ATTACHMENT STYLES

In Childhood development and the theory's behind it, a cue to a childs future and how they will interact with the world was discovered by Mary Ainsworth. She developed what is called "The Strange Situation", in which you can categorize a child by the attachment style they have to there mother. Here is a link to explain more in detail about the research and situation.

http://www.psychology.sunysb.edu/attachment/measures/content/ss_scoring.pdf

ATTACHMENT TYPE

The thing I have found most interesting in childhood development, in relation to the kids I have been working with, have been the types of attachments the children develop. In reading and researching this topic I have thought about many of the children in the class and how they exhibit behaviors seen in certain long term effects of certain attachments. Now, the children that I am thinking about in specific have very confidential backgrounds so there is no way of knowing what there past history or home life is like. But if I were to make presumptions I could categorize most of them in an attachment type. 

RESISTANT/AMBIVALENT

 For example, one of the kids I work with, I’ll call him Timothy for confidentiality purposes, would not let me put him down today. While playing in the playground he became very attached to me and would not let me put him down for any reason. If I did he got frantic and or mad. When this happened I started to think about the Resistant/Ambivalent relationship, and how those children react to caregivers.  Now I know this could just be a sign of having a shy temperament, but again, not knowing the full backgrounds I just have to assume. But what also cued me in to think that this could be an attachment for Timothy was the way he would avoid any in depth questions I would ask him, or refuse any help from me in certain situations.  For example a week ago Timothy was working with a hard puzzle and when I came over, at first his frustration was obvious and I started to help him, but then he pushed me away and wanted his own space. Now, this is a long shot, but I thought about how when the children that do have this attachment style seek comfort but then push there comforter away, it could be seen as similar and relevant in this situation.

 There are many other children in which I have seriously been thinking about these situations and how their early childhood attachments have affected their personality and the way they interact with others and the world. I find it fascinating to say the least! I’ve even been profiling family members of mine… Secretly of course.