Bonding and Attachment 
Strengthening Parent & Child Bonding and Attachment is a guide book that increases the feelings of closeness between you and your children and helping your child’s brain grow. We call that closeness “bonding and attachment.” 

Bonding means the intense feelings of caring and love between a mom and her baby. Mother-child bonding begins upon conception and carries through birth and early childhood. While bonding happens early in the parent-child relationship, attachment is an extension of the bonded closeness between a mom and her child that lasts a lifetime. 

Even though bonding and attachment are often used to refer to the closeness between mom and child, bonding and attachment are also feelings that fathers feel. 

Feelings of Closeness 
The powerful feelings of closeness that are generated from giving birth, holding your baby and making eye-contact for the first time are moments that moms and dads will always remember. Actually, so will your baby. It’s not happening on a conscious level with your baby like it does with adults, but the baby’s brain is taking all these moments in through its senses of sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell. 

Healthy Brain Development 
Parent-child bonding and attachment are absolutely critical for healthy brain development. When parents spend time holding, rocking, feeding, gazing, kissing, laughing, and talking to their child, the brain of the baby is taking in all these wonderful experiences and forming strong neurological networks. This is very good. 

During the first year of life, your baby’s brain develops to 90% of its adult size and puts in place the majority of the structures and systems your baby’s brain will use for the rest of his or her life. 

So, are you ready to work on helping your baby build a healthy brain and form a solid, fun and caring attachment between you both? We thought you might be. 

This manual will help you do all those things.
 
It has Five Chapters full of information and activities: 
Chapters One and Two address the importance of love and empathy. Make sure you read those. 

Chapters Three, Four and Five are full of time-tested activities that are fun, engaging, brain-building, and stimulating. Choose the activities that are age appropriate and engage your children every day in making, building, knocking down, coloring, and painting, gluing and pretending. Make sure you supervise your children’s use of art supplies and toys to keep them safe. 

My colleagues at the Urban Child Institute in Memphis have a simple saying that will help you build a strong attachment with your child while you are helping your child’s brain get stronger. 

So remember this saying: 

Read, Touch, Talk and Play

Say it over and over every day: Read, Touch, Talk and Play as a reminder to engage your children in the wonderful world of childhood dreams and fantasies. Outstanding things will happen to you and your children. 

Remember to enjoy your children’s early years. Build good memories. The early years go by so very fast.

This Item is Used in the Following Program(s):
Young Parents & Their Families