Multiple placements, delay in achieving deadlines, and emancipation have increased the burdens on already vulnerable foster children. The child welfare and court systems, despite good laws and policies, have generally failed to provide children with permanent homes in a developmentally timely manner. Ignorance of the nature and critical importance of bonding is a major cause of this lack of success. Attachment and bonding are words that have been used loosely to describe a variety of personal relationships, beginning with the theories of Bowlby and Ainsworth. Bonding is defined in practical...