Attachment and Neuroscience, understanding the problem.

Strategies to support pupils with attachment difficulties

Lady Lumley’s School September 2015

Aims for today:

• For staff to have an understanding of the affects of early experience on the developing brain (in relation to attachment difficulties)

• For staff to be confident in the strategies they are using (and know where to find more information/support)

Brain development: Some Key Principles

• Neural development is dependent on neural activity, which is mediated by experience.

• Cognitive activity shapes the neural networks that facilitate it in the first place.

• Nature and nurture.• Neuroplasicity continues much longer than

we realise• There is a major re-structuring of the brain in

adolescence

Your complex processing machine!

Multifinality and equifinality

Children with Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD)….

….believe they are truly awful and unlovable deep down. They have low self-esteem, poor self-confidence and self-image. They can behave in a way that forces adults to criticize and reject them and this confirms the belief that they, the child, are unworthy and undeserving after all. RAD children and their families need a great deal of regular specialized long term help and support in order that the child can begin to trust and develop positive relationships, learn some self-discipline, self control and begin to take responsibility for their actions and develop cause and effect thinking.

Reactive Attachment Difficulty (RAD)

Deep inside the RAD child is highly anxious, unhappy and desperate to survive in what seems to them a very unsafe and hostile world. They manipulate their world to control, as if they don’t have control they believe they will not survive. It is a very long and slow process to change this.

Reptilian brain:

Breathing

Heart

Digestion

Fear/stress response

Some basic sensory systems

Mammalian brain:

Rage

Fear

Separation distress

Caring + nurturing

Social bonding

Playfulness

Explorative urge

Rational brain:

Creativity + imagination

Problem - solving

Reasoning + reflection

Self-awareness

Kindness, empathy and concern

Executive Skills and Brain Development

The pre-frontal lobes develop very quickly in the first two years of life

• Children who experience trauma, disruption neglect, or unresponsive parenting in the early years are likely to have underdeveloped pre-frontal lobes.

• Low density and weight of this area• Fewer neural pathways• Less strong neural strength of pathwaysThe good news is that the pre-frontal lobes keep developing all your life – so consistent , good care/management can lead to good outcomes

Role of the pre-frontal lobes

• Executive functions • Vital link between the mammelian limbic

system (emotions) and the human/rational neo-cortex (cognitive skills)

• Decisions about how to react to a situation• Planning complex actions over time• Regulation of emotional states

Some functions of the middle Prefrontal lobes (1)

• Bodily Regulation - integration of autonomic activity in the body with cortical activity (thinking skills used to apply brakes or accelerator)

• Attuned communication - reading signals from others and responding to them

• Emotional Balance – monitor and inhibit firing in the limbic area

• Response flexibility – pausing before acting, considering outcomes of actions before deciding to act

Some functions of the middle Prefrontal lobes (2)

• Empathy – interpreting of feeling states of others and setting up resonance circuit so you experience the same feeling state

• Self-knowing awareness – calling up autobiographical memories and linking these with feeling states

• Fear moderation – release of neurotransmitter GABA into limbic area to calm fear messages (in the amygdala)

So what do we do when a pupil has RAD ???

• Don’t panic• Get informed• Don’t take their challenging behaviour

personally• Get help when you need it• Act as support for each other

References• Broderick, P. & Blewitt, P. (2014). The Life Span: Human Development for Helping

Professionals (4th Edition). USA:Pearson.• Doom, J.R. & Gunnar, M,R.(2013). Stress Physiology and Developmental Psychopathology:

Past, Present and Future. Developmental Psychopathology, 25(4 Pt2),1359-73.• Karmiloff-Smith, A. (2012). From Constructivism to Neuroconstructivism: Activity-

Dependent Structuring of the Human Brain. In Marti, E. & Rodriguez, C. (Eds.) After Piaget. (pp.1-14). USA:Transaction Publishers.

• Lupien, S.J., McEwen, B.S., Gunnar, M.R., & Heim, C. (2009). Effects of Stress Throughout the Lifespan on the Brain, Behaviour and Cognition. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 10(6), 433-445.

• Pianta, R. & Walsh, D. (1996). High-Risk Children in Schools: Constructing Sustaining Relationships. New York: Routledge.

• Scher, A., Hall, W.A., Zaidman-Zait, A. & Weinberg, J.(2010). Sleep Quality, Cortisol Levels and Behavioural Regulation in Toddlers. Developmental Psychobiology, 52(1), 44-53.

• Wenzel, A.J & Gunnar, M.R (2013). Protective Role of Executive Function Skills in High-Risk Environments. Encyclopedia of Childhood Development, pp.1-7.