Notes

John bowlby's was a psychoanalyst, his theory of attachment suggest that children come into the world pre programmed to form attachments with others. He believed that behavioural and mental health problems occur and allocate to early childhood. John Bowlby worked in a child guidance clinic and he treated many emotionally disturbed children. He then realised the importance of communication between a mother and a child, in terms of social emotional and cognitive development. He worked alongside James Robertson, they observed that children experienced intense distress when they were separated from their mothers.

james robertson was a psychiatirc social worker, film maker and influential researcher at the Tavistock Clinic on the impact of early separation on child development. his reasearch was on he effects on separation from the mother in early childhood. This research was conducted in children's hospital wards at the time when national policy was weekly visits. He could not forget the unnecessary unhappiness of the children and was concerned at the time that harm was being done. He and his wife, Joyce Robertson, made a series of important films illustrating these effects vividly, and actively campaigned for change. Later films, about institutionalization, foster care and substitute mothering, were influential in promoting the use of fostering rather than children's homes. the key information that was sought through out this reasearch was that ;
1)young children who are separated from their mothers experience a range of emotions including sadness and aggression
2)The provision of a positive caring environment can reduce almost all adverse reactions to separation.
3) And finally, the provision of alternative care can provide the stimulus to new relationships.
Robertson's untiring campaigning over 30 years was critically important in changing the United Kingdom National Policy on recognizing and meeting the emotional needs of children in hospital. Parents are now expected to stay with their young children in hospital.

Rudolph Schaffer and Peggy Emerson studied 60 babies at monthly intervals for the first 18 months of life. The children were all studies in their own home and there had been a regular pattern in the development of attachment. The babies were visited monthly for a year. Carers were observed and interviewed.