Positive relationships: Attachment, part 1 - Safe and sound

Q: Why do early years practitioners need to understand the importance of attachment when delivering the EYFS?

Under the new framework, 'each child must be assigned a key person' (Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage, p37) and 'Positive Relationships' is one of the framework's four themes.

Central to delivering on this statutory requirement and the commitments within this part of the EYFS is an understanding of 'attachment'.

Attachment covers:

- how children relate to their primary and secondary carers

- how children are affected by relationships with their carers (both in childhood and into adulthood)

- how adults need to behave if they are to meet a child's emotional needs and expectations.

So, attachment has important implications for us all - as individuals, in our friendships and relationships; as parents; as practitioners working with families; and as members of society, where much anti-social behaviour may be a result of insecure and disordered attachments.

Q: What is attachment?

The theory of attachment, and how babies' early experience impacts on the well-being of the adults they will become, was first outlined in 1958. It continues to be a subject of debate and research nearly half a century later.

In attachment theory, an attachment is a bond or tie that develops from a child's need for safety, security and protection. Human babies need attachment to others for their survival and form such bonds with:

- their primary attachment figure - generally understood to mean the person with whom the child has a lifetime emotional bond and with whom they most want to be in times of distress. This is usually, but not necessarily, their birth mother

- secondary attachment figures - the few special people in a child's life with whom they develop a close subsidiary or secondary attachment bond, such as siblings, grandparents, close family members - and especially fathers. It could also include nannies, childminders and key carers.

Attachment can be classified in various ways, but two broad classifications are:

- secure attachments - this is when a child has a safe, affectionate and predictable emotional bond with their attachment figures. The special features of these relationships, whether primary or secondary, are sensitivity, affection and responsiveness. Secure attachments provide a safe base for a child, reducing fearfulness and stress while building confidence and self-esteem

- insecure attachments - this is when caregivers do not (or are unable to) respond with sensitivity and affection, and put their own needs before that of the baby. In such cases, the child can develop poor mental health, challenging behaviour and a lack of empathy with others. Insecure attachment may also be at the root of many criminal behaviours.

Q: Why does attachment remain a complex and controversial subject?

Attachment remains one of the least understood aspects of child development, and one over which the experts are still arguing. Search for attachment theory on the internet and you will discover more than 450,000 references.

The most prominent name in the field is probably that of John Bowlby, who maintained that babies are born with instinctive attachment-seeking behaviours and that they need secure attachments in order to thrive and develop good mental health.

Many other researchers have built on these findings and the work has developed and refined over the years, initiating and evaluating developments such as the key person approach and raising questions about the appropriateness of institutionalised care, separating children from their parents when in hospital, the support of looked after/adopted children, and most recently, group daycare for the very young.

Current research also brings a new perspective, adding neuroscience and its understanding of how the brain develops and grows, to the picture. Along with the traditional research methods of observing parents, carers and children, we now have technology that can enable us to see inside working brains, providing us with evidence of the impact of early experiences on the developing brain.

Although there is some evidence to suggest that primary attachment processes are universal and the same in all cultures, there are cultural differences in approaches to childcare outside the home. So, although there is a growing belief in the benefits of key person approaches to support secondary attachments, there is also ongoing evaluation of the benefits of collective childcare.

Q: How do theories of attachment affect practice within the EYFS?

Changes in western culture and society mean that fewer of us experience life in extended families, where the opportunities to rehearse and practice childrearing were plentiful. This may mean that young parents and childcare workers have not absorbed some of the essential elements of responsiveness to the needs of babies and young children that support strong attachments. Indeed, they may not yet be ready or able to disconnect the baby's needs from their own, and be 'emotionally available' to them.

Risk factors such as these in some ways can be counteracted by secure secondary relationships in daycare or with childminders. It is possible that a securely attached child in group daycare, where secondary attachments aren't supported, might also be at risk.

As practitioners we must:

- recognise the benefits of secure attachments and the risks posed by insecure attachments to emotional well-being and ability to learn

- ensure that our interactions with children are warm, responsive and sensitive to them as individuals

- raise the quality of our practice and challenge routines and procedures that don't support continuity of attachments

- consider the use of key person approaches

- recognise our own attachment patterns and issues and be aware of how they may interfere with our relationships with children and our childcare practices

- support families where secure attachments may be at risk and recognise that an insecurely attached child in a setting where there is no attachment figure is doubly at risk.

FURTHER READING

- The Science of Parenting - Practical guidance on sleep, crying, play and building emotional well-being for life by Margot Sunderland (Dorling Kindersley)

- From Birth To One - The year of opportunity by Maria Robinson (Open University Press)

- Why Love Matters - How affection shapes a baby's brain by Sue Gerhardt (Brunner-Routledge)

- Understanding Attachment and Attachment Disorders by Vivien Pryor and Danya Glaser (Jessica Kingsley Publishers)

- 'Attachment in Practice' - DVD and user notes by Siren Films

- Key Persons in the Early Years Foundation Stage by Dorothy Selleck (Early Education)

- Contemporary Issues in the Early Years edited by Gillian Pugh and Bernadette Duffy (Sage Publications)

- 'Attachment, Part 2: How attachment develops and secure attachments' will be published in Nursery World, 9 November

LINKS TO EYFS & GUIDANCE

- UC 1.1 Child development

- UC 1.3 Keeping safe

- PR 2.1 Respecting each other

- PR 2.4 Key person.