1. The concept of neuroscience
Neuroscience is a part of the science that studies the brain and the nervous system. “The brain is responsible for our thoughts, mood, emotions and intelligence, as well as our physical movement, breathing, heart rate and sleep. In short, it makes us who we are and facilitates almost every aspect of what it means to be alive.” (British Neuroscience Association, 2018).
It is fairly new area of science and combines psychology and biology to further our understanding of processes that are taking place in our brains e.g. Different types of pain, attachment, ACEs. The importance of these is to gain the knowledge about the human development, therefore to be able to consequently improve our lives and work of the services. For government and social care services, it means to develop appropriate frameworks, policies and legislation e.g. Pre-Birth to Three, Health and Social Care Standards, for workers to follow these and be responsive to the individual needs of the service users. For medical purposes (hospital, doctors) it means to be able to treat people accordingly to their mental health state and examine all factors. By knowing more about the work of the nervous system and its impact on the behaviour, we can link these invisible disorders and understand them. There is still a lot to discover and older theories are constantly being reconsidered.
2. Questions on the Case Study
a) To respect the children’s needs for attachment the nursery has to make sure they are spending enough time with the children to enable forming the attachments. Through forming secure relationships, the staff will have a chance to get to know each child and their needs, consequently be responsive to these. According to Bowlby’s theory, the early attachment has crucial role in children’s development. Babies are pre-programmed to form attachments, and early interaction with (usually) maternal figure will ‘shape the brain’ (neurons connections). This directly affect self-esteem, willingness of exploring and risk taking, empathy and more. The children who get response from the adults, know that they can trust them, therefore are happy and grow healthy. The staff have to listen to children’s views and enabling them to make choices, providing calm, respectful, nurturing, safe and stimulating environment with variety of resources and activities related to children’s interests. Michael Rutter disagrees with Bowlby, saying that children can form multiple bonds with other people. He also states that not only loss or damage of the attachment (deprivation), but also its absolute lack or disturbance resulted in the failure to form it (privation) e.g. high stress, can result in negative, anti-social behaviour. He found out “that these problems are not due solely to the lack of attachment to a mother figure, as Bowlby claimed, but to factors such as the lack of intellectual stimulation and social experiences which attachments normally provide. In addition, such problems can be overcome later in the child’s development, with the right kind of care.” (McLeod, 2008).
b) Strict routine that takes place in the ‘Head to Toe’ nursery, leaves no room for individuality. The staff seem not valuing diversity, as they provide the same resources all year round. They are rushed and stressed which affects the children. Suzanne Zeedyk, agrees with Bowlby about the importance of attachment, adding that all babies are born already connected, and they strive on interaction with others. Margot Sunderland also puts attention to ‘Relational Play’ which is about paying a full attention to the child whilst playing together, and how the fun activity can positively stimulate the new cell growth and cognitive development of the child. Zeedyk also focuses on ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) which can be caused in a nursery environment as well, they may be for example lack of affection, and so failure to form attachments. She says that often staff has a little or lack of appropriate training about attachments, and don’t know how to deal with variety of traumas. The lack of affection can bring fatal outcomes for the children in the future, some of them may involve self-harm, stop signalling the needs after being ignored for longer amount of time, the children may have problem with regulating their emotions, causing anti-social and aggressive behaviour. Not treated ACEs may also involve future problems with health such as obesity, heart disease, depression it may affect life choices such as smoking, alcohol etc. “The wide-ranging health and social consequences of ACEs underscore the importance of preventing them before they happen”. (Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, 2016)
c) To allow children to freely play, the environment has to be positive and secure, there has to be broad range of resources, that are easily accessible and appropriate for age/ stage of development, so each child could find something that will interest him or her. Practitioners should observe children on the daily basis, collecting the information about each child’s individual need, accordingly plan potential lines of development which are crucial for children’s growth. They should also encourage the children by interaction and being a good role model. Alison Gopnik, an American professor, states that children are aware of other people’s thoughts and feelings, she also has studied the way “that young children use statistics and probability to test hypotheses. It turns out that even the youngest babies and children think more rationally than we ever realized. “(University of California, 2012). By letting children free play, we are enabling them to direct their own activity, during which they solve the problems, transferring the knowledge into practice, making decisions, and if they would like us to interact, and we join in – they emotionally develop, by creating attachments, increasing their self-esteem and confidence and using their creativity. Free play impacts the brain holistically in a positive way, but the important is also to pay attention to our babies/children, as they are learning all the time.
Reference
AQA B Psychology (2018) Attachment, Deprivation, and Privation: Rutter’s Studies. (online) http://aqabpsychology.co.uk/2010/07/attachment-deprivation-and-privation-rutters-studies/ (Accessed 16 November 2018)
University of California. Berkeley Research. (2012) Q&A: Alison Gopnik on Babies and Learning. (online) https://vcresearch.berkeley.edu/news/qa-alison-gopnik-babies-and-learning (Accessed 20 November 2018)
British Neuroscience Association. (2018) About Neuroscience. (online) https://www.bna.org.uk/about-neuroscience/ (Accessed 15 November 2018).
Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (2016) About Adverse Childhood Experiences. (online) https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/acestudy/about_ace.html (Accessed 19 November 2018)
McLeod, S. A. (2008). Privation and attachment. (online) https://www.simplypsychology.org/privation.html (Accessed 16 November 2018)
Scottish Government (2018) Pre-Birth to Three (online) https://education.gov.scot/improvement/learning-resources/Pre-Birth%20to%20Three (Accessed 16 November 2018)
Sunderland, M. 2007. What Every Parent Needs to Know: The Incredible Effects of Love, Nurture and Play on Your Child’s Development. London: Dorling Kindersley Publishers Ltd.
Zeedyk, S. (2012) Attachment and Adolescence. (online) http://suzannezeedyk.co.uk/wp2/2012/07/09/attachment-theory-and-adolescence/ (Accessed on 16 November 2018)
Zeedyk, S. (2015) Nursery Policy and the Making of Democratic Citizens (online) http://www.suzannezeedyk.com/nursery-policy-and-the-making-of-democratic-citizens/ (Accessed 19 November 2018)