Symptoms of Reactive Attachment

Gregory Keck, PhD Attachment Therapist & Adoption Expert, explains what the symptoms of reactive attachment disorder are and how it is best treated in children
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Symptoms of Reactive Attachment

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Children who have Reactive Attachment Disorder bring a lot of interesting things into families. They have never learned to trust that an adult will keep care of them properly, and take care of them, and keep them safe. And the symptoms that we hear about a lot are stealing all kinds of things that they really don't need to steal, hiding food, hoarding food, eating excessively, primarily due to the early deprivation of food that they've had. They have this underlying fear that there's not going to be food so they have to save as much as they can. They engage in a very specific kind of lying that's called primary process lying which are very obvious lies, crazy lies parent would say. The child might say, “I didn't spill the milk” when the parent was standing right next to them and saw that he or she did spill the milk. So the kinds of things that are demonstrating their control issues and families find it very difficult because when they want to bring a child into their home they almost assume that the child will be glad to be there, and get settled in, and now have a permanent home, and these things will go away. And I think they will go away at some point in time, but parents shouldn't expect that to happen quickly because their history is so heavy for them that they tend to live in this very repetitive way and do the same things day after day after day that are not productive for them. But with ongoing care and nurturing and an appropriate intervention from therapists these children can thrive and grow and heal, but the family's going to need to provide a lot of support and stability, and hang in there with them through some of the very difficult struggles.

Gregory Keck, PhD Attachment Therapist & Adoption Expert, explains what the symptoms of reactive attachment disorder are and how it is best treated in children

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Gregory Keck, PhD

Founder & Director, Attachment & Bonding Center of Ohio

Gregory C. Keck, Ph.D., is the founder and director of the Attachment & Bonding Center of Ohio. He is an internationally known psychologist and trainer who addresses the issues of trauma, adoption, and post-adoption challenges. He and his staff provide attachment therapy for adoptive families whose children have experienced serious early childhood maltreatment prior to adoption. In 2012, he received the National Association of Social Workers State of Ohio Lifetime Achievement Award. He is the parent of two sons who were adopted in adolescence.

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