A recent article called Working with Children with Attachment Issues by Linda Ranson Jacobs gives insight into some kinds of poor child behavior.

Here is how Linda describes the essence of the problem:

A new report was just released by Princeton University that stated approximately 40 percent of children in the U.S. lack strong emotional bonds in their lives. A child’s primary attachments will form with their parents and begin very early in life. However, there are different levels of attachment that kids can form. In the absence of appropriate emotional bonds with their parents, many of these children can still bond with an alternate caregiver such as a grandparent, childcare staff or caring baby sitters. These “secondary bonds” allow these kids to move forward with only minimal attachment issues.

She continues with information about why this issue is so important.

“If children don’t form emotional bonds and connect with their primary care givers as infants, they will more than likely face behavior issues such as aggressiveness and defiance as children and hyperactivity as teens and adults.”

The full article

Working With Children With Attachment Issues by Linda Ranson Jacobs

tells many reasons for attachment issues. Also included are signs of this problem in children and ways to help.

Most of all, Linda tells us at the end what you can do to help any such deprived children to attach. She even goes so far as to resort to suggesting to attach to things. She wants us to understand that “attachment” is that important.

As with all positive interactions for children, the sooner the better; but as with help for all people “It is never too late to lend a hand.”

• A complete copy of the Princeton report can be downloaded at http://www.suttontrust.com/our-work/research/download/265.

Linda Ranson Jacobs is one of the forefront leaders in the area of children and divorce. 

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