talk 2 me Promoting Secure Attachment

1. talk2mePromoting Secure Attachment Healthy Starts Committee

2. Outline • Alignment Rockford • Case example • Attachment • How can we model and promote pro-attachment behaviors? • Resources to support secure attachments • Case discussion

3. Alignment RockfordHealthy Starts Committee • RPS 205 Goal • Create a preschool program that gives families access to the resources neededto properly prepare their children for their educational experience. • Tactic: Develop ‘train-the-trainer’ workshops for all youth-serving organizations and promote the Talk2Me behaviors

4. Outcome • Children are healthy, feel safe, and are ready to learn when they start Kindergarten • The path to graduation starts in infancy…and Attachment is the key!

5. Case Example • Medical professionals • Hospital and medical office • Social service and public health providers • Childcare providers • Faith organizations

6. What is attachment? “An emotional bond to another person that gives lasting psychological connectedness between human beings.” John Bowlby, 1969 A relationship between a caregiver and an infant that starts before birth and continues to develop over time.

7. Why is Attachment Important? Influences the infant or child’s physical, neurological, cognitive, & psychological development Basis for trust/mistrust Shapes how the child will relate to the world, learn, and form relationships

9. Secure or Insecure Attachment • There is a continuum between secure and insecure attachment • Multiple factors influence cognitive and emotional development: • Primary caregiver • Environmental factors • Situational factors

10. Securely Attached Child Behavior • Confident • Curious • Able to pick up on social cues • Aware of others’ and their own emotions • More eye contact • Less anxious • More connected to their caregiver • More ready and open to learning

11. Insecurely Attached Child Behavior • Fearful • Anxious • Not aware of others’ emotions nor social cues • Avoids people • Withdrawn • Angry • Contradictory behaviors • Not as ready to learn

12. The First Year is So Important!

15. Changing Brain/Behavior Becomes Harder Over Time

16. The Early Catastrophe: 30 Million Word Gap by Age 3 Compared Language Development of Children Whose Parents Were Professionally Educated to Children Whose Parents Live in Poverty B. Hart & T. Risley , 2003

17. American Academy of Pediatrics “As trusted authorities in child health and development, pediatric providers must now complement the early identification of developmental concerns with a greater focus on those interventions and community investments that reduce external threats to healthy brain growth.” American Academy of Pediatrics, January 2012

19. Attachment Risk Factors • Poverty • Birth complications, prematurity, or infant health problems • Unwanted child • Lack of caregiver education about child development and interaction • Caregiver mental or physical health problems • Family conflict • Social isolation • Impaired child-caregiver relationship (difference in temperament) • Stress and anxiety • Time constraints: working parent(s) and/or single parent • Substance abuse • Domestic violence • Caregiver with history of childhood trauma/adversity

20. Attachment Protective Factors • Understanding development milestones and importance of interaction • Strength of family system (stable home environment) • Supportive child-caregiver relationship • Good coping strategies and readiness for change • Children are wired to attach! • Strong social/emotional support network • Economic stability • Spirituality, cultural roots, and community connections

21. Attachment Benefits • Happy and healthy relationships • Children enter school prepared to: • Adapt to change • Self-regulate behaviors • Manage difficult experiences • Have positive interactions with others • Learn • Success in Life!

22. Who Can Help Promote Attachment? • Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings • Child care providers and teachers • Medical professionals • Faith communities • Social service and public health agencies • Everyone who interacts with children!

23. Call to Action! • Talk to me! • Play with me! • Cuddle me! • Encourage me!

24. Talk to Me

25. Talk to Me • Have a conversation with me about anything! • Sing to me • Read to me • Respond to me • I understand more than you think I do! • Remember: Baby talk is smart talk!

26. Play with Me

27. Play with Me • Interact with me • Engage me • Smile and laugh with me • Spend lots of time with me • Get down on the floor with me • Make a safe environment for me • Be a kid again with me!

28. Cuddle Me

29. Cuddle Me • Hug me • Kiss me • Look into my eyes • Cradle and cuddle me • Hold me when you feed me • Comfort me • I like to be close to you!

