{"id":361,"date":"2011-01-17T19:42:43","date_gmt":"2011-01-18T03:42:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/earlychildhoodintervention2\/?p=361"},"modified":"2014-11-19T11:38:22","modified_gmt":"2014-11-19T19:38:22","slug":"children-with-attachment-disorders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/earlychildhoodintervention2\/2011\/01\/17\/children-with-attachment-disorders\/","title":{"rendered":"Children with Attachment Disorders"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Description<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mayoclinic.org\/diseases-conditions\/reactive-attachment-disorder\/basics\/definition\/con-20032126\" target=\"_blank\">Reactive attachment disorder<\/a> (RAD)<sup>1<\/sup> is a complex and serious condition that impacts the lives of children and their families. It is believed that children develop RAD in response to traumatic events or situations lived between birth and 5 years of age.\u00a0 Children with RAD usually grow up in homes where their needs may not have been met or with parents\/caregivers who are <a title=\"This means that children may get their basic needs met (food, changing, clothing and shelter), but do not get the affection and emotional response they need from their caregivers.\">unresponsive<\/a> (see full <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/earlychildhoodintervention1\/files\/2012\/02\/ECI_Glossary.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Glossary<\/a>) homes.Some of these children may have also experienced abuse, uncaring, or neglectful parenting. Growing up in such environments makes some children unable to form healthy relationships with others, including significant others, such as parents, relatives, and friends. Many children who have been in care and\/or have survived abuse and neglect tend to develop RAD. This is especially true for foster children who are frequently moved from one home to the next, as this prevents them from forming healthy relationships with their foster parents.<\/p>\n<p>Infants with RAD may show some of these symptoms:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Severe colic;<\/li>\n<li>No energy or will to <a title=\"This is known as non-organic failure to thrive.\">eat or drink<\/a> even if not sick;<\/li>\n<li>Cannot sleep, or shows <a title=\"This means that by age 4 years children continue to wake up several times at night, without being sick or hurting. Children have nightmares or night terrors most of the time.\">disruptive sleep patterns<\/a> (see full <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/earlychildhoodintervention1\/files\/2012\/02\/ECI_Glossary.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Glossary<\/a>);<\/li>\n<li>Difficulty eating, in general;<\/li>\n<li>Avoids being close to <a title=\"This refers to other children or adults; not speaking, or being close physically.\">others<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Children with RAD usually:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Do not to smile to others;<\/li>\n<li>Do not reach for others;<\/li>\n<li>Do not react when their primary caregiver leaves them, even if they are left with strangers;<\/li>\n<li>May try to soothe themselves by scratching, hitting, masturbating themselves in what is known as \u00a0<a title=\"This means that they do these actions to themselves and obtain pleasure or gratification from these movements or actions over and over again. Persistent, repetitious abnormal behaviors, which interfere with the child ability to \u201csit still\u201d. Example for this behavior are: hand flapping and rocking, or spinning the wheels of a toy truck without exploring it in other ways.\">self-stimulatory behaviors<\/a> (see full <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/earlychildhoodintervention1\/files\/2012\/02\/ECI_Glossary.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Glossary<\/a>);<\/li>\n<li>May be aggressive with others;<\/li>\n<li>Do not join their peers in play activities;<\/li>\n<li>Do not ask for help, when needed;<\/li>\n<li>May be quite withdrawn, or excessively shy;<\/li>\n<li>Prefer to be alone;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There are two main types of RAD:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The outgoing or uninhibited type: These children may seem very friendly, even with strangers. This is because they are so desperate for attention they are willing to take it from everyone. They may seem quite compliant and may appear very charming. This usually lasts until they are told no, or prohibited from doing what they want. At this point they may show aggressive behaviors, to the point of destroying property and hurting people.<\/li>\n<li>The more reserved, or inhibited type: These children completely dismiss others. They show no interest in grown-ups or peers. They appear to not to want love or affection from anyone. This is because they feel a need to protect themselves from being hurt, yet again.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Recent research suggests that when a child does not get the attention and care he or she needs, the development of his or her brain is altered, perhaps forever, in a very adverse way. This is why RAD requires intervention as early as possible, during the preschool years. It is important to stress that this condition has been seen to affect children who have experienced severe and traumatic home living conditions. Children are not \u201cborn with RAD;\u201d it is not related to a genetic or medical condition.<\/p>\n<h3><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/earlychildhoodintervention3\/\" target=\"_blank\">Intervention Options<\/a><\/h3>\n<p>There is a combination of medical, counseling and educational strategies available to treat RAD. Treatment and strategies involve a team of <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/earlychildhoodintervention3\/\" target=\"_blank\">specialists<\/a> of <a title=\"This refers to professionals in different areas; these may include a child psychiatrist, a developmental pediatrician, a social worker, and family therapist, among others.\">different disciplines<\/a> (see full <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/earlychildhoodintervention1\/files\/2012\/02\/ECI_Glossary.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Glossary<\/a>) who understand mental health disorders in infants and young children, including anxiety, mood and depression disorders as well as attachment disorders. Family therapy and educational counseling needs to be in place for parents and other primary caregivers. Specialized therapy will involve both the child and their parents. Medical treatment might be needed if severe anxiety and depression are diagnosed with RAD.<\/p>\n<h5>1 see <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/earlychildhoodintervention1\/files\/2012\/02\/ECI_References.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">References<\/a><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Description Reactive attachment disorder (RAD)1 is a complex and serious condition that impacts the lives of children and their families. It is believed that children develop RAD in response to traumatic events or situations lived between birth and 5 years of age.\u00a0 Children with RAD usually grow up in homes where their needs may not [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":430,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[239918],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2-9-children-with-mental-health-disorders-attachment-disorders"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/earlychildhoodintervention2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/earlychildhoodintervention2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/earlychildhoodintervention2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/earlychildhoodintervention2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/430"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/earlychildhoodintervention2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/earlychildhoodintervention2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1355,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/earlychildhoodintervention2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361\/revisions\/1355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/earlychildhoodintervention2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/earlychildhoodintervention2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/earlychildhoodintervention2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}