Introduction
Child development is the changes which occur from birth untill puberty, in a biological, emotion and psychological sense. The events throughout this period plays a vital role in the behaviour and emotion of the child, therefore it is essential that the parents or parental figure acts appropriately around the child. Attachment can be defined as the affectional tie that a person or an animal forms between itself and another. Attachment is one of the key factors in correct emotional, biological and psychological development, and an incorrect application of attachment would result in various problems in later life for the child. It’s responsible for shaping our future relationships, shaping or possibly damaging our abilities to focus and relax and also shapes our ability to recover from misfortune. This has been proved by people such as John Bowlby, Mary Ainsworth and Jean Piaget among many others. In this essay, I will discuss the various experiments, ideas and opinions which have led to our understanding of the attachment theory and it’s relevant to our understanding of child development.
Attachment
From the first day of a babies life, it starts to form relationships. It’s from the early months (approx 0-6) that a child will start to develop a relationship and begin to recognise faces, although the child will not begin to feel distressed if he or she is given attention from someone who isn’t the primary caregiver. The attachment begins to develop properly from the age of 7 months. This is when the baby will feel uneasy when put into the care of someone who isn’t the caregiver, even something as little as being held by a stranger. As the child develops, some may begin to direct attachment behavoir to more than one caregiver. These attachment figures are then arranged in a hierartical sense, with the primary caregiver placed at the top,