Many of the brightest and most respected individuals from the fields of psychology, medicine, education and sociology have described the basic ingredients of early childhood development (see Institute for American Values 2003; National Research Council 2000). This is what we know about how children develop, described as six core concepts that form the foundation necessary to prevent and solve significant problems.
1. Nurturing and dependable relationships are the building blocks of healthy childhood development. Secure attachments develop when parents and caregivers are dependable, avail-
able, and sensitive to the child’s needs, enabling that child to count on the parent for continued protection, need-fulfillment, and guidance. Even infants and chil- dren fostered or adopted from harsh and neglectful conditions, such as abusive families or crowded orphanages, can become securely attached when parents provide sensitive, responsive, and consistent care. Secure attachment leads to healthy development in all-important areas—emotions, relationships, self-esteem, core beliefs, self-control, brain growth, and morality.
2. We’re hardwired to connect. All babies are born with the ability to attach, but this “prewired” instinct can develop only in close harmony with a loving and responsive caregiver.
Attachment forms within a close, cooperative, reciprocal relationship —- the give-and-take of minds, emo- tins and biochemistry. For example, as a loving mother holds and nurses her baby, the hormone oxytocin floods both bloodstreams, relaxing the baby and mother, and strengthening the bonds between them. Babies with unresponsive or depressed mothers miss out on the emotional and social cues of attachment. As they grow older, they have more behavioral, social, and cognitive problems, compared to babies whose care- givers are attuned and responsive to their needs.
When secure attachment is not triggered by sensitive and nurturing care, such as in cases of neglect, abuse, or repeated disruptions, children often become angry, depressed, defiant, impulsive and hopeless.
3. Attachment changes the brain. The presence or absence of sensitive, nurturing, and loving care during life’s early stages not only determines emotional and social development, but also affects the way the brain develops, profoundly influencing long-term health. The early attachment relationship alters the brain’s structure, chemistry, and genetic expression. The brain’s limbic system, which governs how children feel, relate, and self-regulate, requires exposure to nurturing and attuned care for healthy growth. A baby and parent achieve limbic resonance—attuned to each other’s inner states via eye contact, loving touch, and a connection of their brain’s limbic systems. The nature of the child’s attachment to his caregiver determines if brain connections will grow to full potential or waste away. Children without secure attachments often have altered levels of brain chemicals (e.g., noradrenaline, cortisol, and serotonin), resulting in aggression, lack of impulse control, depression, and a high risk for substance abuse.
4. Child development is shaped by the interplay of nature and nurture— biology and experience.
Scientists used to argue about which was more powerful, nature (biology and genes)
or nurture (experience and the environment). This debate is obsolete. It is not nature ver- sus nurture but nature through nurture. Biology, including genetic tendencies and vulner- abilities, may provide the starting point, but it is the child’s relationships with caregivers that shape the course of her growth and development. A safe, positive, and loving envi- ronment can overcome depression, anxiety, or other tendencies, and even transform these vulnerabilities into strengths. Research with rhesus monkeys, for example, has shown some baby monkeys have a genetic trait of anxiety and others a tendency to be aggressive. When nurturing and protective “foster mom” monkeys raised these babies, the nervous babies relaxed and the aggressive ones became less violent (Suomi 1991). Fortunately, this is also true of human children; sensitive and nurturing foster and adoptive parents can counter the effects of an unhealthy genetic background and maltreatment.
5. Learning self-regulation is essential for child development and lifelong health.
Babies are born helpless and totally dependent upon caregivers for survival. Development involves the increasing capacity for self-regulation and self-control; the transition from helplessness to competence, from dependence on others to the ability to manage one’s own emotions and behaviors. The ability to learn self-regulation is deeply rooted in early attachment, beginning with dependency and evolving toward autonomy. The mother’s body first accomplishes this with the fetus in the womb, then through the infant’s signaling needs to the responsive parent, and later by developing the capacity for self-regulation. Children must have supportive and attuned caregivers to develop the ability to regulate their emotions, impulses, and attention. The inability to self-regulate contributes to the development of conduct disorders, attention deficit disorders, anxiety, depression, and other serious problems in childhood and later life.
6. The balance between risk factors and protective factors has a powerful effect on development.
Risk factors, such as difficult-to-soothe infant temperament, neglectful or abusive
parenting, poverty, and family violence, increase the likelihood of serious problems in childhood and throughout life. Protective factors, including easy temperament, mature and supportive caregivers, and social support, buffer children from undue stress and results in resilience—the ability to “bounce-back” from adversity. Children who start their lives with compromised attachments have the double burden of both biological and environmental risk factors; a family history of severe psychological and biochemical prob- lems, and the absence of loving, dependable, and responsive care. Children do better when protective factors are increased. For example, preschoolers could become securely attached when their high-risk mothers (i.e., high stress, irritable, unresponsive) par- ticipated in a program where they learned to be sensitive and responsive (Zigler 1994). The basic objective of therapeutic parenting is to reduce risk and increase protective factors by providing nurturing, consistent, and sensitive care. Children learn to expect support, guidance, and understanding, rather than betrayal, neglect, and disinterest.
