Raising A Secure Child: How Circle Of Security ...

"Scientists hailed secure attachment as providing no less than 'psychological immunity' for developing children and the adult they became, but the remarkable clarity of thousands of studies showing the benefit of security remained hidden inside journals without access to parents."

Raising a Secure Child: How Circle of Security ...

The first message of security involves your children feeling securely attached to you. The operative word with attachment is trust. Simply put, secure attachment develops in children who learn that they can rely on their parents to meet their physical and emotional needs. When they are cold, hungry, or thirsty, they know you are there to provide them with warmth and sustenance. When they are scared, sad, or lonely, they can turn to you for comfort.

Imagine children who grow up without that attachment, trust, and sense of security. They learn that others can't be trusted to care for them. Such a world view would have a profoundly negative impact on every aspect of their future lives, including how they come to see themselves and their emotional life, relationships, and strivings. Who they would ultimately become and what they would eventually do would emerge from this dark place of doubt, fear, and need. Children with insecure attachment experience significant separation anxiety when parents leave, yet find little comfort when the parent returns. They are often described as needy and clingy by teachers and other caregivers. In adulthood, they fear intimacy, have difficulty expressing their emotions, lack trust in their intimate relationships, and take rejection badly.

The importance of consistency is especially true for establishing secure attachment because your children's trust in you is based on you creating a consistent and predictable world around them. The dangers of inconsistency in attachment behavior is evidenced by what is called disorganized attachment. Children with disorganized attachment demonstrate no clear pattern of attachment behavior, sometimes approaching, other times avoiding, and still other times resisting their parents. They often appear to be disoriented and anxious. Inconsistent responsiveness by parents may contribute to disorganized attachment, for example, quick to respond at one time, but neglectful the next, or loving and supportive at one turn and angry and critical at another. With these mixed messages, children can't predict if, when, or how their parents will respond, creating a state of mistrust, detachment, and insecurity.

The concept of "circle of security", proposed by Marvin et al,4 corresponds to an early intervention in therelationships between the child and their caregivers in order to provide adequateemotional support during childhood. The theory helps in the observation of the differentways in which children approach adults when demanding support and attention, and how toteach them to make good use of the help they receive. Moreover, the circle contributesto the perception of the real emotional issues present at the moment when the childmodifies their behavior, helping the caregiver to identify the psychological andemotional demands that the child has difficulty expressing.

The circle of security diagram provides instructions to parents and professionalsregarding the fundamental attitudes in creating a stable and safe environment forchildren to develop their emotions. They must have a safety base to be able to explorethe world, with support for playing and protection. Then, a safe haven is necessary, towhich the child can return when experiencing frustrating situations. At this moment, theadults should welcome the child and help them organize their feelings.4 This theory is very useful for professionals whowork with children of all ages, as it helps to create safe opportunities for thedevelopment of interpersonal relationships, and teaches strategies to help professionalsto present themselves as more emotionally available when approached by children.

In this context, this study consisted of the report of an individual therapeutic projectaimed to investigate and intervene on the different aspects of the management in thecare of the child in question, focusing on the creation of an intersectorial linkbetween health (healthcare center [HC]), education (daycare center), and family, aimingto establish an articulated protection network and apply the concept of circle ofsecurity as an alternative to pathologization and medicalization. 041b061a72