Suppose that you were asked to put together a pamphlet for new parents that contains advice about how to foster a secure attachment and ways to combat stranger anxiety. Summarize the advice that you might give parents

What will be an ideal response?

For attachment, evidence suggests that the keys to development of a secure attachment are sensitive caregiving and the regular engagement in synchronized routines. Feeding and changing the baby are not enough. Caretaking must be responsive and sensitive to the infant's signals. Sometimes those signals are invitations to engage in some kind of interaction or a request for help in meeting a need. At other times, those signals are invitations to disengage. Sensitive parenting involves learning to read both messages so that the baby's needs get met and the infant's overtures are reinforced, but also so the caregiving and interactions are not overbearing, intrusive, or overstimulating. Synchronized routines involve the parent responding to a vocalization, expression, or behavior initiated by the infant, then waiting for the infant to take a turn responding, and so on. If an infant is unusually irritable or unresponsive, the parent faces an extra challenge in establishing these synchronous routines. With work, synchronous routines can be established and a secure attachment formed. For stranger anxiety, not all infants display it, but many do. It is a normal phase that peaks at eith to 10 months in North American and European infants. Research indicates that (a) infants generally show less fear if a caregiver or sibling remains with them in the presence of a stranger (e.g., doctor, visitor, new babysitter) and if the infants have observed positive interaction between the stranger and the caregiver or sibling; (b) infants are braver in familiar settings such as their own home or a room that is homelike and inviting to the child; (c) infants are more likely to react positively if the stranger has a friendly manner, is not overly intrusive, and offers a toy or engages in an activity with which the child is already familiar; and (d) infants are less likely to react negatively to someone who fits their scheme of a kind, friendly adult. If the clothing, behavior, or hair is highly discrepant from what the child is familiar with, then the reaction may be more negative. Babysitters, professionals, and friends of the family will be more readily accepted if they are not highly discrepant from the infant's schemes.