Nursery World - Best Practice: Behaviour

Attention-seeking is often dismissed as a negative behaviour, but it actually has an important role to play in children’s development, explains Caroline Vollans

Seeking attention is often a positive act by children

When someone says to us, ‘Oh, they’re so attention-seeking’, we may nod in agreement, perhaps rolling our eyes. Attention-seeking is one of those terms we say disparagingly. Either that or we worry about the reasons for this type of behaviour. We often see attention-seeking behaviour as something to be corrected or be concerned about.

Should we? Adam Phillips argues that ‘attention-seeking is one of the best things we do’ (Phillips 2019).

The former principal child psychotherapist questions why we would ever be judgementalof attention-seeking. For Phillips, it is wholly positive.

This endorsement of attention-seeking is unusual: Phillips goes against the grain. What is he saying about the indisputable value of seeking attention?

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