Attachment Capacity Matures To be capable of forming the wide array of healthy relationships required throughout life, a young child's attachment capacities must mature. While the roots of attachment are related to the primary caregiving experiences in early childhood, full expression of attachment potential requires social and emotional interactions with non-caregivers. As children become older, they spend less time with parents and more time with peers and other adults. This time with peers and other adults provides many opportunities for continued emotional growth. In early childhood, the relationships with peers start as acquaintanceships. With more time together, however, young children create friendships and the opportunity for strong emotional bonds can develop. In a similar fashion, a young child may form a strong connection with an attentive and nurturing teacher. The acquaintance, the friend, and the teacher all provide different and complementary social and emotional opportunities that help a child's attachment capabilities mature. When Attachment Goes Wrong If a child has few positive relationships in early childhood or has had a bad start due to problems with the primary-caregiving experiences of infancy, that child is at risk for a host of problems. In a very real sense, the glue of normal human interactions is gone. A child with poor attachment capacity is much harder to "shape" and teach. This child will feel little pleasure from the teacher's smile or approving words. And he does not feel bad disappointing, angering, or upsetting a parent or teacher. Without the capacity to use human interactions to "reward" and "punish," the teacher and parent are often confused and frustrated in their attempts to promote appropriate social behavior. In extreme cases, the child with poor attachment capacity demonstrates no remorse when harming others and risks developing further anti-social or even aggressive and violent behaviors. This child needs help. Research and clinical experience show that attachment capacity is easiest to shape if early identification and intervention takes place. What you can do to promote the development of healthy attachment: Smile and look children in the eyes as you greet them. Spend time with the child. Quantity matters. During this time, get on the floor, listen and establish eye contact. Use touch to comfort-even as a pre-school teacher, it is appropriate to hug, gently touch a shoulder, or hold hands. Help children learn appropriate social-emotional language (how close to stand, how to use eye contact, when to touch, how to touch). Remember that there are many styles of forming and maintaining relationships-a shy child is not an unattached child. If you sense a child is having difficulty engaging others, help facilitate this by actively including her or pairing her with another child who has a matching temperament. -adapted from Perry, B. (N.D.). Attachment: The first core strength. Retrieved from http://teacher.scholastic.com/professional/bruceperry/attachment.htm The onal gnition of onality type is most ction for help with comparing the types. onal information, you may want to read How to Interp You may also find it helpful to go over your test results and the personality description you well. Ultimately, there is no substitute for self-reflection. Please carefully read the Expanded top types and reflect on which one you identify with the most. Bieniek Attachment in the Classroom What Is Attachment? Attachment is the capacity to form and maintain healthy emotional relationships. An attachment bond has unique properties. The capacity to create these special relationships begins in early childhood. Unique Features of an Attachment Bond Enduring form of bond with a "special" person Involves soothing, comfort, and pleasure Loss or threat of loss of the special person evokes intense distress. This relationship provides a context of safety and security At birth, a baby is essentially emotionally "unattached." Despite the obvious physical connection of the umbilical cord, the newborn does not yet have strong connections to another human. During infancy and early childhood, one form of attachment-socio-emotional begins to replace the original physical attachment of the cord. As dependent as ever, a baby requires constant attention and care from another human being in order to survive. Calories and a "bath" of physical sensations-sight, sounds, smells, touch, and taste-help the infant survive and grow to meet her potential. This "somatosensory" bath from a loving caregiver-the rocking, hugs, coos, and smiles-is transformed by the infant's sensory systems into patterned neuronal activity that influences the development of the brain in positive ways. It is in this dependent relationship between the primary caregivers and the infant that the new form of attachment grows. This attachment-the emotional relationship-is not as easy to see or document, yet it is nonetheless as important for human development as the umbilical cord is in utero. It is these experiences of infancy and early childhood that create the roots of attachment-the capacity to form and maintain healthy emotional relationships. Except in the most extreme cases we are all born with the genetic capability to form and maintain healthy emotional relationships. When the infant has attentive, responsive, and loving caregiving, this genetic potential is expressed. And as this infant becomes a toddler and more people family, friends, peers-enter his life, he will continue to develop this capacity to have healthy and strong emotional relationships. Attachment and Pleasure Our brain is designed to promote relationships. Specific parts of the human brain respond to emotional cues (such as facial expressions, touch, scent) and, more important, allow us to get pleasure from positive human interactions. The systems in the brain that mediate pleasure appear to be closely connected to the systems that mediate emotional relationships. Indeed, this inter-relationship-the capacity to get pleasure from other people-creates a major positive learning tool of infancy and childhood. Young children want to please their teachers. They model adults and children they admire. When attachment capacity develops normally, the child gets pleasure from interacting with other people. The degree of pleasure is related to the degree of attachment-pleasing a parent brings more pleasure than pleasing a stranger. It is this very property that helps parents and teachers shape pro-social and social behaviors in a child. In the process of teaching children emotional, social, and cognitive tasks, the strongest rewards for a child are the attention, approval, and recognition of success that the parent or teacher can give. Conversely, when a child feels he has displeased a parent or teacher, he can be devastated. 700 1 Type 5 e between: our primary Enneagram personality type is most likely the highest of these scores, a ghest two or three. for additional information, you may want to read How to Interpret your Results, and co ection for help with comparing the types. You may also find it helpful to go over your test results and the personality descriptions you well. Ultimately, there is no substitute for self-reflection. Please carefully read top types and reflect on which one you identify with the most.