ABSTRACT
This afterword attests to children’s receptivity to adult attention, their eloquence if someone is watching and listening, and the support that an emotionally sensitive professional network can provide to help caregivers to go on reaching out to the vulnerable children who may be challenging to look after. I consider Freud’s discussions of attention as a form of psychic energy that gathers and binds perceptions and searches for patterns of meaning. I suggest that observation-based clinical approaches such as therapeutic observation and Watch Me Play! have the potential to draw on this life force to sustain development and resilience for the babies and young children in care who are among the most vulnerable in our society.
