Children with Rad

MAKING A RADICAL DIFFERENCE: CHILDREN WITH RAD 3

MAKING A RADICAL DIFFERENCE: CHILDREN WITH REACTIVE ATTACHMENT DISORDER

There is a new group of children that have emerged on the scene that have become most noticeable in the school systems within the last 20 years. It is as though they are obsessed and are alien to any imaginable image of children we have ever known. Shaw and Paez describe these children as “disrespectful, argumentative toward authority figures, appear to have no empathy, lack academic motivation, have severe attention problems, have violent emotional outbursts, do not bond with teachers or form close attachments with friends, typically do not respond well to counseling, and have behaviors that seem resistant to the best behavior management programs” (Shaw & Paez, 2007, p. 69). These troublesome behaviors are consistent with reactive attachment disorder (RAD), a fairly new theory that has only begun to gain substantial recognition from the psychoanalytic community within the last 30 years. Hornor relates that “it was not until 1980 that clinical disorders of attachment first appeared in official psychiatric manuals, with the publication of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)” (Hornor, 2008, p.234). John Bowlby’s attachment theory was established in the 1960s and serves as a strong starting point for understanding reactive attachment disorder. Though psychologists continue to use Bowlby’s theory as a basis for research in carefully examining the causes and treatment for reactive attachment disorder, RAD remains one of the most complex and misunderstood childhood psychiatric illnesses.

Though any mental disorder is difficult and unfortunate to deal with, attachment disorder is heartbreaking due to the nature of its origin. Hornor defines Reactive Attachment Disorder

MAKING A RADICAL DIFFERENCE: CHILDREN WITH RAD...