WWB 24 Training Kit Attachment What Works Attachment

WWB #24 Training Kit Attachment: What Works?

Attachment • What is attachment? • Why is it important for young children and caregivers?

What Is Attachment? • The continuing and lasting relationships that young children form with one or more adults. • Attachment refers especially to one aspect of the adult-child relationship: the child’s sense of security and safety when in the company of a particular adult. • Importantly, individual children, and children from different cultures and family backgrounds may show secure and insecure attachment differently.

Why Is Attachment Important? • Within secure relationships, children learn how to manage their strong emotions and reactions and develop their identities. • Infants and toddlers thrive when most or all of their relationships with adults in their lives are secure.

Activity Pair-Think-Share Make a list of child behaviors associated with secure and insecure attachment Secure Attachment Relationships Insecure Attachment Relationships • • •

Characteristics of Children with Insecure Attachment Relationships • Behave as if they know that adults are inconsistently or seldom available. • Stay close to an adult to get their needs met, inhibiting their exploration of their environment. • Do not seek adult help to deal with emotions when distressed. • Hide strong feelings; withdraw to avoid distressing events or to organize their emotions. • Seem disorganized and confused about how to behave in relationships.

Characteristics of Children with Secure Attachment Relationships • Trust that their physical needs will be met by adults. • Trust that adults will be emotionally available. • Learn to communicate in a variety of ways. • Begin to manage (self-regulate) their strong reactions and emotions with adult help.

Fostering the Parent-Child Relationship • Help parents feel competent and confident in their parenting (e. g. , notice and describe when parents are warm, responsive, and nurturing with their child; help parents recognize their strengths as parents). • Provide extra support to parents when needed, such as when child illness, behavior, disability, or temperament may be challenging.

Fostering Secure Relationships with the Child • Be warm, responsive, and affectionate with all children; read and respond to children’s cues (e. g. , smiling, reaching to indicate they want interact, pulling away to indicate a break in interaction is needed, showing sadness). • Engage in meaningful conversational interactions with children; take turns speaking. • Be physically and emotionally available as children explore their environments; provide hugs, encouragement. • Consistently comfort children when they are distressed.

Fostering Secure Relationships with the Child • Be an enthusiastic learning partner (e. g. , help child with problem solving, follow child’s lead). • Let children know that you will provide them with a safe environment and demonstrate safe behavior (e. g. , show a child how to gently touch a peer). • Provide consistency in personnel, time and space for 1: 1 adult-child relationships; allow caregivers and teachers to move with a group of children to a new room as they develop. • Develop program policies to refer families to appropriate mental health support as needed.

Activity What Would You Do? • Marla, a 9 -month-old, was startled when a parent entered the room. • After falling off of a low bench, Devon, an 18 month-old, ran across the playground appearing to not know what to do.

Pre-Training Survey • What is attachment? • Why is it important to children’s development? • What are two characteristics of secure and insecure child attachment? • What strategies can caregivers use to foster secure attachment relationships with children?