DEFINITION AND AIM
The key person approach has its roots in a theory of attachment first described by John Bowlby in 1969 and developed by Mary Ainsworth in the 1970s. Attachment was identified as a special emotional relationship that involves an exchange of comfort, care and pleasure. Securely attached children, it proposed, learn to be independent from a base of loving and secure relationships with their caregivers.
It was concern for the emotional well-being of babies and young children in daycare settings that led Elinor Goldschmied to propose the key person concept. Her idea was to allow warm attachments to develop between staff and children in a nursery; children would then feel emotionally secure and safe enough to explore and learn.
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