A soft, clingable object like a blanket that provides the child with security and comfort in mildly or moderately fearful situations.

Security objects are items, usually soft and easily held or carried, that offer a young child comfort. Security objects are also referred to as attachment objects, inanimate attachment agents, nonsocial attachments, comfort habits, transitional objects, not-me possessions, substitute objects, cuddlies, treasured possessions, soothers, pacifiers, special soft objects, Linus phenomenon, and security blankets.

Early History

In the 1940s, attachment to a special object was regarded as a childhood fetish reflecting pathology in the relationship between the mother and her child (Wulff, 1946). D. W. Winnicott (1953), however, regarded the object as necessary for normal development: it was a "transitional" experience, intermediate between the infant's ability to distinguish the inner subjective world from outside reality. John Bowlby considered transitional objects to be a "substitute" for the absent mother, and...