{"id":124,"date":"2016-03-06T07:28:43","date_gmt":"2016-03-06T07:28:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/advokids.wpengine.com\/?page_id=124"},"modified":"2021-10-26T14:32:14","modified_gmt":"2021-10-26T21:32:14","slug":"attachment","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/adevine.io\/advokids-backup\/childhood-mental-health\/attachment\/","title":{"rendered":"Attachment"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Attachment:\u00a0 Resource Guidelines For Juvenile And Family Court Judges<\/span><\/h1>\n

Well-Being and the Youngest of Children in Foster Care<\/h3>\n

Early experiences and relationships significantly impact a child\u2019s development. From birth to five years old, children develop the foundation for their future linguistic, cognitive, emotional, social, regulatory, and moral capabilities. The science of early child development clearly shows the important of parenting and regular consistent caregiving to a child\u2019s healthy growth and development . The health and well-being of children\u2019s parents or primary caregivers are also crucial to a child\u2019s early development. The growth and development of very young children are profoundly affected by abuse, neglect, and removal. As the largest group to enter the child welfare system, very young children who become the subject of dependency court proceedings face multiple disadvantages, traumas, and losses during a critical time of early brain development.<\/p>\n

Even considering other factors such as economics, policy, administrative structure, and method of service delivery, age largely determines what happens to children in foster care. A baby\u2019s social-emotional development, specifically attachment to a primary caregiver, is affected by removal from his parent and multiple placements while in care. Research shows that young children, even newborns and infants, experience long-lasting sadness, grief, loss, and rejection. Separations occurring between six months and approximately three years of age are even more likely to cause later emotional disturbances.<\/p>\n

Judges, exercising their leadership role off the bench can communicate the importance of the needs of very young children and establish a shared vision for improving their wellbeing and permanency outcomes. Judges can lead efforts to design court-run interventions and support multidisciplinary trainings. In fact, many Judges across the country have taken the lead in elevating the needs of babies toddlers, and preschoolers in their jurisdictions through court-run projects and interventions such as the Zero to Three Court Teams for Change Initiative.<\/p>\n

Gatowski, S., Miller, N., Rubin, S., Escher P.; Maze, C. (2016) Enhanced resource guidelines:\u00a0Improving court practice in child abuse and neglect cases, Reno, NV: National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. P76. For End Note References see pp 100-101.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t

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TABLE OF CONTENTS:<\/p>\n

Recent Research and Video From the Harvard Center for the Developing Child<\/a><\/p>\n

The Critical Role of a Stable Relationship with a Primary Caregiver in a Child\u2019s Growth and Development<\/a><\/p>\n

The Benefits of Secure Attachment<\/a><\/p>\n

Early Bonding and Attachment Research<\/a><\/p>\n

More Recent Research and Findings \u2013 The Neurobiology of Attachment<\/a><\/p>\n

Abuse and Neglect Impair Attachment<\/a><\/p>\n

Attachment and the Child Welfare System<\/a><\/p>\n

Developmental Issues for Young Children in Foster Care<\/a><\/p>\n

Caregiver Behaviors Crucial to Attachment<\/a><\/p>\n

Applicable Statutes<\/a><\/p>\n

Applicable Case Law<\/a><\/p>\n

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<\/a>Research And Video From The Harvard Center For The Developing Child<\/h3>\n

\"Serve and return interactions shape brain architecture.\u00a0When an infant or young child babbles, gestures, or cries, and an adult responds appropriately with eye contact, words, or a hug, neural connections are built and strengthened in the child\u2019s brain that support the development of communication and social skills. Much like a lively game of tennis, volleyball, or Ping-Pong, this back-and-forth is both fun and capacity-building. When caregivers are sensitive and responsive to a young child\u2019s signals and needs, they provide an environment rich in serve and return experiences.\u00a0Because responsive relationships are both expected and essential, their absence is a serious threat to a child's development and well-being. Healthy brain architecture depends on a sturdy foundation built by appropriate input from a child\u2019s senses and stable, responsive relationships with caring adults.\" Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. See the research and video here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University published a new 6-minute video that explains how significant neglect can harm a young child's development, including cognitive delays, impairments in executive functioning, and disruptions of the body's stress response. It also looks at why effective interventions are likely to pay significant dividends in better long-term outcomes in learning, health, and parenting of the next generation. The video provides an overview of The Science of Neglect: The Persistent Absence of Responsive Care Disrupts the Developing Brain<\/a> (2012), a working paper by the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child. A two-page summary<\/a> of the paper is also available.<\/p>\n

