FIRST STEPS FOSTERING COURSE PREVIEW
You’re viewing the first module in this course section. This course section has 11 parts. Register for free to read it within the full First Steps course, save your progress, use quizzes and continue through the remaining modules.
Attachment and Child Development and Its Importance in Fostering
Attachment is the relationship a child builds with the adults who care for them. When children experience adults who are consistently caring, responsive, and supportive, they are more likely to feel safe and secure. Early relationships can have a lasting impact on a child's emotional wellbeing, behaviour, and ability to trust others.
This module will help you understand attachment, explore how a child's early experiences may influence them, and consider how foster carers can support children to develop healthy, secure relationships.
Modules in this course section
- FOSTERING: 1. What is Attachment? — 9 minutes
- FOSTERING: 2. Secure Attachment — 10 minutes
- FOSTERING: 3. When Children Learn to Rely Mainly on Themselves — 8 minutes
- FOSTERING: 4. Helping a self-reliant child — 9 minutes
- FOSTERING: 5. Children Who Struggle with Separation — 9 minutes
- FOSTERING: 6. Helping a child who struggles with separation — 10 minutes
- FOSTERING: 7. Children Who Have Experienced Trauma — 8 minutes
- FOSTERING: 8. Helping a child who has experienced trauma — 10 minutes
- FOSTERING: 9. Case study: Andrew, aged 12 — 12 minutes
- FOSTERING: 10. Child Development — 10 minutes
- FOSTERING: Next Steps — 9 minutes
Preview this first module, then register free to continue through the full section.
FOSTERING: 1. What is Attachment?
Attachment is the emotional connection that helps a child feel secure and protected. As babies and young children rely on adults to meet all of their needs, they naturally look to their carers for comfort, reassurance, and support. Over time, children develop different attachment patterns based on how consistently and sensitively their needs are recognised and responded to by the adults caring for them.
Understanding attachment can help foster carers make sense of a child's behaviour and provide the nurturing relationships they need to thrive.
Why is attachment important in fostering?
Children develop through their relationships with the people who care for them. From birth, babies are naturally drawn to connect with others and depend on trusted adults to help them feel safe, comforted, and understood.
When carers respond consistently and sensitively to a child's needs, the child learns that they can rely on others for support. Over time, this helps build confidence, resilience, and the ability to form healthy relationships.
For many children in foster care, these early experiences may have been disrupted by neglect, loss, trauma, or changes in caregivers. As a result, they may find it difficult to trust adults or seek support when they need it.
Understanding attachment can help foster carers make sense of children's behaviours and recognise the needs that may lie behind them. In this section, you'll explore the different attachment patterns that can develop during childhood and learn practical ways to help children feel secure, build trust, and develop positive relationships.
