ABSTRACT
The primary focus of this chapter is on attachment theory and its implications for assessment. Attachment theory appears to me the most popular contemporary explanatory account of a child's social and emotional development, a domain that is critical to assessments that determine whether a child can safely be left in the care of the birth parents. This accounts for its prominence here, alongside encouragement to apply it critically, interwoven with alternative or complementary theoretical perspectives including social learning theory, ecological theories and the constructivist ideas of Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky about how children learn which I describe briefly in Chapter 10. I aim to explore the relevance of childhood attachment experiences for the quality of care that adults are able to give when they undertake the role of parent and to signpost methods by which attachment style may be assessed.
