Attachments of Infants - Article Example

The article on attachment emphasizes the ways in which an infant identifies the people and how the bond between an infant and the caretaker is reformed. This article focuses on the mere fact that the early days in the life of an infant play a major role in the foundation of attachment. The attachment need not be necessarily towards the mother, in certain cases it might also be with the person who takes care of the child. Since the initial stages of a child’s life decide how well the child gets accustomed to the people around it, it is important for the parents as well as the caretakers to concentrate more on these factors. The major factor is the sense of security and safety that the child feels with the caregiver or the mother. This can be easily felt by when the child crosses the third stage where the age of the child is between eight months and two years. The child’s mental growth and attachment to the physical world entirely depend on the environment in which the child is brought up. Most of the articles on attachment describe the process by dividing them into phases. 
These child care articles are considered a boon and they contribute to the greatest extent to the field of child care and attachment. These fields not only involve psychological factors, but they also involve the mental ability and the growth of the child. Since even a minor mistake at this stage would cost a life, it is better to be careful rather than find a solution once the problem arises. 
Methods
The methods used in this article are similar to that of the ones used in the common attachment articles. Most of the articles pertaining to child care and attachment emphasize the fact of mother-child relationship and interaction. This article too concentrates on the aspect of a child’s attachment and interaction with the caregiver. The attachment towards the child also depends on external factors like social and economic problems. The child that is grown up in an economically downtrodden family does not have much attachment to their parents, and the feeling of secure attachment is also lost. The situation differs based on the social factor too. (Waters, Vaughn, Pasoda & Kondo-Ikamura, 1995).  Another important factor is culture, which is also considered a criterion when assessing the child’s behavior and attachment toward the mother. The article described the child’s age as the major factor in deciding the level of attachment, as it differs when the child grows. The response the child receives from the mother is the main concern since the child feels a sense of security only if the caregiver responds to the child’s reaction. In this way, the attachment between the child and mother becomes stronger and the child starts identifying the difference between the caregiver and other people in the family. 
This article shows a study that was conducted among mothers and infants varying from eight months to twenty months. The behavior of the mother and the child was observed and examined at regular intervals. This helped them to arrive at a decision on whether the child is able to develop a sort of attachment towards the mother or not. The response of the mothers was also observed and the result of this study revealed that the caregivers had to be more responsive to the child’s actions and communications. This developed a great attachment between the mother and the child 
in terms of security. For a mother to respond quickly to a child’s reaction or action requires the mother or caregivers to be more watchful. (Waters et al., 1995). They must also be prompt enough to understand their child’s signal. The study also revealed that the interactions and the facial expressions helped more than mere 
Conclusion
The healthy behavior of an infant purely depends on the attachment it has with the mother or the caregiver. A constant communication or attachment with the infant ensures that the child does not get affected by any of the external factors ensuring a sense of security for the child. The article focused on certain aspects like mother-child interaction, communication, and attachment, but it failed to point out the possibilities of how a child can communicate and be a vital part of attachment. The major limitation of the study is the inability to deal with varied people, i.e. people from all strata of the society. As economic conditions are also taken into consideration while analyzing an infant’s attachment to the caregiver, it is better to conduct a study on a generic basis. The article could have included such a study so that the result will be more general in terms of the mother-infant relationship. The article could have been more descriptive in terms of explaining the infant’s distress that it feels when a caregiver or mother leaves the infant. In spite of all these limitations, the article managed to convey the main factors of attachment with due examples.    Read More