Show 20: Excerpt - Attachment & Bonding, Plus Extra Clips

FORMING STRONG BONDS with parents early in infancy is important for a child's healthy emotional development. But when there isn't enough love or a strong relationship early in a child's life it can lead to attachment disorders, complicating the ability to have healthy relationships later in life. Alaska Attachment and Bonding Associates is an organization that offers education and resources for parents living with kids who have attachment issues.

KTD Contributor Jessica Cochran reports.

This story was originally featured in  Show 20: Love & Family Relationships.

• Attach.org - an international organization of parents and providers trying to raise awareness of the importance of attachment. Some members may use or have used in the past methods that some find inappropriate. (See next link)
• ChildrenInTherapy.org is an advocacy group for children that DOES NOT support attachment therapy.
• Fascinating story about an adoptive family who used some controversial methods with their son.
• Understanding the Behavioral and Emotional Consequences of Child Abuse
• A major study of the consequences of adverse childhood experiences.

*Web Extras - Tom Lytle is a masters-level therapist working in Wasilla. He works with children, families and adults on behavioral and mental health issues and he’s seen what happens when young children don’t bond with their caregiver.

Below are two additional clips from his interview with Jessica Cochran for this story:

1) "Agressive" - Lytel describes some of the strategies he teaches parents who are dealing with aggressive, threatening kids who have reactive attachment disorder.

2) "Holding" - Lytle talks about the first wave of attachment therapy theory used with kids who were thought to have reactive attachment disorder. It included forced holding, re-birthing and other methods now considered harmful.