Secure attachment

Infants who experience a secure attachment relationship develop a positive expectation of feeling safe and protected, which in turn allows them to explore their world more confidently, promotes most favourable social and emotional development and greater resilience to difficult experiences.

Part of the success in our pēpi room is in the settling process we aim for when welcoming a new infant and their family into our environment. Our three weeks settling period has been designed to favour relationship development, both with the infant and with their family.

To support secure relationship development we, as a team, collaborate stretchily to offer the utmost respect for our children, consistency, unhurried care routines, time and presence.

In our pēpi room, we show respect for our babies by slowing down around them, by positioning ourselves at their level, by allowing uninterrupted play and exploration, by requesting permission before picking them up, by offering choice and inviting them to participate fully in all routines and experiences, by forecasting what is happening and why is happening.

Caregivers and educators are consistent in our nursery.  Kaiako will create a strong security net for our babies by teaching trust, by being dependable, available and consistent.

Care routines constitute most of the curriculum in our infant’s room. These routines (feeding, sleeping and toileting) are done with the child not to the child. These intimate moments become essential for their overall wellbeing and ability to learn, as children's physical and emotional needs are intertwined with their cognitive development. Our kaiako will always adapt to the infant rhythms and preferences during care routines, be attentive to their cues and interact with them in a caring and loving way. This gentle and considerate handling of and interaction will affect positively their developing self-concept as someone worthy of respect and consideration.

Attuned interactions with infants require physical and emotional presence.

Being fully present in the moment is an important component of a caring relationship —making infants feel safe and nurtured.

When a new family arrive to our space, we assign a key teacher to them.  This kaiako will have the most important role to fulfil, create a secure attachment relationship with the infant by being their primary care giver, getting to know their routines, their preferences, their verbal and not verbal cues, all while offering them the necessary comfort and reassurance. It is only when this has been well stablished that the infant will accept relating to others. When the child feels safe in our environment, we introduce our whānau caregiving approach[1].

Whanau caregiving approach is when the team of kaiako in a room attend equitably to all care routines of an infant as they have all worked in establishing a secure relationship with the infant. Our new pepi is completely settled into their new environment and their learning journey about to start.