In the past decade since the birth of my daughter, I have read countless of books and attended courses on parenting and child development. The one that has led me to a new understanding of child development is last November’s certificate course on Play and Creative Arts conducted by Professor Monika Jephcott (CEO) of UK-based Academy of Play and Child Psychotherapy. Being a parent now takes on a whole new direction. Let me share with you the Attachment Theory by John Bowlby and later the role of neuroscience in parenting.

Through his research in the 1950s and 1960s, John Bowlby believed the first bonds formed by children with their mothers/primary caregivers would have a tremendous life-long impact. He said by keeping an infant close to the mother, it would improve the baby’s chances of survival. The central theme of attachment theory is that mothers who are available and responsive to their infant’s needs establish a sense of security. The infant knows that the caregiver is dependable, which creates a secure base for the child to then explore the world.

So what would become of children who don’t form secure attachment in early childhood? Many studies evolved from Bowlby’s theory and there are findings of insecure attachments’ negative impact on behaviour in later childhood and throughout life. For want of labels to help comprehension, children said to have oppositional-defiant disorder, conduct disorder or post-traumatic stress disorder frequently present attachment problems, possibly due to early abuse, neglect or trauma. Psychologists suggest that children adopted after six months old have a higher risk of problems with attachment.

Here I would like to share with you a video summarizing Bowlby’s Attachment Theory. I know it doesn’t do justice to all those years of research but I think it’s enough to give us a glimpse into what are the effects of “maternal deprivation” - as coined by Bowlby himself. Naturally in today’s terms, it would better be referred as primary caregiver (fathers, nannies, etc). Terminology aside, what is important is to understand the core of Bowlby’s message.