Attachment & Sensory
Processing

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From the beginning of our lives, we seek connection, beginning with our primary caregiver. Healthy development relies on early nurturing to feel secure. These first relationships shape all others.

Factors contributing to disruption

  • Sensory processing challenges
  • Child’s medical conditions or developmental delays
  • Caregiver’s medical issues or trauma history
  • In utero trauma or birth complications
  • Adoption or foster care separation
  • Surrogate birthing
  • Extended separation after birth (e.g., NICU stay)
  • Economic hardship leading to neglect
  • Childhood abuse or witnessing trauma at home

Attachment profiles

  • Secure attachment: A balanced bond where the caregiver supports exploration while maintaining emotional and physical safety through boundaries
  • Ambivalent-insecure attachment: The child feels uncertain about receiving consistent care, leading to clinginess and a lack of need for independence
  • Avoidant-insecure attachment: The child distances themselves from relationships, prioritizing independence over connection, often without fully developing the necessary skills to be independent
  • Disorganized-insecure attachment: The child shows inconsistent behaviors, from frustration to impulsivity or rage, often due to confusion or unresolved sensory and emotional conflict.

Examples of attachment disorders

  • Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD): A rare condition where a child fails to form emotional bonds with caregivers.
  • Disinhibited Social Engagement Disorder (DSED): When a child is excessively friendly or familiar with strangers.

Signs of attachment difficulties

  • Trouble managing or expressing emotions
  • Persistent sadness, irritability, or fear
  • Unexplained withdrawal
  • Hard to console
  • Difficulty trusting or forming relationships
  • Overly friendly or unaware of social boundaries

Our Evaluation Focuses on

  • Trauma-informed care principles
  • Sensory processing impact on parent-child relationships
  • Gross and fine motor development
  • Attachment profiles
  • Parent-child interaction
  • Social-emotional assessments
  • Effects of developmental delays on executive and academic performance

Our Intervention Program Includes

  • Caregiver-child interaction through co-regulation support
  • Stress relief strategies for both caregiver and child
  • Home environment support strategies
  • Collaborative DIR®/Floortime® sessions with therapist, caregiver and child
  • Require access to the mental health counselor of family
  • Sensory integration, reflex integration and socio-emotional functioning
  • A 3-tier developmental journey, focusing on foundational skills, then organizational skills, followed by executive and academic development

Children facing attachment difficulties often rely on sensory modulation strategies to protect themselves from emotional insecurity. This is an important factor to consider when planning their intervention journey. As occupational and speech language therapists, we don’t diagnose, but we carefully integrate these sensory profiles into our approach, working alongside the family to support their unique needs.

Are you ready to learn more about our unique and specialized approach? Schedule a First Consultation today!

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Testimonials

Parent

Our days are clearer since we started coming to ATA. There is a new found feeling of hope and understanding in our family. My kids love coming here and I believe ATA gives all of the children the tools they need to reach their fullest potential. They identify the cause/causes of why things are the way they are and then there is a plan. Our plan involved Tomatis.
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Thankful mom

We adopted our twin boys at 6 mos old. They were born premature at 3lbs and 5 lbs in a foreign country. They went directly to a foster family after delivery. No NICU. No hospital stay. Despite being so tiny, they seemed to develop well.

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