ABOUT ATTACHMENT DISORDER
From http://www.attachment-disorder.net/main.php?lang=nl
By Dr. Niels Peter Rygaard

Dear Reader

As a psychologist, I have worked for more than 20 years with children, their families and their environment experiencing attachment problems. My third - book has been especially designed to answer questions and give advice about how to cope with children suffering from severe attachment disorder (AD, or RAD, Reactive Attachment Disorder).

If you are a foster parent, adoptive parent or a professional (teacher, pedagogue, nurse, doctor, psychologist), meeting the AD child for the first time, this book is easy to read, and the very practical advices have been tested and refined in everyday life. You will be taken through theory first in order to understand what AD is all about, and then you can pick designs relevant for your problems and challenges. It is important to have an understanding of AD, since the individual child may have a series of problems, and you should be able to decide your own individual plan, according to the circumstances. For professionals working with adoptive parents having troubled teenage children, read this article about therapy with adoptees in puberty.

Often, there is little knowledge and professional help around you for diagnosis and treatment, and this means that even professionals will use methods that are not relevant to AD problems. This is because AD is rare (approximately 3-4 % of the population in general). They don't know about it in kindergarten and school. This book should enable you to build a relevant daily practice and understanding.

The chapters of the book follow the life of the child: you start before birth and end up at age 17. This should give you an understanding of typical lifespan events, and make it easy to find descriptions of the child/ youth you are working with.

For each stage of development (pre-natal, birth, baby, pre-schooler, etc.) there are special sections on relevant issues, such as "the AD adopted child" about normal and severe problems in adoption , "The AD child in class", giving detailed information about classic learning problems and how design the classroom and teaching mode, "The AD child and sexual problems" describing the problems of uninhibited and immature sexual behaviors, etc. You will find advice about how to develop a professional team around the child, able to be empathic as well as able to provide structure. You will find checklists at different stages of development as well as results from scientific studies, including my own.

I wish you luck in our common challenge: to make contact with a child having contact problems.
I hope this book will be of some help to you on your way.

Yours sincerely,

Niels Peter Rygaard

If you want to speed the translation into your language, please send a mail to me at npr@erhvervspsykologerne.dk. I can then tell the publisher how many readers want a translation. Thank you for your interest.

About Niels Peter Rygaard

Born at Yale Hospital, New Haven, Conn. 1952.

Graduated as a clinical psychologist from Aarhus University, Denmark 1981, recognized as a specialist in 1987 by DPA (the Danish equivalent to the American Pyschologist Association).

1981-83 psychologist for Skive County, Dpt. of children’s institutions (development for all child institutions and supervisor for staff members).

1983 – 91: Chief psychologist at state treatment foster home and special school for Attachment Disorder children (Himmelbjerggaarden). Performed a study of 48 AD children and control group (maternal psychiatric diagnoses, birth weight, birth complications and scores in WISC).

1991: Consultant at private psychologist company, working with executive leadership development.

1991 – 94: Education programme for Soenderjyllands county. A cross-professional education in work with mothers from the onset of pregnancy until the child is age 2. Practicing doctors, pediatric doctors, health nurses, social workers, midwives.

1995: Member of ISSPD (www.isspd.com). The International Society for the Study of Personality Disorders.

1996: Private practitioner. Fields: supervising adoptive parents, foster families and professionals
(psychologists, social workers, child psychiatric wards, etc.).

1998: Speaker, presenting scientific results at the ISSPD Congress on Psychopathy, Copenhagen.

2004: At present I work with an education program and supervision for staff in all state youth prisons. The intention is to change the culture from old fashion prisons towards treatment facilities. Also, I work in orphanages and treatment facilities with simultaneous development of knowledge and organization.

My books have influenced political debate, and recently one political party has made my recommendations their social policy program (to focus on preventing personality disorder by massive help to threatened mothers).

LITERATURE

1991 (1994, 1998): Early Frustration – the Organization of the Self in Deprived Children.
Munksgaard, Copenhagen. ISBN: 87-16-10646-6.

1998: Psychopathic Children: Indicators of Organic Dysfunction. IN: Millon, Simonsen, Birket-Smith and Davis.: Psychopathy – Antisocial, Criminal and Violent Behavior, p.247-260. The Guilford Press NY. ISBN: 1-57230-344-1.

1999: Sexual Abuse and Attachment Disorder. Psyche and Logos, 2, p. 508-521. Danish Psychological Association Publishers. ISBN: 87-7706-284-1.

2002: Attachment Disorder – treating Children and Youth with Attachment Disorder. Forfatterforlaget, Denmark. ISBN: 87-90969-10-3.

2003: Leadership Development. Chapter one IN: Digmann & Dall: Public Leadership Developing.
Boersens Forlag Copenhagen. ISBN: 87-7553-947-0.

Plus a number of articles in papers and popular journals (The Danish versions of “Ladies Home Journal” and the like).