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InBrief: The Science of Neglect (2013)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/a>The Critical Role Of A Stable Relationship With A Primary Caregiver In A Child's Growth And Development<\/h3>\n

\"[A]n important element that a trial court must consider, when making a decision about children, is the impact of the passage of time. Childhood is short; many basic attitudes and capacities are developed in the very early years. Ties are formed to the adults present in the child's life, and can only be broken by inviting emotional disaster.\" \u00a0In re Rose G.<\/em> (1976) 57 CA3 406, 425.<\/p>\n

\"The newest research on infant mental health tells us that babies require permanence in their relationships and consistency in their daily routines. Consistent early relationships and experiences are the foundation upon which all subsequent emotional development rests...<\/p>\n

Consistency in relationships for infants is achieved through attachment \u2013 the formation of an enduring emotional bond with a primary or small number of stable, responsive, and sensitive caregivers. Infants in foster care are at particular risk for attachment disruption. Decisions to remove infants from their home or move them once in a placement must reflect these needs.\"<\/p>\n

Dicker and Gordon, Ensuring the Healthy Development of Infants in Foster Care: A Guide for Judges, Advocates and Child Welfare<\/em>,\u00a0New York State Permanent Judicial Commission on Justice for Children, January 2004, pp. 17, 20.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Continuity of relationships, surroundings, and environmental influence are essential for a child\u2019s normal development. Since they do not play the same role in later life, their importance is often underrated by the adult world.<\/p>\n

Physical, emotional, intellectual, social, and moral growth does not happen without causing the child inevitable internal difficulties. The instability of all mental processes during the period of development needs to be offset by stability and uninterrupted support from external sources. Smooth growth is arrested or disrupted when upheavals and changes in the external world are added to the internal ones.<\/p>\n

Disruptions of continuity have different consequences at different ages: \u00a0in infancy, from birth to approximately 18 months, any change in routine leads to food refusals, digestive upsets, sleeping difficulties, and crying. Such reactions occur even if the infant\u2019s care is divided merely between mother and baby-sitter. They are all the more massive where the infant\u2019s day is divided between home and day-care center; or where infants are displaced from the mother to an institution; from institutional to foster care; or from fostering to adoption...<\/p>\n

Changes of the caretaking person for infants and toddlers further affects the course of their emotional development. Their attachments, at these ages, are as thoroughly upset by separations as they are effectively promoted by the constant, uninterrupted presence and attention of a familiar adult. When infants and young children find themselves abandoned by the parent, they not only suffer separation distress and anxiety but also setbacks in the quality of their next attachments, which will be less trustful. Where continuity of such relationships is interrupted more than once, as happens due to multiple placements in the early years, the children\u2019s emotional attachments become increasingly shallow and indiscriminate. They tend to grow up as persons who lack warmth in their contacts with fellow beings.<\/p>\n

For young children under the age of 5 years, every disruption of continuity also affects those achievements which are rooted and develop in the intimate interchange with a stable parent figure, who is in the process of becoming the psychological parent. The more recently the achievement has been acquired, the easier it is for the child to lose it. Examples of this are cleanliness and speech. After separation from the familiar mother, young children are known to have breakdowns in toilet training and to lose or lessen their ability to communicate verbally.<\/p>\n

Thus, continuity is a guideline [for determining the placement and the process of placement of a child] because emotional attachments are tenuous and vulnerable in early life and need stability of external arrangements for their development...<\/p>\n

Some of the implications of this guideline for the laws on adoption, custody, and foster care are that each child placement be final and unconditional and that pending final placement a child must not be shifted to accord with each tentative decision. This means that all child placements, except where specifically designed for brief temporary care, shall be as permanent as the placement of a newborn with its biological parents.\"<\/p>\n

Goldstein et al., Beyond the Best Interests of the Child (The Free Press 1979), pp.31-35.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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 <\/p>\n

The Benefits Of Secure Attachment<\/h3>\n

Secure and Stable Relationships with a Primary Caregiver are the Foundation for Social, Emotional, and Cognitive Growth and Development<\/h4>\n

