What makes attachment so crucial for foster children, and how can carers build connection with young people who seem determined to push them away? In this illuminating conversation, clinical psychologist Colby reveals the profound impact of attachment on every aspect of child development.
Attachment isn't just about emotional bonding—it shapes how children explore their world, develop reading skills, and even their motor development. For children in foster care, who typically have disorganized attachment styles resulting from frightening or harmful parenting experiences, building secure attachment presents unique challenges. Yet understanding these challenges opens the door to powerful solutions.
Colby introduces the AURA framework—Accessible, Understanding, Responsive, and Attuned care—as a guide for creating healing relationships. When children experience adults as consistently present, understanding their experiences, responsive to their needs, and attuned to their emotional states, they gradually develop the sense that they are worthy of care and that adults can be trusted.
For young people who seem to reject connection, Colby offers a counterintuitive but effective approach: lower the dose. Brief check-ins, simple acknowledgments of their experience ("You look like you had a tough day"), and providing things they enjoy without making a fuss can communicate care without triggering defensive responses. Remarkably, research suggests that as little as five minutes of daily interactive play—like a game of Uno—can significantly improve attachment relationships.
The conversation explores how shame operates in traumatized children and how carers can respond to challenging behaviours in ways that promote healing rather than reinforcing negative self-perceptions. Children see themselves as they experience adults seeing them—the "looking glass self" concept—making it crucial for carers to recognize progress, however small.
Whether you're caring for a child with attachment difficulties or simply interested in the profound influence of early relationships, this discussion offers practical wisdom for nurturing connection and helping young people develop the self-worth that underpins a functional, happy life.
