The Development of an Assessment Protocol for Reactive Attachment Disorder

Abstract

Attachment is a critical issue among children in foster and adoptive settings. It is essential for mental health counselors who work with these children to develop appropriate appraisal skills for diagnosing Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD), a syndrome associated with extreme attachment problems. However, there is no comprehensive procedure to assess a child for RAD.Thus, we propose a battery of semi-structured interviews, global assessment scales, attachment-specific scales, and behavioral observations to help mental health counselors identify the disorder. We provide a case example to illustrate the utility of each assessment process.