The Importance of Social and Emotional Attachment Ron Lally, WestEd-Far West Lab J. Ronald Lally is Co-Director of the WestEd Center for Child and Family Studies. For the past 15 years, he has directed the work of the Program for Infant/Toddler Caregivers, a video-based training program for infant caregivers that is a collaboration between the California Department of Education and WestEd. Lally, his staff, and a faculty of national experts conduct intensive training and certifying events for the more than 600 Early Head Start and Migrant Head Start programs. Lally is one of the founders of ZERO TO THREE and serves on its Board. He is also on the National Advisory Committee of the Ounce of Prevention Fund, the Nova University Family Center, and "Stop Crime: Invest in Kids." He has served on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Advisory Committee on Services for Families with Infants and Toddlers, and the National Academy of Science Head Start Research Roundtable. He is a member of the National Advisory panel for the Hilton Early Head Start Special Quest. Lally has been an advisor, trainer, and program consultant to government, education, and health agencies in Australia, Germany, and Italy. "One of the crucial things in social emotional development is guidance and discipline… The way you act towards the child has to be related to the developmental equipment the child has." — Ron Lally >Presentation Highlights Social and emotional competence establishes the foundation for success in all other developmental domains. The importance of social competence as a critical foundation for success in school is the focus of this presentation. Basics of Social and Emotional Development 1. Social and emotional competence is essential for school readiness and success. 2. Competencies are developed through ongoing, ordinary, day-to-day attachments that young children create with those who care for them, their peers, and the larger community. 3. The most effective way to facilitate learning, both cognitive and emotional, is through the 3 R’s (relationships, responsiveness, and reflective practice). 4. Reflective practice requires program commitment to reflective supervision. Research Findings A Good Beginning, Sending America’s Children to School With the Social and Emotional Competence They Need to Succeed This National Institute for Mental Health study found that a child’s school success is strongly influenced by his/her ability to personally engage in a series of social interactions with adults and others. This skill is built through the early development of secure attachments with their primary caregivers and later through on-going interactions with those in their day-to-day lives. These attachments help children gain mastery in self-awareness, independent functioning, and self-control. There are certain key social and emotional skills children need to have as they enter school: Confidence; Capacity to develop good relationships with peers; Concentration and persistence on challenging tasks; Ability to effectively communicate frustrations, angers, joys; and Ability to listen to instructions and be attentive. Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development This document from a National Academy of Science Study defines the child as simultaneously confident and vulnerable. The following research based core concepts guide our practice by urging us to optimize the building of social relationships. Young children are capable of deep feelings of lasting sadness and grief in response to trauma, loss, and early personal rejection. They can be seriously compromised by such emotional impairments. A child’s earliest human relationships affect later childhood relationships and provide the building blocks to future development. The growth of self-regulation is the cornerstone of early childhood development. Young children are shaped by the ongoing interplay between sources of vulnerability and sources of resilience. Culture influences every aspect of human development and it is reflected in childrearing beliefs and practices. The individual development of young children is characterized by a series of significant transitions, as well as by continuities and discontinuities. Effects of Early Neglect Early neglect can have serious social, emotional, intellectual, and language consequences on children, including: High probability of depression and other emotional disorders; Absence of clear understanding of appropriate and inappropriate behavior; Limited language facility; Limited impulse control; and Limited persistence. Effects of Early Abuse Many of the children that Head Start serves come to us with some of the following attributes and need secure attachments to help them work through social, emotional, intellectual, or language problems: High probability of mood swings, anxiety, and aggressive behavior; Fear and suspicion of adults; Difficulty in picking up normal verbal and non-verbal social cues; Limited creative exploration; and Limited initiation in presence of adults. Strategies to Support Attachments in Early Head Start and Head Start Create primary care relationships. Develop small "home room" groups. Establish lasting caregiver and peer relationships. Engage families. Practice cultural competence. Culturally competent programming and connections with a child’s home culture are essential to a child’s positive attachment with family and family cultures. Principles of Guidance and Discipline in Early Childhood Guidance and discipline should be a function of the developmental equipment and individual makeup of each child. Before 15 months of age, discipline (undesirable actions have particular consequences) should not be used. During this period, the focus should be on guiding and socializing children. From 15 months on, children should have rules that are developed fairly, enforced consistently, and that help them to build internal controls. Needs of the Developing Child Nurturance Security Support Predictability Focus Encouragement Expansion Next Steps for Head Start Teachers, home visitors, and parents need help to become conscious of how their own emotions influence the ways they guide, discipline, and conduct themselves with children. Reflective practice is accomplished through reflective supervision. Presentation Handout Print version of Ron Lally's 2-page Handout The Art and Science of Child Care J. Ronald Lally observes that good child care for infants and toddlers is a blend of science and art. The science of child care encompasses knowledge of health and safety, developmental stages in the first years of life, and temperament and other individual differences. The art of child care is the ability to respond to the child – and to a group of children – in the moment, in a way that will support development. Lally has identified seven "gifts" that a