Providing a secure base: Tuning in to children with severe learning difficulties in long-term foster care

Mary Beek and Gillian Schofield analyse the care given to four children with severe learning difficulties who have made excellent progress in long-term foster care. Their foster carers were found to be providing sensitive care across five dimensions of parenting: providing availability, tuning in to the minds and feelings of the children, building self-esteem, promoting autonomy and including the child as a full member of the family. The capacity to tune in to the minds of the children, to see the world from their perspective, was seen as key to the building of warm, positive relationships. Secure in these relationships, the children's anxiety levels were reduced and they were freer to learn, play and develop their potential.