Attachment and the Adopted Child By Robin Hilborn First edition, 2006 $12 / ISBN 0-9733470-7-4

Attachment and the Adopted Child (#48) is also available at a discount ($9) when you order four or more titles from the Family Helper series. See the form at Family Helper, and choose the editions you'd like to order.

Activities to facilitate attachment

Children who are adopted after the age of 6 months or so are at risk for attachment problems. Normal attachment develops during the child's first two years of life. Problems with the parent-child relationship during that time, or breaks in the consistent caregiver-child relationship, prevent normal attachment. The severity of attachment disorder seems to depend on the number of breaks in the bonding cycle and the extent of the child's emotional vulnerability.

Emotional vulnerability can be affected by such factors as: genetic factors; prenatal development including maternal drinking and drug abuse; pre-natal nutrition and stress; Fetal Alcohol Syndrome; temperament; and birth parent history of mental illness (schizophrenia, manic depressive illness, etc.). One thing is certain: if an infant's needs are not met consistently in a loving, nurturing way, attachment will not occur normally.

Touching, rocking, eye contact, movement and physical closeness all will facilitate developmental attachment. Any activity that encourages reciprocity (such as pat-a-cake) and emotional attunement is helpful.

1. Peek-a-boo with hands, blanket, hood of jacket, from behind a door.
2. This little piggy went to market with fingers or toes.
3. Comb the child's hair facing each other while commenting on color, texture, shape, and form.
4. Washing child's face, bathing child.
5. Lullaby singing. Cradle your child so that eye contact is maintained while you gently rock child and sing. Be sure to put child's name and descriptions of the child's features into the song whenever possible.
6. Push that Button. Gently press on the child's nose, ear, finger, toe, chin, etc. and make a noise such as "honk", "beep", or "toot." Then have child copy your actions.
7. Blow raspberries on child's arm, leg, belly, cheek.
8. "Pop" cheeks. Fill your mouth with air and gently guide your child's hands to your cheeks to pop out the air and make a sound. Then do the same to the child.
9. Singing and rhyming couple with movement. Bouncing, dancing, rocking, moving arms or legs, fingers, etc. Simon Says games.
10. Rubbing lotion onto child's hands, feet, arms, or legs.
11. Playing with clay or shaving cream together to make shapes.
12. Tower of hands: alternate hands and then move bottom hand to top of pile.
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Dr. Art Becker-Weidman, CSW-R, PhD, DABPS is director of Center for Family Development in Williamsville NY, www.center4familydevelop.com. He may be reached at AWeidman@AWeidman.cnc.net.

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