\"The first few years of life are a time of unparalleled growth. A child\u2019s experiences and relationships during these critical years build the foundation for their future social, emotional, and cognitive development...<\/p>\n

Infants and toddlers are completely dependent on the adults in their lives, and on the care that they receive for their well-being...<\/p>\n

Secure and stable attachments with a primary caregiver form the foundation for a child\u2019s social, emotional, and cognitive development. Children who develop secure attachments show a greater capacity for self-regulation, effective social interactions, self-reliance, and adaptive coping skills later in life...<\/p>\n

Research has shown that infants and toddlers who do not develop secure attachments produce elevated levels of cortisol (a stress hormone), which may alter the developing brain circuits and cause long-term harm. In addition, young children with unhealthy attachments are at much greater risk for delinquency, substance abuse and depression later in life.\"<\/p>\n

Smariga, Visitation with Infants and Toddlers in Foster Care: What Judges and Attorneys Need to Know<\/a><\/em> (July 2007), ABA Center on Children and the Law Practice and Policy Brief, pp. 4, 5, 8, 11, 12.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Healthy development depends on the quality and reliability of a young child\u2019s relationships with the important people in his or her life, both within and outside the family. Even the development of a child\u2019s brain architecture depends on the establishment of these relationships.\"<\/p>\n

National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, Young Children Develop in an Environment of Relationships: Working Paper No. 1<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University, 2004, p. 1.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Because very young children, especially those under three years old, do not function independently, but in relationship to others, the quality of their relationships with biological and substitute caregivers largely determines their physical, social emotional, and cognitive developmental processes.<\/p>\n

Advocates must be aware of and able to assess the quality of very young children\u2019s relationships with parents and caregivers, and use the legal process to support and create nurturing, healthy attachments when none exist.\"<\/p>\n

Maze, Advocating for Very Young Children in Dependency Proceedings: The Hallmarks of Effective, Ethical Representation<\/a><\/em> (October 2010), ABA Center for Children and the Law Practice & Policy Brief, p. 1.\u00a0\u00a0(2.1Mb PDF)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Early Bonding And Attachment Research<\/h3>\n

\"Modern bonding studies trace their roots back to a landmark series of studies \u2018imprinting,\u2019 \u2018bonding,\u2019 and \u2018attachment\u2019 that began during the 1930s. In one of the most famous of these, Konrad Lorenz demonstrated that, during a particular time of early development (a developmental window), young goslings would \u2018imprint\u2019 on cortical structures their impressions of his relationship to them and follow him exactly as if he were their mother. Lorenz also found these results to be generalizable. The goslings would \u2018imprint\u2019 to other animals, including his Labrador retriever, which happened to be present during that specific developmental phase. Thus imprinting, a simple form of infant-to-mother bonding, was demonstrated to be an innate and instinctive process with a specific and predictable developmental window for its occurrence. It was also an essentially unidirectional process.<\/p>\n

John Bowlby was convinced that disruptions in the mother-child relationship led to psychological problems later in life. Another landmark set of studies regarding the fates of British war orphans led him to conclude that infants raised in institutions without stable and continuous relationships with caregiving adults grew up with deficits in cognition, language, attention, and the capacity for durable interpersonal relationships. These findings were incontrovertibly supported by a 30-year follow-up study of 25 children, half of whom were moved to a more nurturing, stable, and interactive environment before the age of 3. Ongoing, caring relationships, stimulation, and human interactions were demonstrated to be essential for healthy development.<\/p>\n

A third extremely influential set of studies carried out by Harry F. Harlow involved infant rhesus monkeys. In these dramatic studies, Harlow separated infant monkeys from their biological mothers and observed their attachment to inanimate surrogate mothers (wire monkey mannequins), demonstrating quite conclusively that in the absence of a living mother (or living mother surrogate), the infant monkeys would become quite attached to the mannequins. In some of the experiments, he attached feeding bottles to some of mannequins and covered others with terrycloth. Although the infant monkeys would go to the uncovered wire mannequins for feeding, they would return to the terrycloth covered mannequins to whom they had already become attached. This behavior demonstrated that the monkeys\u2019 desire for food was not the determining factor in their attachment to the surrogates. Harlow recognized that it would be extremely important to note what happened to these infant monkeys as they developed, especially in the context of John Bowlby\u2019s observations of British war orphans. The findings were similar\u2014both monkeys and humans deprived of adequate mothering grew up to be grossly socially impaired. Again, attachment to an inanimate surrogate mother was unidirectional. The monkey-child was psychologically attached to its wire mother without any reciprocity or nurturing interaction at all. The effects of this deprivation on subsequent social development were disastrous.<\/p>\n

