Using A Blueprint for Character Development for Evolution (ABCDE) to Build Relationships Through Talk to Mobilise Attachment Theory to Develop Children’s Working Mental Models for Good Choices that Regulate Continued Good Lives

Abstract

This study is a Ground Work Case in Albania which aims to reveal how adults talking with children can build relationships between the adult and the children to support the children’s appropriate development through the four phases of Bowlby’s attachment theory. If trauma is experienced which is not the fault of the child or the preferred caregiver, the child can become stuck and unable to develop the mental models required to become self-determining and live a good life with the conditions for homeostasis (continued life) with good faculty of judgement. This has implications for adults who may have experience trauma, through no fault of their own, who have not passed through the phases of attachment theory, and are expected to support children through the phases of attachment theory with no working mental model of what that looks like. A groundwork case was conducted in a city in Albania with kindergarten staff and revealed i) the curriculum of kindergarten staff’s qualification did include attachment theory, ii) kindergarten staff were unaware of attachment theory. Findings reveal the Covid pandemic 19 has caused trauma that is preventing children from passing through the phases of attachment theory leading to poor working mental models and poor mental health. A Blueprint for Character Development for Evolution (ABCDE) is presented as an incremental model to enable staff, students and parents to evaluate progress through the phases of attachment theory and moving from fear to good faculty of judgement required for self-determining homeostasis.