Transcript Attachment Theory - Suffolk Learning

Attachment Theory
Practical Strategies for Supporting
Children With Attachment Difficulties
Guy Clayton
Trainee Educational Psychologist
Suffolk Community Educational Psychology Service
• Attachment theory has had significant
implications:
– Babies are no longer separated from their
mothers at birth
– Parents are accommodated in hospital with
children needing treatment
– Educationalists have a framework for
understanding behaviour and from which,
interventions can be based
Session Aims
• This session is not suggesting that staff need to
become therapists or social workers. Instead it is
to help school staff develop further insight as to
why certain pupils behave as they do.
• Perhaps with a better understanding we can be in
a better position to adapt our own responses in
our relationships with these pupils
Session Content
1. A brief outline of Attachment Theory
2. General Interventions which can be applied
in the classroom
3. Proposal for Key Adult Scheme
Molly Clayton
What happens when ‘Good Enough’
parenting is available
• Human infants are completely dependent
upon others for survival
• We are therefore biologically predisposed to
make strong emotional bonds with another,
and to seek safety in their presence
• Baby soon develops a preference for contact
and proximity with this person
• As capacity for mobility develops, the baby
feels confident to explore
What happens when ‘Good Enough’
parenting is available
Containment
• The baby, who has no experience of the future or the
outside world, experiences needs as overwhelming.
• The good enough parent understands this desperation
and can themselves bear the anxiety communicates
her understanding
• As language begins to enter, words play a part in
diminishing the anxiety and fear can be understood by
communication and thinking. In short fear is
transformed into thinkable thoughts
• The child learns that fears can be tolerated through
thinking and through talking – a model for life
What happens when ‘Good Enough’
parenting is available
Attunement
• Through ‘good enough’ parenting the significant other
learns to read their babies signals, and responds
appropriately. She soon knows when her child is too hot,
too cold, hungry, tired, needing a nappy changed etc.
• Importantly the infants communications are taken on by
another and lead to responses – the cry for hunger is met
with a response of being fed etc.
• The infant learns about their own needs and feelings by the
response s/he experiences. The a baby learns about
themselves by being understood by another – the basis of
empathy
• Once again, language will soon accompany these feelings
and the developing child’s ability to have their needs met
improves.
What happens when ‘Good Enough’
parenting is available
Internal Working Model
• These early experiences provide a ‘blueprint’ in
regards to what to expect from others, and from
relationships.
• Thus good enough parenting leads the child to
consider significant others (eg school staff) as
available, responsive, and helpful. Further still,
they will consider themselves loveable and
valuable to others. They will approach the world
with confidence and will tackle alarming
situations effectively
What happens when ‘Good Enough’
parenting is available
In Preschool:
• Children who had experienced ‘good enough’
parenting:
• High self esteem
• Less dependent
• Show more positive affect towards teachers
• More cooperative
• Respond well to challenges
(Sroufe, 1983)
Reasons why
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Pre-birth stress, for example, mother self-harms or experiences domestic violence
Alcohol and/or drug use during pregnancy
Parental illness before or after birth, for example ante- or post-natal depression
Parental mental health, e.g. depression, bipolar, personality disorder
Premature baby
Medical complications during growth in the womb and at birth
Bereavements in family
Baby having a disability
Neglect
Emotional abuse
Sexual abuse
Physical abuse
Witnessing domestic violence
Home instability
Abandonment
Multiple home or school placements in early years
Parent or caregiver have attachment-based problems from their own childhood
Teenage parenting
Long hospitalization for either baby or parent which results in prolonged separation
Poverty or extreme wealth
Lack of stimulating environment
Chaotic, stressful family environment
Video – ‘Still Face’ Experiment
Questions...
• What would happen if the mother’s response
to her child was always like this?
– What type of behaviours would you see at school?
• What if mum was sometimes like this, but at
other times affectionate and responsive?
– What type of behaviours would you see at school?
Attachment framework for understanding
behaviour styles
• Secure
• Insecure and Avoidant attachment
• Insecure Ambivalent-Resistant Attachment
• Insecure Disorganised Attachment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DH1m_ZMO7GU
Attachment Styles
• Secure: the child is usually distressed by the
separation; on reunion they greet their parent, receive
comfort if needed and continue playing (60%)
• Insecure-avoidant: the child shows little signs of
distress on separation and ignores the mother on
reunion; they are watchful and inhibited in their play.
Depressed/ abusive parent(s) are common
feature(15%)
• Insecure-ambivalent: highly distressed by separation
and cannot be easily comforted on reunion – they seek
contact, then resist eg by kicking; their play is limited
and they continue to alternate between anger and
clinging to their mother (15%)
• Insecure-disorganized: they show confused behaviour
such as ‘freezing’, or stereotyped movements on
reunion (most worrying style) (10%)
Have you seen any of these styles in your classroom?
The Learning Triangle – Securely
Attached
Pupil
Resilient
Confident
Self Esteem
Independent
Achieving
Teacher
Task
Pupils who cant ask for help
Insecure – Avoidant
pupil
Indifferent
Underachieving
Sensitive to Teacher
proximity
Denial of the need for
teacher support
Hostility towards the
teacher is directed towards
the task
Teacher
Desire to be autonomous
Task
Approach to school
• Apparent indifference to uncertainty in new situations
Response to teacher
• Denial of need of support and help from the teacher
Response to the task
• Need to be autonomous and independent of the
teacher
• Hostility towards the teacher is directed towards the
task
• The task operates as an emotional safety barrier
between pupil and teacher
General Interventions -Avoidant Attachment
• The teacher is imbued with negative expectations – the child
expects to be let down, or hurt. Thus ...