Mary Ainsworth and others carried out another set of studies of human infants during the 1960s and 1970s that supported and extended the work of Bowlby and Harlow. These studies constitute the theoretical and experimental basis for the modern bonding and attachment studies that are most often presented in the context of juvenile and family court litigation. These experiments employed variations of a laboratory paradigm known as the Strange Situation Procedure. In brief, a caregiver and her (or his) 12-to-20-month-old child would sit in a sparsely furnished playroom while a stranger entered and then left. Subsequently, the caregiver would leave and reenter. During the various permutations of presence and absence of caregiver and stranger, the researchers would observe the child for signs of distress, attachment, and exploratory behaviors. Infants were eventually classified into secure, insecure-avoidant, and insecure-resistant categories.\"<\/p>\n

Arredondo and Edwards, Attachment, Bonding, and Reciprocal Connectedness: Limitations of Attachment Theory in the Juvenile and Family Court<\/em><\/a>, Journal of the Center for Families, Children, and the Courts (2000), p. 113.\u00a0See also<\/em> Spitz, Hospitalism \u2013 An Inquiry Into the Genesis of Psychiatric Conditions in Early Childhood<\/a><\/em>, (1945) 1 Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, pp. 53-74 and Hospitalism: A Follow-up Report<\/em>, (1946) Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, pp. 113-117.\u00a0See also<\/em> Bretherton, The Origins of Attachment Theory: John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth<\/a><\/em>, (1992) 28 Developmental Psychology, pp. 759-775.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Beyond the Best Interests of the Child<\/h3>\n

Beyond the Best Interests of the Child <\/em>(1973) was the first major treatise to address children and the law, focusing on the child\u2019s psychological needs. This book was cited by the California Supreme Court in In re B.G. (1974) 11 Cal.3d 679, 692-693, the case that used the psychological parent concept as the basis for de facto parent status and standing.<\/p>\n

The book and its sequel, Before the Best Interests of the Child<\/em> (1979), were authored by Joseph Goldstein, a Yale Law professor also trained as a psychoanalyst, by Anna Freud, a child psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and Sigmund Freud\u2019s granddaughter, and by Albert J. Solnit, Yale professor of pediatrics and psychiatry, and psychoanalyst. Sonja Goldstein, then a Yale Law Professor, joined these authors for the final book In the Best Interests of the Child<\/em>, and the trilogy edition, The Best Interests of the Child: The Least Detrimental Alternative <\/em>(1996). The books have been cited in at least fourteen subsequent Court of Appeal decisions.<\/p>\n

The principles and guidelines espoused in these books became the standard for assessing and deciding contested child placement issues for children already caught up in the legal system, be it a dependency case, a delinquency case, or a child custody dispute.<\/p>\n

Goldstein et al., The Best Interests of the Child: The Least Detrimental Alternative (The Free Press 1996).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Neurobiology Of Attachment<\/h3>\n

The Neurobiology of Attachment and Personality Organization<\/h4>\n

\"A summary overview of the current rapid advances in developmental psychology and brain research offers the following perspective of the early development of the self. It is now clear that psychological and physical health are inextricably intertwined, and that emotional development is the integrating link between mind and body. This interweaving of the mental and the biological realms is present at the very beginnings of human life. But the current explosion of infant research indicates that the human self \u2014 an individual\u2019s defining personality or character, his or her essential psychobiological nature \u2014 is not fully present at birth. The course of a healthy childhood is reflected in the expanding adaptive psychological and biological functions of a developing self. These capacities are, in turn, a product of a child\u2019s maturing brain\/mind\/body systems, and they optimally evolve only in a growth-facilitating environment. This environment provides not only adequate amounts of essential nutrients but, in addition, a range of essential social emotional experiences that also fuel the brain growth spurt of the first two years of life.<\/p>\n

