Pre-Approval Training

in foster care

Workbook

Session 2

Making links between childhood experiences, development and behaviour

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Contents

Contents

Programme

Using this workbook and the website

Build a child exercise

Separation and loss

The Okayness Exercise

Characteristics of Attachment

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Programme

Pre-Approval training in foster care

Making links between childhood experiences, development and behaviour

(Session 2)

Aims:

Think about the links between childhood experience, development and behaviour

Consider the importance of attachment

Explore issues of separation and loss in fostering children and young people

9.15 / Refreshments
9.30 / Welcome back
9.40 / Links between childhood experiences, development stage and behaviour
Building a child
Demonstration and discussion
10.25 / Case Study - Joshua
10.45 / Break
11.00 / Separation and Loss
11.30 / The ‘Okayness’ exercise
12.00 / Learning how to love
Presentation and discussion
12.30 / Lunch

Using this workbook and the website

This workbook and the website are designed to support your learning and reflection both during and after the course. You will find some exercises that we will do during the course and some for you to look at after the course and then discuss with your supervising social worker.

You will find that you do not need to write a lot down unless you want to. However, we suggest that you do complete the exercise sheets and assessment quizzes either during the course or later. If you complete this, you will be able to use the workbook as evidence that you have understood and used the course content:

for your application to become a foster carer

Later on, when you are approved as a foster carer, you will also be able to use it as evidence towards:

your Training Support and Development Standards for Foster Care Certificate

your annual review

your Levels portfolio

to attain an NVQ/BTEC qualification


Build a child exercise

Joshua – case study

Joshua is five. He has been in and out of foster care since he was two because of repeated episodes of neglect by his mother and physical abuse by several of her boyfriends. In his current foster home there is an infant and two toddlers. Occasionally, the foster mum finds Joshua sitting under the desk, rocking and sucking on a baby bottle he has taken from a younger child.

At bedtime Joshua rocks himself in the bed until he falls asleep. He continually grabs the toddlers’ toys from them and seems to prefer playing with such toys rather than with toys more appropriate to his age. Sometimes he speaks very clearly; at other times he uses ‘baby talk’.

Separation and loss

What are common feelings for adults when they experience a significant loss?

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The Okayness Exercise

Thoughts about Self
Thoughts about others / OK / Not OK
OK
Not OK

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Characteristics of Attachment

‘An attachment is a bond or tie between an individual and an attachment figure’ (Prior and Glaser, 2006. p 15)

Bowlby (1969, 1973, 1980) suggested that there are four defining features of the attachment bond:

Secure attachment

  • proximity maintenance (wanting to be physically close to the attachment figure)
  • separation distress (separation from the caregiver causes upset and distress to the child)
  • safe haven (retreating to the caregiver when sensing danger)
  • secure base (the provision of a secure and dependable base for the child to explore the world)

It is from this secure base that the child gains the confidence to gradually explore the wider environment, knowing that the attachment figure is still available for protection and security. This requires what is described as ‘contingent responsiveness’ - the ‘sensitive-enough mother’ who understands when the infant is becoming anxious or experiencing danger and provides reassurance through responsiveness (Ainsworth et al, 1986)

Insecure attachment

Some parents may:

Chronically over stimulate their child

Be inconsistent with responsiveness

Neglect their children’s needs

Avoidant attachment pattern

The child expresses an emotional need such as physical closeness. The parent(s) experiences difficulty in responding and withdraws (Golding, 2008)

The mother is perceived as less sensitive, or neglectful, of the emotional needs of the child, displaying what is termed ‘rejection syndrome’ (Geddes, 2008)

The child becomes conscious of the mothers withdrawal behaviour and tries to prevent its re-occurrence through passive and withdrawn behaviour with minimal display of any emotional distress (Heard, 1987)

During childhood, the child becomes increasingly self-reliant and independent, because he/she has experienced their parents as resentful, rejecting. This fear of rejection creates an inner-struggle for the child between the desire for and the dread of physical acceptance (Hopkins, 1987)

Ambivalent-resistant pattern

Emerges when parents are inconsistent and insensitive to the child’s needs

The child tries to compensate for the unpredictability of the parents by maximising their use of attachment behaviour, such as clinginess and, crying being over-demanding.

Some of these children will become extremely distressed at the absence of the primary caregiver(s), but will behave ambivalently on the reunion by a combination of seeking contact and interaction, but rejecting it when it is offered The child can quickly fluctuate from anger and resistance to total clinginess and dependence (Ding & Littleton, 2005)

Disorganised and/or disorientated pattern

The infants concerned show undirected movements and seem confused or apprehensive about approaching their parents (Main and Solomon, 1990)

Can be associated with neglect or feeling fearful of the parent Golding, 2008)

As a consequence, the child becomes confused - child is naturally drawn to want comfort from the actual source of the fear. Hence, the infant may move towards the mother but keep their eye-gaze averted and express unexpected and unrelated emotions (Bee, 1992)

It has been claimed that 80% of children with disorganised attachments have been maltreated, and as such have an inability to use caregivers for soothing (Burnell and Archer, 2003)

A minority will suffer from significant mental health problems, - Reactive Attachment Disorder (Van Spedoorn & Bakermans-Kranenburg, 2003)

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