30. Encourage Me

31. Encourage Me • Create a stable bond with me • Be there for me (reliably and consistently) • Pay attention to me • Give me lots of encouragement • Get to know me • Tell me positive things • Praise me!

32. What Can My Organization Do? • Model healthy, realistic attitudes, beliefs, and expectations about pregnancy, childbirth, childrearing, and the parent-child relationship • Promote understanding of child development and realistic expectations for child behavior

33. What Can My Organization Do? • Promote positive relationships and quality learning experiences through: • Parent education • Family support • Early child care and education • Early intervention services • Remember: Non-judgmental approach will assist in ability to influence change

34. Teaching Strategies: • Model appropriate behavior with infants • Create a newsletter/bulletin board of information • Provide educational sessions/family activity nights • Tailor the message to your audience • What is attachment and how important is it? • What is baby feeling or thinking? • Communication with babies • Coping with anxiety and stress • Developmental milestones and activities, including take-home activities

35. Coaching Strategies: • Spend regular, quiet, face-to-face time with infant • “Watch, Wait, and Wonder” • Encourage sensitive, predictable responses to baby’s cues and signals • Point out strengths, rephrase negative statements • Highlight positive aspects of relationship • Enhance ability to see the child as an individual, and view from the child’s perspective: • ‘Speak for your baby.’ • ‘What do you think your baby is thinking?’

36. Advocating Strategies: • Encourage parents to create a safe, predictable, development-conducive home environment • Build and support life management skills and effective use of resources • Help parents recognize options, claim power, and make healthy choices • Help parents identify and strengthen support networks for themselves and their child

37. National Resources • Adverse Childhood Experiences study (Centers for Disease Control and Kaiser Permanente)- www.acestudy.org • American Academy of Pediatrics- www.aap.org • Association for Treatment and Training in the Attachment of Children- www.attach.org • The Brazelton Institute- www.brazelton-institute.com • Centers for Disease Control (includes information on maternal and infant health, child development, autism, and more)- www.cdc.gov • Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning- http://csefel.vanderbilt.edu • Harvard University Center on the Developing Child- http://developingchild.harvard.edu • Healthy Children (parent specific site from the AAP)- www.healthychildren.org • North Dakota Department of Human Services (10 things every child needs with videos for each)- www.nd.gov/dhs/services/childcare/info/10-things.html • Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics- www.sdbp.org • Yale Child Study Center- www.childstudycenter.yale.edu • Zero to Three- www.zerotothree.org

38. Illinois Resources • Many provide local support and services • Caregiver Connections- www.caregiverconnections.org Rosecrance- Berry Campus is our local resource • Enhancing Developmentally Oriented Primary Care (EDOPC)www.edopc.net • Illinois Association of Infant Mental Health- www.ilaimh.org • Erikson Institute- www.erikson.edu • Illinois Early Learning Project (multiple videos and “tip sheets”)- http://illinoisearlylearning.org • Infant Parent Institute (Based out of Champaign)- http://infant-parent.com • Ounce of Prevention- www.ounceofprevention.org • Voices for Illinois Children- www.voices4kids.org • McCormick Foundation- www.mccormickfoundation.org

39. Rockford Resources • Early Intervention via Child and Family Connections of Access Services of Northern Illinois- www.accessni.com/cfc • CAP4Kids Rockford (coordinates all child related services in Winnebago and Boone Counties, especially those serving the underserved)- www.CAP4Kids.org/Rocford • Winnebago County Health Dept. - www.wchd.org • Rockford Public Schools – www.rps205.com • MELD - http://www.rockfordmeld.org/ • Rosecrance- Berry Campus- www.rosecrance.org/mental-health-services/children-family-services • Early Learning Council of Rockford- www.earlylearningcouncil.org • YWCA Childcare Solutions- www.ywca.org/rockford • Coming soon: Dial 2-1-1

40. Case Discussion

41. www.alignmentrockford.com

42. Additional Presentation Resources • Nurturing Natures: Attachment and Children’s Emotional, Sociocultural and Brain Development. G Music 2011. • Children's Bureau, Office on Child Abuse and Neglect & DePanfilis D. Child, Neglect: A Guide for Prevention, Assessment and Intervention. 2006.