Attachment Symptom Checklist for Children
From Attachment, Trauma, and Healing. Understanding and Treating Attachment Disorder in Children and Families,
by Terry M. Levy & Michael Orlans
These are rated on a scale of None - Mild - Moderate - Severe
- Unable to give and receive love
- Lack of impulse control
- Self-destructive behaviors
- Aggression toward others
- Consistently irresponsible
- Inappropriately demanding and clingy
- Steals
- Deceitful (lying, conning)
- Hoards food
- Inappropriate sexual conduct and attitudes
- Cruelty to animals
- Sleep disturbances - e.g., difficulty getting to sleep, tossing, turning & talking in sleep, night wandering
- Enuresis and encopresis - e.g. refusing to use toilet, smearing poop, wetting or pooping in pants to express anger
- Frequently defies rules (oppositional)
- Hyperactivity
- Abnormal eating habits - e.g. eats slowly one day, gulps the next, continuous eating
- Preoccupation with fire, gore, or evil
- Persistent nonsense questions and incessant chatter
- Poor hygiene
- Lack of cause and effect thinking
- Learning disorders
- Language disorders
- Perceives self as a victim (helpless)
- Grandiose sense of self-importance
- Not affectionate on parents' terms
- Intense displays of anger (rage)
- Frequently sad, depressed, or helpless
- Inappropriate emotional responses - e.g. laughing when people get shot on TV, unable to show sadness, extreme fright at inexplicable triggers
- Marked mood changes
- Superficially engaging and charming
- Lack of eye contact for closeness
- Indiscriminately affectionate with strangers
- Lack of or unstable peer relationships
- Blames others for own mistakes and problems
- Victimizes others (perpetrator, bully)
- Victimized by others - i.e., sets self up
- Lacks trust in others
- Exploitative, manipulative, controlling, and bossy
- Chronic body tension
- Accident prone
- High pain tolerance/overreaction to minor injury
- Tactilely defensive - can't tolerate light touch