This printable Children’s Attachment Styles Wheel is designed for adults who want to understand attachment styles in children and young people. It is a clear, visual guide that explains how secure, anxious, avoidant and disorganised attachment can show up in a child’s feelings and behaviour, and how adults can respond in supportive ways.
The wheel breaks each attachment style into three key areas – how the child may feel, what you might see, and what helps. It links behaviours such as seeking reassurance, avoiding closeness, shutting down, or confidently exploring with the underlying emotional needs. This helps adults move beyond seeing behaviour as challenging and instead understand it as communication linked to safety, relationships and trust.
The resource includes practical, relationship-based strategies that adults can use in everyday situations. It highlights approaches such as being consistent and predictable, offering reassurance, staying calm, noticing small signals, and building trust over time. These strategies support emotional regulation, secure attachment, and positive behaviour in children, teenagers and young people.
This downloadable PDF is useful for parents, carers, foster carers, adoptive parents, teachers, teaching assistants, social workers, therapists and counsellors. It can be used as a quick reference guide, a training resource, or to support reflective practice when working with children who may have attachment difficulties, trauma, anxiety or emotional and behavioural needs. By explaining attachment theory in a simple and practical way, this resource helps adults better understand children’s emotions, behaviour, relationships and mental health, leading to stronger, safer and more supportive connections.
