Reactive Attachment Disorder Case Study

Neurofeedback Training for Reactive Attachment Disorder Reactive attachment disorder typically involves infants and children in their early childhood years. The disorder is generally in response to the lack of interactions and bonding that should occur in the infancy and early childhood stages of a child’s life (American Psychiatric Association, 2013, p 265). The child experiences social neglect and is deprived of the initial and ongoing bonding that occurs by having their basic emotional and physical needs met. As a result, the disorder is related to the absence of comfort seeking and responding (American Psychiatric Association, 2013, p 266). Babies cry in order to get comfort responses from the caregiver. Even if the need is met, if the …show more content…
This will also be the case if children are cared for in settings where there is a high child to staff ratio, resulting in less individual attention and interaction. This can result in the child having underdeveloped or absolutely no attachment to an adult caregiver. In order to receive a diagnosis of reactive attachment disorder a child must be at least 9 months old and it must be identified before the age of 5 (American Psychiatric Association, 2013, p 266). Children with reactive attachment disorder are not likely to seek or respond to comfort when they are upset. Their behaviors have limited positive affect and they are limited in the social and emotional responsiveness to others. Reactive attachment disorder is also characterized by possible episodes of sadness, fear, irritability or even anger that occur in nonthreatening situations with adult caregivers (American Psychiatric Association, 2013, p 265). During positive interactions with caregivers, children diagnosed with reactive attachment disorder have a difficult time expressing positive emotions. It is believed that children who suffer from this disorder may be able to make selective attachments with