1. Attachment Attachment in the context of involving children in assessment

2. What is attachment?

Theory of personality development in the context of close relationships (Howe 1999)

An affectionate bond between two individuals that endures through time and spaceand serves to join them emotionally (Kennel 1976)

3. What does it provide?

Safe base

Balance between trust and autonomy

Psychological development

Physical development

Cognitive development

Conscience development

Identity

4. How long does it last?

Shifted and renegotiated through life:

Infant

Toddler

Child

Adolescent

Independence

Parenthood

Care of elders

5. Why of interest to children's professions?

Why close relationships matter

How the quality influences development

Assessing relationships children's state and parents ability to care

Quality and character of relationships

Improving parent and child relationships

Parents own experiences

Extended family relevance for kinship care

6. What are attachmentbehaviours?

Bring child in close proximity to caregiver

Maximise care and protection

Evolutionary increase survival chances

Doesnt automatically mean healthy bond

Give information about nature of attachmentbehaviours and responses

Relevant to developmental stage

7. Patterns of attachment

Secure

Ambivalent

Avoidant

Disorganised

Combinations of the above

Unattached

8. Care giving Care giving behaviours reinforce good attachment or compound attachment. Optimum behaviours on the left and cause for concern on the right .

Sensitive--------Not attuned

Acceptance--------Rejection

Cooperation--------Interference

Accessibility--------Ignoring

9. Attachment cultural issues

Basic concepts are same universally

Aspects vary across cultures

Attachment figures affected by family structure

Long-term separations

Family networks and connections vital

Asylum seeking children effects of separation.

10. Effects oflack of attachment

Difficulty relating normally

Difficulty growing socially, maintaining relationships

Difficulty caring for others

Egocentric, impulsive, babyish,

Difficulties with rules and laws

Lack of trust highly defended

11. Separation and loss

Separation involves fear which needs tobe mastered; and loss involves grief which needs to be expressed (Aldgate & Simmonds 1990)

Grief is the process through which one passes in order to recover from loss (Fahlberg 1994)

12. Stages of grief (taken fromOn Death and Dyingby Kubler-Ross,1969)

Shock

Denial

Anger

Bargaining

Sadness/despair

Resolution

13. Stages of withdrawal (taken fromA Childs Journey Through Placementby Fahlberg, 1994)

Protest

Despair

Quiet withdrawal