2. Attachment is…
Pattern of attachment
•(Relationship)
Pattern of processing information
•(Transformations of information)
A strategy for identifying and responding
to danger
•(Mental and behavioral strategies)
(International Association for the Study of
Attachment - http://www.iasa-dmm.org/index.php/about-attachment/School-Age-Assessment-
Attachment/)
3. Attachment Assessments
Strange Situation: infancy
Preschool Assessment of Attachment (PAA): 2-5 y
School-Age Assessment of Attachment (SAA): 6-13 y
Transition to Adulthood Att. Interview (TAAI): 16-25 y
Adult Attachment Interview: adulthood
(Parents Interview)
•DMM - https://www.ranzcp.org/Files/ranzcp-attachments/Resources/Conference-
presentations/FCAP-2012-Landini-2.aspx
4. Dynamic Maturational Model
Memory systems involved in attachment,
learning and behaviour:
•Procedural Memory (Knowing how)
•Imaged Memory (Knowing where)
•Semantic Memory (Knowing that)
•Connotative Language (Knowing in what way)
•Episodic Memory (Knowing what happened)
•Integrative reflection (Understanding)
5. What we can do?
Lead practice so that:
•Nurturing relationships promote children’s learning and
behaviour particularly for vulnerable or high-risk children
and helps to satisfy children’s innate need to have a ‘sense
of belonging’
•Support practitioners to be secondary attachment figures
who can help to reshape the insecure IWM of the child to a
more secure IWM
•Be child-centred and acknowledge one size does not fit
all – in the same way we create additional infrastructures
for children with physical impairments, we need to do the
same for children with emotional and behavioural
impairments
7. Attachment relationships – how we can lead
practice in schools
• “Attachment influences students’ school success. This is true of
students’ attachment to their parents, as well as to their teachers.
Secure attachment is associated with higher grades and
standardized test scores compared to insecure attachment. Secure
attachment is also associated with greater emotional regulation,
social competence, and willingness to take on challenges, and with
lower levels of ADHD and delinquency, each of which in turn is
associated with higher achievement” (Bergin and Bergin, 2009)
• “Emotional well-being must be a larger part of any learning, and by
association, the educational agenda…. Schools may be the optimum
sites for buffering the impact of stress, building resilience and
enhancing individual capacities for learning” (Nagel, 2009)
• ‘Teaching is a social, interpersonal, attachment-based endeavour’
(Conzolino, 2013)
8. Interestingly…..
•Dr Geoff Taggart at Reading University has
highlighted how leadership styles can be affected by
attachment styles
•For example, leaders who have avoidant
attachment styles often depend on achievement for
their self-esteem which invariably leads to stress-
related ‘burn out’
•Research into leadership and attachment styles
found that ‘secure-base’ leadership did not lead to
burn out, with leaders maintaining a healthy balance
of stress and other hormones in their system
(Kohlrieser 2012)
8
Attachment and Leadership
9. 1. What are the links between attachment
and educational attainment?
2. What does your school do to help pupils:
– promote emotional resilience?
– enhance individual capacities for learning?
– develop nurturing relationships?
– manage transitions?
1. Are schools currently fulfilling their public
duty to support the needs of all children?
9
Pause for thought
10. 1. What are the links between attachment
and educational attainment?
2. What does your school do to help pupils:
– promote emotional resilience?
– enhance individual capacities for learning?
– develop nurturing relationships?
– manage transitions?
1. Are schools currently fulfilling their public
duty to support the needs of all children?
9
Pause for thought
