Attachment & the Primary School Teacher

1. Attachment & the Primary School Teacher How Community and School Counselors can Support the Learning Environment

2. Overview • Attachment and neuroscience • Signs and symptoms • Impact of the relationship • Support tools for counselors • Early intervention • Community resources

3. Attachment

4. Cycle of Trust

5. Securely Attached Children • Handle frustration well • Have good peer relations • Learn to trust others • Allow adults to care for them • Care about what adults expect of them www.AttachmentHealingCenter.com

6. Cycle of Unmet Needs

7. Attachment Gone Wrong • Developed within first 2 years of life • If child’s needs are not met, they learn adults are not dependable • If the caregiver is someone to fear then there is confusion over getting close • Result is child needs the adult, yet the adult is someone to fear • Results in a come here, go away response www.AttachmentHealingCenter.com

8. Result • Safety and security does not come from caring adults • Child’s ineffective system struggles to find a way to meet their needs • Child’s needs are not met • Emotional regulation is not learned • Learned response to danger is fear, no one can be trusted to provide safety www.AttachmentHealingCenter.com

9. Neuroscience

10. Brain Basics • Neuroplasticity • Experience shapes brain structure • Grows in relation to others • Memory – mental models • Trauma & stress impact neural pathways • Brain development impacted by attachment www.AttachmentHealingCenter.com

11. Left vs Right Brain Communication Left Brain Right Brain Visual – images Big picture Feelings Parallel 11 million bits dps • Verbal - words • Detailed • Logic • Linear • 7 bits dps

12. Set them up for Success • Scan for the positive • Chemicals • Dopamine • Oxytocin

13. Signs & Symptoms

14. In the Classroom • Oppositional children • Frustrated parents • Multiple placements • Poor peer relations • Inability to handle frustration • Poor academic performance • Years of therapy where results showed no change or decline in behavior www.AttachmentHealingCenter.com

15. School Reaction • Labeled “bad” child • Sent out of class • Attitude of adults towards the child • Attitude towards the parents • Lack of community support • Extreme community stressors

16. Relationships

17. School Personnel • Build relationships within the school • Raise awareness of disorganized attachment • Impact on the child in the classroom

18. Co-Regulation • Teacher stays calm • Right brain communication • Physically check-in regularly • Classroom environment set for team support • Pay attention to peer relations

19. Set them Up for Success • Intervene early • Provide assignments the child can accomplish • Scan for the positive • Praise the positive - dopamine • Build on the positive to get more • Stimulating learning environment

20. Relationship Support

21. Building Relationship • Happy Calls • Regular check-ins • Family as co-partner, not school as expert • Equal partners; non-judgmental • Personal responsibility • Humanness of the teacher • Enter into the family • One caring adult

22. Early Intervention • Watch for signs & symptoms in preschool • First week of school reframe behaviors • Make teachers/administration aware • Communication • Be connected to community resources

23. Support Tools • Teacher’s role as attachment figure • Most of the child’s life is in school • Educating school personnel • Support the family; no judgment • Support family involvement with school

24. Community Resources • What to look for • Effective treatment modalities • Relationship based • Family involvement • Behavior mod does not work • Focus on unmet need not behavior • Attachment work complete before trauma work

25. Bibliography • Baum, A.C., & Swick, K. J. (2008). Dispositions Toward Families and Family Involvement: Supporting Preservice Teacher Development. Early Childhood Education Journal, 35, 570-584. • Bowlby, J. (1988). A Secure Base: Parent-Child Attachment and Healthy Human Development. London, England: Routledge. • Buckingham, M., Clifton, D. (2001). Now, Discover Your Strengths. New York: Free Press. • Colman, W., & Wallinga, C. (2002). Teacher training in family involvement: An interpersonal approach. Childhood Education, 76(2), 76-81. • Fosha, D. (2000). Transforming Power of Affect. New York: Basic Books.

26. Bibliography (cont) • Graue, E. (2005). Theorizing and describing preservice teachers’ images of families and schooling. Teachers College Record, 107(1), 157-185. • Karen, R. (1998). Becoming Attached: First Relationships & How They Shape Our Capacity to Love. NY: Oxford University Press. • Keck, G., Kupecky, R. (2002). Parenting the Hurt Child: Helping Adoptive Families Heal and Grow. Colorado Springs, CO: NAVPRESS. • Martin, J. E., Van Dycke, J. L., Greene, B. A., Gardner, J. E., Christensen, W. R., & Woods, L. L. (2006). Direct Observation of teacher-directed IEP meetings: Establishing the need for student IEP meeting instruction. Exceptional Children, 72, 187-200. • McNaughton, D., Hamlin, D., McCarthy, J., Head-Reeves, D., & Schreiner, M. (2008). Learning to listen: Teaching an active listening strategy to preservice education professionals. Topics in EarlyChildhood Special Education, 27, 223-231.

27. Bibliography (cont) • Rosenfeld, L. B., Richman, J. M., & Bowen, G. L. (1998). Supportive communication and school outcomes for academically “at risk” and other low income middle school students. Communication Education, 47, 309-325. • Siegal, D. (1999). The Developing Mind: How relationships and the brain interact to shape who we are. New York: Guilford Press. • Siegal, D., Hartzell, M. (2004). Parenting From the Inside Out. New York: Penguin Group. • Schore, A. (2003). Affect regulation and the repair of the self. New York, NY: WW Norton & Co. • Schore, A. (2003). Affect dysregulation and disorders of the self. New York, NY: WW Norton & Co.

28. Online Resources • Attachment Healing Center, a division of Inner Guidance, LC www.nrguide.com • National Alternative Educators Association (NAEA) www.the-naea.com • Emotional regulation: • Dr. Allan Schore www.allanschore.com • Diana Fosha - Accelerated Experiential-Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP) www.aedpinstitute.org • Global Association for Interpersonal Neurobiology www.mindgains.org