In light of the dual principles that the earliest stages of self are critical to the further growth of the personality, and that nature\u2019s potential can be realized only as it is enabled by nurture, the optimal development of the earliest manifestation of self-potential involves more than just a genetically programmed inborn tendency to organize experiences. It also requires certain types of specifically social emotional experiences that are co-created in a relationship with a caregiver who is attuned to the infant\u2019s internal states and is responsive to the child\u2019s communications of such states. . . . In other words, in an optimal scenario the infant is an active co-participant in a relationship with an emotionally attuned primary caregiver who provides self-maintaining experiences, that is, one who expands opportunities for positive emotion and minimizes states of negative emotion. These experiences occur in affect attunement interactions embedded in infant-mother play interactions, as well as in comforting reattunement transactions that occur after instances of stressful misattunement. Experiencing the joy of being the gleam in the parent\u2019s eye, and of having the secure feeling that one is under the watchful eye of the mother, even when she\u2019s not physically present, supports and nurtures the infant\u2019s burgeoning positive self esteem.<\/p>\n

Over the course of the first year these same attachment experiences directly influence the growth of the infant\u2019s brain, especially the higher areas of the right brain that are involved in reading the emotional faces, voices, and gestures of other humans, in appraising bodily responses to such social stimuli, in regulating resultant emotional states, and in coping with internal and external stress.<\/p>\n

By the end of the second year, the cumulative attachment history with both parents allows for a more complex right brain. This maturational advance now mediates an internal sense of security and resilience that comes from the intuitive knowledge that one can regulate the flows and shifts of one\u2019s emotional states either by one\u2019s own coping capacities or within a relationship with caring others.<\/p>\n

The outcome of a secure attachment is thus a reflection of the optimal development of the higher levels of the right brain, the locus of self functions. This developmental advance in right brain complexity is responsible for empathy, and therefore for that which makes an individual most \u2018human\u2019.\"<\/p>\n

Schore, The Neurobiology of Attachment and Early Personality Organization<\/em> (2002), 16 Journal of Prenatal & Perinatal Psychology and Health, pp. 249-263.\u00a0S<\/em>ee also<\/em> Schore, Effects of a Secure Attachment Relationship on Right Brain Development, Affect Regulation, and Infant Mental Health<\/a><\/em>, (2001) 22 Infant Mental Health Journal 1-2, pp. 1-62.\u00a0See also<\/em> National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development<\/a><\/em> (Shonkoff and Phillips, eds., National Academy Press 2000), Committee on Integrating the Science of Early Childhood Development, Board on Children, Youth and Families, Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, Chapter 14, Conclusions and Recommendations, p. 391.\u00a0See also<\/em> National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, The Timing and Quality of Early Experiences Combine to Shape Brain Architecture: Working Paper No. 5.<\/a><\/em>, Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University, 2007, p.4.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>Abuse And Neglect Impair Attachment<\/h3>\n

Lack of Connectedness Can Retard Emotional Development<\/h4>\n

\"Child development principles inform us that reciprocal connectedness begins with the earliest caregiver child interactions in infancy. As a caregiver responds to a child\u2019s distress with cooing noises, rocking, and feeding, the child develops a reciprocal connection with that caregiver. This is reflected in the eye-to-eye contact and responsiveness of facial expressions in infant and adult (peek-a-boo is a playful testing of this mutual responsivity). This fundamental connectedness makes the world seem predictable and safe. Without this connectedness, the child will not develop normally. Infants who do not form at least some minimal connectedness can become despondent, fail to thrive, or even die.<\/p>\n

These early connections allow a child to feel safe, learn cause and effect, develop judgment, and develop morally. Connectedness is necessary for the healthy cognitive, emotional, and behavioral development of children. \u2018When a child is put in foster care, it\u2019s very possible that we are going to disrupt this fundamental attachment and in consequence then, that we may disrupt this child\u2019s fundamental need-to-be-near that person who makes the world seem safe. Putting a child in foster care can be damaging, in and of itself because of its disrupting the basic developmental process.\u2019 This may result in a child\u2019s lack of ability to feel empathy for herself and others. This empathy for others is the basis of moral development. The effects of breaking this connectedness manifest in several ways and may have long term repercussions caused by developmental delays affecting a child\u2019s moral, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral development.<\/p>\n

