Development of Attachment

It has been shown that the relationships infants develop early on in life have lasting effects on their identity and behavior. Extensive research has indicated that the relationship between an infant and its caregivers is particularly important.

All children are different, and in order to have a healthy relationship with your child, you should adapt your parenting methods to fit his specific needs. All children differin fundamental ways, two of the most comprehensive being their temperaments and attachment styles.

A child’s temperament is the way in which he reacts to the world, new situations, people, and experiences. Attachment is an infant’s enduring emotional bond to his parentsor primary caregivers. Both of these factors affect children not only in infancy, but throughout their lives. Temperament has been shown to be a consistent aspect of a person’s behavior over time, and their style of attachment to their primary caregiver often shapes the quality of platonic and romantic relationships with others as they age. A child’s temperament can affect his parent’s reactions and feelings toward him, and subsequently his attachment style.

Infants are put into three defined categories of temperament: easy, difficult, and slow to warm up. Easy babies adjust readily to new experiences and are generally happy and easy to calm. Difficult babies are easily upset, have intense negative emotional reactions, and have irregular bodily functions. Slow to warm up babies react to new stimuli as difficult babies would initially, but with repeated exposure will react more like easy babies.

Easy babies often engender positive reactions and feelings from their parents, which helps produce a secure attachment relationship between the paren...

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...t them independently. This not only sets him up for immediate success in school or whatever he is focusing on, but also in the future when dealing with college or work. He will be more motivated to complete his work to the best of his ability and to work past any barriers or conflicts that arise.

Works Cited

Allard, Lindsey T., and Amy Hunter. “Understanding Temperament in Infants and Toddlers.” Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning. Vanderbilt University, n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2014.

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Davis, Jeanie L. “10 Commandments of Good Parenting.” WebMD. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2014. .

Siegler, Robret, Judy DeLoache, and Nancy Eisenberg. How Children Develop. 3rd ed. New York: Worth Publishers, 2011. 425-98. Print.