• The relationship between the pupil and the teacher is thus made
safe by the presence of the task
• Thus – Well delivered lesson plan, made clear at the start and clear,
structured tasks which can be completed from little help from the
teacher can reduce the threat of ‘not knowing’ something and
feeling unsupported.
• Concrete structured activities, with little call for imagination are
safest
• Writing can be difficult for these individuals. Structured
assignments with boxes may be preferred
• The presence of another child can moderate the intensity of the
teachers proximity. Pairs or groups may help the child experience
close proximity to the teacher.
Pupils who fear separation –
Ambivalent
pupil
Highly anxious
Underachieving
Attention Seeking
Poor Concentration/ ignore
the task
Dependent on teacher
support
Fears Separation
Teacher
Hostile towards teacher if
frustrated
Task
A child who has an ambivalent
attachment style
 These
children have tended to experience carer’s
that have not responded with clear and consistent
boundaries and have not been consistent with their
care. Often the attachment figure’s needs have led
the relationship.
 The world feels unpredictable to them
 To manage this anxiety these children often
attempt to control the adults and so become
dependent and clingy
 Poor school attendance is often a good indication
of this style of attachment. Transition into
secondary school is a vulnerable moment.
Approach to school
• High level of anxiety
Response to teacher
• Need to hold on to the attention of the teacher
• Apparent dependence on teacher in order to
engage in learning
• Expressed hostility towards the teacher when
frustrated
Response to the task
• Difficulties attempting the task if unsupported
• Unable to focus on the task for fear of losing
teacher’s attention
General Interventions –Ambivalent
Attachment
• The child is preoccupied with their relationship with
the adult and in being ‘held in mind’. To begin the
process of change the child needs to engage with the
task...
• Small independent steps
• Modelling of turn taking
• A timer to indicate when the task is over and the
relationship can continue
• Special objects
• Explicit comments across the classroom
• Small group work which facilitates working with others
• Warnings of changes and class movements
The Most Worrying Pupils –
Disorganised Attachment
pupil
Controlling
Intense Anxiety
Underachieving
Distrusting of Authority
Likely to reject task or
any educational
challenge for fear of
failing or not knowing
Teacher
Task
The Most Worrying Pupils –
Disorganised Attachment
• Whereas the Avoidant or Ambivalent infants have
developed consistent patters of response, there are others
who have not appeared to developed consistent strategies
for dealing with stress.
• In the home there may have been:
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High levels of stress and distress
Neglect or actual harm
A parent(s) who frighten the child
Emotional/ physical or sexual abuse
Drug abuse
• “It’s like being starving, but faced with a ‘poisoned cake’”
(Hopkins 90)
The Most Worrying Pupils –
Disorganised Attachment
• As a consequence of their early experiences, the child is on
constant alert for immediate danger; hyper-vigilant, but
exhausted.
• The nature of their behaviour appears irrational, as though
it cannot possibly be explained
• These children often view themselves as unworthy of
anyone’s care; undeserving and of little value
• They have an absence of trust in the authority of adults
• Insensitive to others feelings
• Extremely sensitive to criticism and implied humiliation
• Place considerable importance on objects, rather than
relationships
Approach to school
• Intense anxiety expressed as controlling and
omnipotent
Response to teacher
• Great difficulty experiencing trust in the authority of
the teacher but may submit to the authority of the
head of the school
• May be unable to accept being taught
Response to the task
• The task may be conceived as a challenge to their fears
of incompetence – triggering fears of ‘not knowing’
• Difficulty accepting ‘not knowing’
General Interventions –Disorganised
Attachment
• These children are highly vulnerable; they will need to
experience sufficient containment, both physical and
emotional.
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Care typically involves:
Reliable and predictable routine
A physical container or ‘secure base’
Regular praise and positive feedback
Safety routines
Concrete objectives such as counting, colouring
sorting, building structures, sequencing objects,
copying etc.
• This presentation has focussed on general
classroom interventions for attachment
difficulties. For the more extreme cases of
attachment difficulty here at Hillside Primary
School, I would like to propose intervention at the
inter-personal level; in the form of a Key Adult
Scheme.
• A key worker is....
• What it Involves ....
• What support EPS can offer...
• The presence of a significant other in school can
meliorate the adverse experiences in primary
relationships
• Through access to an adult who will take a special
interest in them, the child can experience their
emotional states being contained and regulated
by someone else. They will be soothed and freed
up to learn.
• Once a child understands their own needs, views
and feelings, they can become sensitive to the
needs, views and feelings of others.
Key Person
Key Person Role
1. Develop trust
2. Manage the child’s feelings
3. Increase the child’s self esteem
4. Be an advocate for the child
Who can do it
• Owing to complex dynamics of sharing and jealousy, it
is not advisable that the teacher is the key adult,
instead TA’s, who are personable and interested are
well placed to take on the responsibility
Key Person
• Whilst the role is demanding their are possible
benefits
– Learn about child development – through practical
work, and in monthly support group sessions
– Become skilful in getting alongside children with
attachment difficulties
– Be in demand from schools as valuable assets to
the school community
– Know that you have made a real difference in
child’s life
Skills Developed During Scheme:
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Key strategies for developing the relationship
Being explicit in our communication
How to develop a child’s independence
Building the child’s self awareness and ability to
self-regulate
Supporting children to make and maintain
friendships
Lowering the powerful effects of shame
Resolving conflicts
Supporting through transitions
Support on offer from Community
Educational Psychology Service
• Monthly meetings with me, with the aim of
discussing issues as they arise and covering
new learning points
• Video Interactive Guidance (VIG) with two EP’s
from the CEPS
• Overall message;
• Seek to respond to the meaning of behaviour
rather than react to difficult feelings