The child\u2019s emotional development can also be retarded and may even regress under the stress of removal from her family. The overwhelming emotional distress caused by the family\u2019s breakup can overwhelm a child\u2019s coping strategies leading to maladaptive behaviors and ruminations of self-hatred and self-destructiveness. Since children\u2019s coping strategies have a more narrow range than those of adults, removal can lead to behaviors that in older children can manifest as acting out anti-socially or self-destructively.<\/p>\n

Behavioral development may also suffer as a result of removing a child from her parents. Children who experience such a loss go through the same stages of grief \u2013 denial, bargaining, anger, depression, and resolution \u2013 as if someone had died. \u2018We don\u2019t recognize grief in children... Children grieve differently and grieve longer.\u2019 ...<\/p>\n

Children of all ages suffer the effects of traumatic separation. Even adolescents are affected, though they often deny it. Nevertheless, it is often manifested by their behavior, their affect, and their strained interpersonal relations with others, including surrogate authority.\"<\/p>\n

Edwards, Judicial Oversight of Parental Visitation in Family Reunification Cases<\/em><\/a>, Juvenile and Family Court Journal, Summer 2003, p. 3.\u00a0See also<\/em> Putnam, The Developmental Neurobiology of Disrupted Attachment: Lessons from Animal Models and Child Abuse Research<\/a><\/em>, in Enhancing Early Attachments: Theory, Research, Intervention, and Policy (Berlin et al., eds., Guilford Press 2007), pp. 79-99.<\/p>\n

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The Effects of Deprivation During Time Sensitive Brain Development Begin In Utero and Continue Into the Twenties<\/h4>\n

\"As we noted earlier, the brain evolved from the inside out, and it develops in much the same order. The lowest, most primitive region \u2014 the brainstem \u2014 completes much of its development in utero and in early infancy. The midbrain and limbic systems develop next, elaborating themselves exuberantly over the first three years of life. Parents of teenagers won\u2019t be surprised to learn that the frontal lobes of the cortex, which regulate planning self-control, and abstract thought, do not complete their development until late in adolescence, showing significant reorganization into the early twenties.<\/p>\n

The fact that the brain develops sequentially \u2014 and also so rapidly in the first years of life \u2014 explains why extremely young children are at such great risk of suffering lasting effects of trauma: their brains are still developing. The same miraculous plasticity that allows young brains to quickly learn love and language, unfortunately, also makes them highly susceptible to negative experiences as well. Just as fetuses are especially vulnerable to particular toxins depending on the trimester of pregnancy in which they are exposed, so are children vulnerable to the lasting effects of trauma, depending on when it occurs. As a result different symptoms may result from trauma experienced at different times. For example, a toddler with no language to describe the painful and repetitive sexual abuse he experiences may develop a complete aversion to being touched, wide-ranging problems with intimacy and relationships and pervasive anxiety. But a ten-year-old who is subjected to virtually identical abuse is more likely to develop specific, event-related fears and to work deliberately to avoid particular cues associated with the place, person and manner of abuse. Her anxiety will wax and wane with exposure to reminders of the molestation. Further, an older child will probably have associated feelings of shame and guilt-complex emotions mediated by the cortex. That region is far less developed in the toddler, therefore related symptoms are less likely if abuse begins and ends earlier in life.<\/p>\n

At any age, however, when people are faced with a frightening situation their brains begin to shut down their highest cortical regions first. We lose the capacity to plan, or to feel hunger, because neither are of any use to our immediate survival. Often we lose the ability to \"think\" or even speak during an acute threat. We just react. And with prolonged fear there can be chronic or near-permanent changes in the brain. The brain alterations that result from lingering terror, especially early in life, may cause an enduring shift to a more impulsive, more aggressive, less thoughtful and less compassionate way of responding to the world.<\/p>\n

This is because systems in the brain change in a \u2018use-dependent way,\u2019 as we noted earlier. Just like a muscle, the more a brain system like the stress response network gets \u2018exercised,\u2019 the more it changes and the more risk there is of altered functioning. At the same time, the less the cortical regions, which usually control and modulate stress, are used, the smaller and weaker they get...<\/p>\n

Such use-dependent changes in the relative power of different brain systems \u2013 just like the use-dependent templates one forms in one\u2019s memory about what the world is like \u2013 are critical determinants of human behavior...<\/p>\n

