotionally constant. Constantly failing to give the child these needs at home can create negative and disobedient behaviours which can result in long-term difficulties throughout childhood, adolescence and adulthood.
Accountability is placed on the early childhood practitioner to provide the child with a nurturing environment that helps to support parents in meeting the needs of the child in the home. Sometimes it can be hard for parents to support their children emotionally if they don’t have emotional resources. They need to seek the chances of meeting the emotional needs of parents so they can improve their competence to meet their children’s emotional needs.
In people, both genetics and the environment cooperate to control how the primary events that they have been exposed to form their development. Biological, social aspects and the environment, in particular the family and home environment, together with the broader community and the socio-political situations, can affect a young child’s overall health and development.
The positive and negative incidents that a person has undergone become embedded in parts of the brain and body, continuing into the future of their adult life and manipulating the adults general health and well-being.
When it comes to the development of a child, the family environment is usually believed to be one of the more significant environments for a child’s growth in attachment as families have an essential part in bestowing the infant with physical and emotional support, encouragement and care. A families characteristics, such as the parent or caregiver’s health, socioeconomic status, social support, and education, has an impact on the ability that a family can be responsible for and support a child. A young child’s overall health and wellbeing, along with their ability to socialise with others, their emotional capability and success in learning, are affected in both positive and negative ways by its family environment.
The public and broader socio-political environment in the same way can influence a young child’s development, access to health care and parental care services, a satisfactory education system, safe community and a steady economic environment are all significant for making sure health and wellbeing are sustained.
The environment and individual issues to which a child is subject to, contribute to and form brain development, social and emotional wellbeing, and primary attachment occurrences during the most influential years of a child’s life, “optimum development occurs when children and families are within a supportive environment that actively contributes to social and emotional wellbeing, physical health, sound nutrition, positive attachment,” (Education and Health Standing Committee. Transcript of Evidence, September 28, 2011, p. 12).
A young child’s social and emotional wellbeing is regarded as an important indicator for their development in the future. Like brain development, social and emotional wellbeing has an effect on biological, environmental and relational influences.
Social and emotional wellbeing is encouraged by access to secure and steady care, chances for social contact and reliable parent-child relationships. Young children who show higher abilities of social and emotional wellbeing have a greater chance of being resistant in demanding circumstances, performing well at school, shows a voluntary behavior intended to benefit others, and is capable to control emotions efficiently.
In comparison, exposure to domestic violence and parental substance abuse, social seclusion, disability, mistreatment and poor parenting can have an effect on a child’s relationships and negatively impacts on the child’s social and emotional wellbeing. If social and emotional wellbeing is interrupted, the young child’s growth can be damaged, instigating poor performance in school, a higher chance of developing a mental health disorder, weak relationships with others and conflict in antisocial behaviour.
Improvements in neuroscience and the advances of early brain scanning have revealed that feelings, empathy and emotional understanding are instinctive in the brain through early relationship experiences in the first years of life (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2011).
Level amounts of serotonin and cortisol can encourage social and emotional development, mood adjustment and self-control are released through contact with the early care-givers. The child’s brain has a natural conceptual idea and understanding about emotions and relationships based on these interactions. Therefore, the pathways in the brain are molded or not molded according to the attachment and relationship with the first care-givers.
There is a high amount of biological and environmental issues that affect the quality of the child and caregiver attachment.
These include domestic violence, diet, maternal depression and poverty.
Sleep deprivation and feeding issues in the young child can be an indicator that there are attachment issues between the caregiver and child. In order to improve a child’s development and attachment with their caregiver, negative factors that can impact the relationship can be discussed with a child health nurse in order to make the attachment balanced and secure.
Although attachment is merely one aspect that influences a child’s general development, when starting their life with attachment problems between caregiver and child is a great disadvantage and can result in long-term developmental complications, including social and emotional dysfunction. If parents and caregivers are not coping with poor attachment with their child then they need to be offered with the support and intervention that is necessary to certify the development of strong, safe and secure attachments.
REFERENCES
Brown, G. L., Mangelsdorf, S. C., & Neff, C. (2012). Father involvement,
paternal sensitivity, and father-child attachment security in the first 3 years. Journal of Family Psychology, 26(3), 421-430. doi: 10.1037/a0027836
Cassidy, J., & Berlin, L. J. (1994). The insecure/ambivalent pattern of attachment: Theory and research. Child Development. 65, 971–991.
Child Welfare Information Gateway. (2011). Understanding the effects of maltreatment on brain development. Retrieved from: http://dcfs.co.la.ca.us/katieA/docs/Maltreatmnet on Early Brain Development.pdf
Duhn, L. (2010). The Importance of Touch in the Development of Attachment. Advances in
Neonatal Care, 10(6), 294-300. doi: 10.1097/ANC.0b013e3181fd2263
Education and Health Standing Committee. Transcript of Evidence, September 28, 2011, p. 4.
Retrieved from: http://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/Parliament/commit.nsf/%28Evidence+Lookup+by+Com+ID%29/3B03AA52951989D048257A3E0025D6DD/$file/edu110928+f.pdf
Education and Health Standing Committee. Transcript of Evidence, September 28, 2011, p. 8.
Retrieved from: http://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/Parliament/commit.nsf/%28Evidence+Lookup+by+Com+ID%29/3B03AA52951989D048257A3E0025D6DD/$file/edu110928+f.pdf
Education and Health Standing Committee. Transcript of Evidence, September 28, 2011, p.
12. Retrieved from: http://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/Parliament/commit.nsf/%28Evidence+Lookup+by+Com+ID%29/3B03AA52951989D048257A3E0025D6DD/$file/edu110928+f.pdf