The importance of attention to children's emotions has been emphasised widely in early care and education research and policy. Enabling such attention has been seen as achieved primarily through attachment interactions with nursery staff. However, there is increasing awareness that facilitating such interactions in a way that is optimal for…

Attachment research suggests that children with secure attachments are more able to construct meaningful relationships with peers. Few studies, however, have attempted to map early attachment security to the formation and maintenance of preschool friendships. Special attention has been paid to affiliative relationships (particularly friendships)…

This paper draws on recent re-conceptualisations of the notions of "care" and "caring" (Noddings, 1992; Tronto, 1993) to explore data from semi-structured interviews with the parents and key workers for about twenty children under three who were attending two London children's centres. Located in an environment of frequent new…

Although both giftedness and secure attachment are associated with advanced language and good socioemotional adjustment, not all gifted children are well adjusted. This article explores the consequences of attachment style on gifted development and examines whether early trauma can be rectified. The dearth of research on giftedness and attachment…

This study investigated teachers' experiences of closeness during interactions with children in child care. Structured interviews were conducted with 24 female teachers who were teaching children between the ages of three and five (mean age = 3.9) regarding their conceptions of closeness, and their perceptions of their own and the child's…

This study explores reciprocal relations between children's attachment representations and their cognitive ability. Previous literature has mainly focused on the prediction of cognitive abilities from attachment, rarely on the reverse prediction. This was explored in the current research. Attachment representations were assessed with the…

The aim of this prospective study was to identify preschool factors that are associated with children's classroom engagement during their 1st school year. The study was guided by a social-motivational process model that highlights the importance of parent-child and teacher-child relationships in promoting engagement. In preschool, parents and…

Parental attachment and close teacher-child relationships offer a protective mechanism to promote language development among bilingual preschool children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Research has shown that language skills are an integral part of resilience for young children. This is the first study to examine parental…

The physical, social, and economic health and well-being of adults and society are strongly influenced by experiences in early childhood. The most cost-efficient time to build foundational skills, to assure the healthy development of all young children, to break the cycle of disadvantage for vulnerable children, and to prevent achievement and…

Introduction: Attachment organization across the lifespan and across generations, long-term predictions from attachment organization to later psychosocial functioning, and the possibility of altering attachment organization with intervention suggest that attachment theory may potentially shed valuable light on adult social development and deviant…

This article reminds infant care teachers of the ways thoughtful interactions between adults and very young children teach babies and toddlers who they are as individuals. "When teachers take the time to respond respectfully and thoughtfully, babies and young children learn and thrive."

Mothers' mental state language in conversation with their preschool children, and children's preschool attachment security were examined for their effects on children's mental state language and expressions of emotional understanding in their conversation. Children discussed an emotionally salient event with their mothers and then relayed the…

Recent research on how infants and toddlers grow and learn has provided new evidence for creating child care practices that support healthy development. The author describes 6 program practices drawn from this research. The article discusses practices that support secure attachments, identity formation, family practices, attention to developmental…

Many parents are concerned with helping their children prepare for the transition to kindergarten. For some children, the anxiety of entering kindergarten is matched by the anxiety of leaving the surroundings in which they have been nurtured and cared for, especially if it is a situation that has been a consistent one for the child over a long…

Associations between preschoolers' attachment security, fathers' involvement (i.e. parenting behaviors and consistency) and fathering context (i.e. fathers' internal working models (IWMs) and use of social support) were examined in a subsample of 102 fathers, taken from a larger sample of 235 culturally diverse US families. The authors predicted…