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Essay on Attachment process between an Infant and the Primary Caregiver
Attachment is often defined along the same lines as love. It is an emotion or commitment that we feel for another person. Love and attachment begin to develop soon after birth and they continue throughout persons’ lives. Unfortunately, the dance between a child and parent can be disrupted and eventually lead to problems with attachment and ultimately love. Prevalence numbers for disorders relating to attachment are unclear. Attachment disorders are commonly misunderstood and under-diagnosed.
Although the symptoms begin early, they often become pervasive throughout life. The emotional bond or degree of attachment, between child and parent has become a major area of research interest. Researchers have identified a number of attachment patterns and have shown that the manner in which children establish emotional ties with caregivers influences development not only in childhood, but also in adolescence and adulthood.
For infant parent interaction to be readily incorporated into family-centered early intervention, interventionists need to be able to define, understand, and discuss relatively straightforward interaction constructs with families. Supplementing current sophisticated models of interaction with relatively comprehensible topics may assist families to become informed decision makers about infant parent interaction within family-centered early intervention. An expanded conceptualization of early social interaction by infant, caregiver, and dyadic roles may facilitate the process.
Interventionists and families can discuss infant parameters influencing the interaction process such as (a) clarity of infant signaling behaviors; (b) infant patterns of participation, responses, and initiation during social interaction; and (c) infant temperament. Caregiver interaction variables include (a) identification and interpretation of infant signaling behavior; (b) style of care giving, including responding to infant signals and infant interest, as well as facilitating, directing, or interrupting infant interests and behavior; (c) acoustic properties of caregiver interactive behaviors compatible with "motherese"; (d) pacing of interactive behaviors; (e) perceptions of self-efficacy; and (f) feelings of enjoyment.......
