Early group care and short-term caregivers

Most babies start life with the special people who are usually their parents. However, some, just when emotional attachment and feelings of effectiveness and communication have begun to develop, find themselves with strangers. Depending on their age, these babies will have developed a wide range of more or less subtle cues and will be beginning to have expectations about people's responses to them. Having those cues missed or misinterpreted, or receiving responses, which are new to them, will shake their confidence.

If the strangers are part -- or full-time substitute parents who, once on the scene, remain constantly part of their life, they will gradually adapt. If the mother is around she can help them make the transition. She can help the newcomers understand "the baby's ways" and help them to blend their "style" with her own. If this is done, the child will adapt more quickly. The new people will be made "special." He or she will teach them to understand them and to respond to them just as they taught their mother. This won't happen, however, if the newcomers have no time to "listen" to them, to concentrate on them, or feel their way with them. This is what can happen if they are now a part of a group or because there are a number of short-term caretakers.