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The Importance of Attachment
Since neuroscientist now confirm that children are primed for learning in the first few years, parents and other caregivers may feel compelled to expose their babies to a steady flow of information and intellectual stimulation. Should expectant parents recite the multiplication table to their unborn babies? Should child care providers encourage toddlers to memorize many facts and figures? The answer is: Measures like these are unnecessary. Children learn in the context of important relationships. The best way to help very young children grow into curious, confident, able learners is to give them warm, consistent care so that they can form secure attachments to those who care for them. Paying attention to an infant's moods, knowing when he needs comfort rather than stimulation (or vice versa), mimicking a baby's trills and "beebeebes," or following a toddlers' lead as she invents a new version of peekaboo - these interactions are all part of responsive care, and do far more to boost later learning than, say, flash cards or tapes of the ABCs.
The psychological and psychoanalytic literatures contain a substantial body of work, notably classic studies by John Bowlby, emphasizing the importance and complexity of an infants' attachment to her mother or primary caregiver, and the traumatic effects of the experience of loss or long term separation from the mother. But children are not only affected by a breach of attachment; research launched in the 1970s that followed children over time show that qualitative differences in attachment can have long-term psychological consequences. Al Sroufe and his colleagues provide strong evidence of the link between early care and a child's later capacity to connect well with others. For example, young children who receive highly erratic care are more prone to becoming very dependent and anxious later in life; children who receive persistently unresponsive care are more likely than other children to shut down emotionally and act in ways that keep others at a distance. In contrast, children who receive consistent, responsive care in the first years of life are more likely to develop strong social skills.
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