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Attachment in Practice – Pre-attachment
0-8 weeks old: In built behaviors and carers responses. John Bowlby – keeping the carer close. Inbuilt behavior from birth. Crying and carer’s response and general responsiveness. Eye contact, conversations and smiling.Good for looking at
- John Bowlby
- Keeping carer close
- Inbuilt behaviours
- Birth
- Crying
- Carer’s response
- General responsiveness
- Eye contact
- Proto conversations
- Smiling
- 00:06
- You just rest up here, look.
- 00:09
- Psychoanalyst John Bowlby's
- 00:11
- theory of attachment
- 00:13
- is the most influential, and has generated
- 00:16
- a lot of research.
- 00:18
- He believed that in order to survive,
- 00:20
- infants need to keep their carer close.
- 00:24
- So babies are born with inbuilt behaviors
- 00:26
- designed to help make this happen.
- 00:29
- Babies are in the sense almost
- 00:30
- at the mercy of what goes on inside of the body.
- 00:34
- You get hungry, you get cold, you get wet,
- 00:37
- you get full of wind.
- 00:38
- All these sorts of things
- 00:40
- that you have no understanding of
- 00:42
- and the only way you can react to it,
- 00:44
- is by saying very loudly, "Something isn't right here."
- 00:49
- And what you hope is that your parent
- 00:52
- will be able to work out what it is
- 00:55
- that isn't right and put it right as quickly as possible.
- 01:01
- The new baby uses the cry to summon help,
- 01:05
- an inbuilt behavior and signal to the carer.
- 01:09
- There now, how we doin'?
- 01:16
- Responding to the baby signals sensitively
- 01:19
- is how the attachment process will begin.
- 01:25
- There now, what have you got?
- 01:27
- Hey?
- 01:28
- What have you got?
- 01:30
- Hey?
- 01:32
- Babies are born with different temperaments.
- 01:36
- It's not always easy to work out the best response.
- 01:40
- I can feel it.
- 01:41
- I know.
- 01:42
- I know, Mummy can feel your tummy.
- 01:45
- As well as crying,
- 01:46
- the baby has other inbuilt behaviors,
- 01:49
- or social signals, that help to keep the carer close.
- 01:53
- Baby will cling and love watching faces,
- 01:57
- What are you up to?
- 01:58
- and using eye contact to engage the carer.
- 02:01
- Yeah?
- 02:03
- Feet, yeah?
- 02:06
- Watching?
- 02:08
- To start with, the infant is
- 02:10
- happy to direct signals at its mother, father,
- 02:13
- or anyone who is responsive.
- 02:16
- Oh, dear.
- 02:17
- But the main carer is usually the mother.
- 02:20
- Her instincts make her especially receptive
- 02:23
- to the babies inbuilt behaviors.
- 02:27
- Yeah.
- 02:28
- There's evidence
- 02:29
- that even in the first couple of weeks,
- 02:31
- new babies can distinguish their mother from other adults.
- 02:37
- To develop a secure attachment,
- 02:39
- the carer needs to respond to the baby
- 02:41
- quickly and sensitively.
- 02:43
- Have you had enough of sitting there?
- 02:45
- Oh.
- 02:46
- Sometimes the baby needs comforting,
- 02:48
- We're gonna have a look out.
- 02:51
- but at other times, she wants to socialize.
- 02:54
- Yes, a nice smile for Mummy?
- 02:57
- A nice smile.
- 02:58
- The baby wants to have a reaction
- 02:60
- to his own behavior.
- 03:02
- It loves to imitate and be imitated.
- 03:12
- When babies start smiling, at around 6 weeks,
- 03:14
- another inbuilt social signal,
- 03:17
- this encourages the carer to respond very warmly.
- 03:21
- Responding to each other becomes turn taking,
- 03:23
- just like a proper conversation.
- 03:26
- What are you doing?
- 03:28
- Are you talking to me?
- 03:29
- Oh, you are.
- 03:32
- What are you saying, eh?
- 03:35
- What are you saying?
- 03:36
- What?
- 03:38
- I know.
- 03:41
- I know, that's better, isn't it?
- 03:44
- This is the beginning of language development,
- 03:46
- and infants who become securely attached