good child care program offers babies and very young children. Nurturance, support, security, and predictability let children know that they can count on being loved and cared for in the child care setting. Predictability, focus, encouragement and expansion facilitate the young child’s intellectual development. To provide these gifts, a child care environment requires knowledgeable, responsive caregivers. And in order to use their knowledge and responsiveness fully, caregivers must be supported by policies that establish small groups, primary caregiving assignments, and continuity of caregiving. Nurturance is giving. Human babies are helpless for a very long time. They depend on adults for warmth, feeding, and protection. Because infants are so different from each other, nurturance means responding to each baby individually. As the baby feels the caregiver’s understanding and availability, and experiences the comfort of connection, a strong attachment forms. Nurturance is important throughout the earliest years, although its form changes as the child grows. The immediate response appropriate to a very young infant (one can’t "spoil" a baby in the first year) may be replaced by the message, "I’m here if you want me." In the toddler years, individualized, responsive nurturance means allowing a timid child the time and space to move slowly, while making sure that the active child has a place to be exuberant. Support, in the context of infant/toddler child care, means support to help the child achieve the three important shifts in development that occur in the first three years. The young infant, not yet crawling, needs lots of nurturance to develop basic trust in the world. Mobile infants, from the time they begin to crawl until about 15 months, need a safe and interesting environment, respect for their growing urge to explore, and the knowledge that the caregiver is available when needed. Toddlers, beginning at 17-19 months, need support in learning about themselves in relation to others. Caregivers offer support by acknowledging young children’s powerful feelings, encouraging curiosity and independence, and, at the same time, teaching and enforcing the rules that allow children and adults to live in harmony. Security, closely related to nurturance and support, is what makes the child care setting a "safe haven" for infants, toddlers, and adults. The baby or young child feels, "Everything’s ok. Nothing bad will happen here." Caregivers provide security to infants as they offer reliable nurturance and support. For toddlers, the rules of "no hitting, no destruction of property," taught and enforced fairly by caregivers, maintain children’s sense of security. Predictability is a "gift" that is central to a child’s fundamental sense of security as well as critical to intellectual development, but which is often misunderstood in the child care context. Predictability is social (people I know will be there for me) and spatial (I know where to find the puzzles and where I can ride the tricycle). Predictability avoids both chaos and rigidity. For infants and toddlers, predictability involves rituals and rhythms throughout the day that follow sequences (nap, snack, play, then mommy comes) rather than the clock. Nurturance, support, security, and predictability are gifts that every young child needs, Lally observes. Not surprisingly, nurturance, support, security, and predictability are also basic components in treatment approaches designed for young children who have experienced abuse or neglect. Before young children can explore their environment purposefully and develop their intellectual potential fully, they must feel safe. Once they find security, they can seek challenges. Focus supports the infant or toddler’s attention in the learning environment. A young child’s attention span will increase if it is not interfered with, but it is hard for an infant or toddler to focus if there are too may children in too little space, too many toys scattered about, too much noise (including "background" music), or too many interruptions of the subtle give-and-take between child and caregiver. The caregiver’s job is to make it easy for young children to focus on meaningful activity by paying attention to what fascinates each child, protecting the child from too much stimulation, and, always, offering the calm, reliable presence that frees the child’s energy for learning. Encouragement from the caregiver says to the infant or toddler, "I have confidence in your growing competence." The wise caregiver understands the lessons very young children are learning as they figure out the world through imitation, using tools, and experimenting with cause and effect. She knows that at least half of the infant/toddler "curriculum" comes from the child’s own interest and initiation. Encouragement in the child care setting reflects the caregiver’s grounding in the science of care. The knowledgeable caregiver understands how much a baby has accomplished when he has succeeded in pulling a ball out from under a slide or turned a knob that activated a music box. She responds with legitimate, specific enthusiasm rather than general cheerleading or coaching. Expansion of the young child’s learning involves "bathing the child in language." As always, the goal is to watch the child’s cues and build on the child’s own interests, commenting on what the child is doing, talking along with the child, and encouraging the child to use words to guide himself through activities (what child development experts call "self-talk"). The caregiver can also expand the child’s learning through actions – taking on a role in the fantasy play of two-year-olds, turning a puzzle ever so slightly so that a frustrated toddler can see the solution more easily, or adding an unexpected twist to a familiar game to challenge the imagination. A child care setting that offers these seven gifts – nurturance, support, security, predictability, focus, encouragement, and expansion – to infants and toddlers is a good one, says Lally. But the ability to offer children these gifts rests on the structural elements of quality – small groups, high staff-to-child ratios, primary caregiving, and continuity of care from responsive, knowledgeable adults who are well trained and feel supported by their colleagues and work environments. These elements of quality cost more than most families with infants and toddlers can afford on their own. The quest for quality in infant/toddler child care, Lally and other suggest, is an expedition that must engage the whole society and command significant public investment. Video of Presentation Presentation Highlights Presentation Handout List of Social and Emotional Development presenters/presentations Information on how to view videos and view/download handouts

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