Why is caregiver sensitive responsiveness important

Caregiving is an art, not a science. Make an effort to be as responsive as possible, as often as possible. They foster brain development and can affect cognition, problem-solving and learning. Early, strong relationships also positively affect longer-term outcomes such as motivation and resilience to stress. CCAoA can support your coalition-building by helping you get the right people in the room and using research to make community-informed decisions about access to high-quality infant and toddler care.

Take a look at the coalition-building work PDF Download we did on another project and think about how we can support you. Topics: Best Practices. She is a writer, editor and video producer who specializes in writing for and about children. What is Responsive Caregiving? July 08, T hinking about what the child is trying to communicate and R esponding to the child in a sensitive way Responsive caregiving recognizes that every child has unique needs and preferences and that young children learn best through back-and-forth social interactions with trusted adults.

How does it help infants and toddlers? Referral s and consumer education : Post tips and short video clips on your website to introduce parents to the idea of responsive caregiving and show them what it looks like. If you send out resources along with your referral lists, be sure to include information about responsive caregiving for parents seeking infant and toddler care.

Technical assistance : Train your technical assistance specialists to assess and support responsive caregiving in child care. This checklist is full of sample language, activity ideas and other valuable coaching tools that can help your technical assistance specialists work with providers to enhance responsive practices in their program. Advocacy : Partner with othe r birth to three organizations — like home visiting, early intervention programs and mate rnal and child health programs — to build an infant and toddler coalition in your state.

Oddly enough, she likes background noise, particularly when she is tired. One thing that is almost certain to get her to go to sleep is taking her for a walk down the busy street which is on the next block. In any given day, I, her father, and sisters will vary our behavior many, many times to keep Julia comfortable, amused and happy. One fact that her father has noted is that I often have an idea what would work to soothe her when no one else does. One reason for this in addition to the fact that I have raised three other children is that I spend more time with her than anyone else - she has not been away from me more than two hours at a time since she was born, and probably no more than twelve hours total in her entire almost seven months of life.

Having had more opportunities to read her cues, to try a variety of her responses, it is not surprising that I often had more of an idea what might be the best thing to do at any given time. Just something for you to think about Yes, Margaret Mead was a working mother.

She also had the money, reputation and personality to garner more assistance than most of us will see in three lifetimes. But, maybe she had a point. What do you think? Beyond basic physical skills needed to care for children, such as diapering or preparing formula, parents need emotional wisdom to relate to their child.

Parents with limited resources should know that as long as they provide the emotional nourishment that babies need, their baby will flourish. The essence of quality caregiving lies in the emotional bond that is forged between parents and their child. Parent bonding involves parents' feelings of tenderness towards the baby and a deep investment in its well-being. Research has shown that early parent bonding facilitates babies' development of secure attachment.

Caregivers need several special skills to help babies develop a secure attachment to them. Caregivers should be attentive and tender to babies.

In addition, they should try to understand and cope with a baby's difficult behavior. Planning a baby's play and encouraging a baby's language development through conversation and reading aloud are also important. Caregivers should learn a wide variety of teaching techniques to enhance an infant's development. If bonding is to be successful, parents may have to free themselves from old prohibitions and feelings of shame.

Data supported an integration model of attachment which postulates that secure attachments can compensate for insecure attachments in children's development.

Go to the ERIC search web page 2. You should get close to hits. Follow the links which seem most interesting to you. Spirit Lake Consulting, Inc. Box , Circle Dr. Maternal caregiver sensitivity and responsiveness First of all, you should know that, although much of the literature refers to mother-child attachment, maternal sensitivity and maternal responsiveness these findings apply to fathers, grandparents and other caregivers as well, including early childhood personnel.

Parents who are high in sensitivity have an accurate perception of their infants' likes and dislikes and ways of comforting them I have a question?