A foundational principle of brain development is that neural systems organize and become functional in a sequential manner. Furthermore, the organization of a less mature region depends, in part, upon incoming signals from lower, more mature regions. If one system doesn\u2019t get what it needs when it needs it, those that rely upon it may not function well either, even if the stimuli that the later developing system needs are being provided appropriately. The key to healthy development is getting the right experiences in the right amounts at the right time.\"<\/p>\n

Perry and Szalavitz, The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog: and Other Stories From a Child Psychiatrist\u2019s Notebook, (Basic Books, 2006) pp. 64-67, 70.\u00a0See also<\/em> Perry, Aggression and Violence: The Neurobiology of Experience<\/a><\/em>.\u00a0See also<\/em> Szalavitz and Perry, Born for Love: Why Empathy is Essential \u2013 and Endangered<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>(HarperCollins 2010), pp. 310-311.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Attachment And The Child Welfare System<\/h3>\n

Attachment Challenges for Children in the Child Welfare System<\/h4>\n

\"When children are removed from their homes due to maltreatment or neglect, the legal system attempts to provide a safe environment while simultaneously developing a service plan for the child to return home. During the time that the children are apart from their parents their attachment to their caregiver may be impaired while, in some cases, the child begins to form a secure attachment to the new caregivers...<\/p>\n

Because of its lasting impact on children\u2019s ability to form healthy relationships throughout life, the importance of secure relationship with caregivers cannot be overestimated.<\/p>\n

Permanency decisions must take into consideration what is arguably the most significant psychological variable impacting a child\u2019s development: a secure attachment to a sensitive, responsible, and reliable caregiver.\"<\/p>\n

Goldsmith et al., Separation and Reunification: Using Attachment Theory and Research to Inform Decisions Affecting the Placements of Children in Foster Care<\/a><\/em>, Juvenile and Family Court Journal, Spring 2004.<\/p>\n

<\/h4>\n

Infants in Foster Care are at Particular Risk for Attachment Disorder and Lifelong Damage<\/h4>\n

\"Multiple foster care placements present a host of traumas for very young children. When a baby faces a change in placement fragile new relationships with foster parents are severed, reinforcing feelings of abandonment and distrust.<\/p>\n

Babies grieve when their relationships are disrupted and this sadness adversely affects their development...<\/p>\n

We know from the science of early childhood development that early relationships and attachments to a primary caregiver are the most consistent and enduring influence of social and emotional development for young children. Infants and toddlers who are able to develop secure attachments are observed to be more mature and positive in their interactions with adults and peers than children who lack secure attachments. . . . Those who do not have an opportunity to form a secure attachment with a trusted adult suffer grave consequences. Their development can deteriorate resulting in delays in cognition and learning, relationship dysfunction, difficulty expressing emotions, and future mental health disorders.\"<\/p>\n

Zero to Three Policy Center Fact Sheet, Restructuring the Federal Child Welfare System: Assuring the Safety, Permanence and Well-Being of Infants and Toddlers in the Child Welfare System<\/a><\/em>, January 2007, pp. 5, 8.\u00a0See also<\/em> Perry, Children and Loss<\/em><\/a>, ChildTrauma Academy. (An overview of the reference from Google Books)<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Multiple Placements Impact and Impair Healthy Development and Attachment<\/h4>\n

\"Separation from parents, sometimes sudden and usually traumatic, coupled with the difficult experiences that have precipitated placement, can leave infants and toddlers dramatically impaired in their emotional, social, educational, and physical development. Multiple foster care placements present a host of other traumas for very young children. When a baby faces a change in placement, fragile new relationships with foster parents are severed, reinforcing feelings of abandonment and distrust.<\/p>\n

Even young babies are capable of grief when their relationships are disrupted, and this sadness adversely affects their development. Early secure attachments with a stable primary caregiver play a central role in a young child\u2019s social, emotional, and cognitive development. Children who have experienced abuse or neglect have an even greater need for sensitive, caring, and stable relationships.<\/p>\n

Placement decisions should focus on promoting security and continuity for infants and toddlers in out-of-home care...<\/p>\n

There are several strategies that can help prevent multiple placements. However, these recommendations may involve a change in the operations of the local child welfare system.<\/p>\n