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The caregiver–infant gaze is a primary trigger for the development of secure attachment and is synonymous with closeness and intimacy. Smile and positive affect: The baby’s smile is an instinctive response that attracts the attention of the caregiver and encourages an ongoing positive caregiver response.Sep 15, 2015
When babies have a secure attachment, they play and explore freely from the “secure base” of their mother’s presence. When the mother leaves, the baby can become distressed, especially when a stranger is around.
Secure attachment is an ongoing partnership between you and your baby, but it doesn’t mean you have to be the perfect parent. Building a Secure Attachment Bond with Your Baby can help you understand your baby’s cries, interpret their signals, and respond to your baby’s needs for food, rest, love, and comfort.
A secure attachment bond stems from the wordless emotional exchange that draws the two of you together, ensuring that your infant feels safe and calm enough to experience optimal development of their nervous system.
Attachment develops as you respond to your baby’s needs in warm, sensitive and consistent ways. This is especially important when your baby is sick, upset or distressed. Attachment also builds as you go about your daily routines with your baby, caring for them and interacting with them.
When your baby can count on you and trust you to meet his basic needs for food, love, affection and stimulation, the attachment becomes stronger and he learns to trust you and the world around him. Teaching your baby that he is loved can help to structure his brain for later accomplishments.
Those who are securely attached have high self-esteem, seek out social connection and support and are able to share their feelings with other people. They also tend to have long-term, trusting relationships.
Simply put, secure attachment develops in children who learn that they can rely on their parents to meet their physical and emotional needs. … Imagine children who grow up without that attachment, trust, and sense of security. They learn that others can’t be trusted to care for them.
Secure attachment style: what it looks like
Empathetic and able to set appropriate boundaries, people with secure attachment tend to feel safe, stable, and more satisfied in their close relationships. While they don’t fear being on their own, they usually thrive in close, meaningful relationships.
Attachment allows children the ‘secure base’ necessary to explore, learn and relate, and the wellbeing, motivation, and opportunity to do so. It is important for safety, stress regulation, adaptability, and resilience.
Educators promote this learning, for example, when they: acknowledge and respond sensitively to children’s cues and signals. respond sensitively to children’s attempts to initiate interactions and conversations. support children’s secure attachment through consistent and warm nurturing relationships.
What is a secure attachment? According to the theories of John Bowlby (1988), a child is securely-attached if she is confident of her caregiver’s support. The attachment figure serves as a “secure base” from which the child can confidently explore the world.
Simply put, feeling safe makes learning possible. Research has shown that children, who feel insecure, play and explore less, and have more difficulty with peer relationships. By helping children feel safe, we prepare children to learn, not just now, but well into the future.
As adults, those who are securely attached tend to have to trust, long-term relationships. Other key characteristics of securely attached individuals include having high self-esteem, enjoying intimate relationships, seeking out social support, and an ability to share feelings with other people.
Children who are securely attached as infants tend to develop stronger self-esteem and better self-reliance as they grow older. These children also tend to be more independent, perform better in school, have successful social relationships, and experience less depression and anxiety. Bowlby, J. (1969).
1.1. Secure attachment. Children who have a ‘secure’ attachment are generally able to be comforted by their caregivers when distressed and to use their caregiver as what is known as a ‘secure base’ from which to explore their environment when they are not distressed.
The primary way you can build trust with your baby is to respond when they try to communicate with you. Because babies can’t use words to express themselves, they use nonverbal strategies to communicate what they’re thinking and feeling at all times.
What is a secure attachment style? Having a secure attachment style is the ideal when it comes to attachment in relationships. This means you have a strong connection with your partner, but you don’t show any insecure (i.e. avoidant or anxious) behaviours, like being jealous or possessive over them.
Resistant attachment relationships are characterized by exaggerated expressions of attachment needs. In the presence of their caregiver these infants are reluctant to explore their environment and preoccupied with getting the attention of their caregiver.
Bowlby identified four types of attachment styles: secure, anxious-ambivalent, disorganised and avoidant.
During the attachment phase, if the infant experiences warm, close and consistent care, he becomes ‘securely attached’ and begins to use the caregiver as a safe base from which to explore. … If the caregivers are inconsistent, various, absent or neglectful then the child’s attachment is likely to be ‘insecure’.