Through a brain based approach,we cannot only better respond to children who experience adversity,but for every pupil.
When we see it through this lens,we move from punishing to supporting.
Understanding this does not excuse behaviour,but changes how we respond to it.🧠🌱
Learning cannot happen in schools unless our young people have had their most psychological,emotional, and relational needs met.
We need to get to the root causes,instead of suppression and symptom management.
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The term "challenging behaviour" can place a lot of negative emphasis on the child & masks a deeper understanding.
Some pupils are carrying the weight of challenging circumstances, trauma,neglect
A little understanding & kindness can make all the difference. 🧠🌱
In educational settings, understanding the science of development,how the brain works & the stress response would help us in better ways to support pupils.
How we respond to symptoms instead of reacting.
What is happening in their brain & body.
Regulation before cognition.🧠🌱
Children's behaviour would make more sense if we understood & worked with pupils nervous systems instead of punishing it.
Behaviour is not a choice,until the nervous system feels safe.
Being able to identify the different signals can help us better respond & support our young people.
Fight flight,freeze behaviours are adaptive survival strategies to pressure or perceived threat.
If behaviour is communication,we need to get better at listening. 🧠🌱
When we understand a few core concepts on how the brain works,we stop asking,"what's wrong with this pupil" & start asking,"what has happened to this pupil & what do they need?"
When we view behaviour through this lens,the culture of the school starts to shift.
Many school settings expect pupils to make a better choice,reflect on what they have done when these skills are biologically unavailable.This is how we have so many problems.Not with the pupil,but in the approach,& then we are surprised why behaviour doesn't improve long term.🧠🌱
If children's lower brain systems are disorganised,disrupted,emotional regulation shuts down & they cannot do their best work.
What can look like disruption or defiance, is often an unrecognised survival state doing exactly what its supposed to do to protect them.🧠🌱
In educational setting,when we don't understand the science behind pupils dysregulated states & what condition their nervous system is in shaped by early life conditions & experiences we make matters worse.
When we support the nervous system first,behaviour often changes.
Many young people grow up in environments where regulation may not have been consistently modelled. This is where educational settings play a crucial role because this is the first place they experiences co-regulation & calm with an adult.🧠🌱
You can't build a school culture of connection if it only values compliance.
If connection is only welcomed when pupils are quiet & agreeable, that's not connection, it's control.🧠🌱
Mistakes many educators make in dealing with limbic responses is that they approach the brain using top-down lectures during emotional moments. When pupils are in their feelings & body brain,we need to tend to the body dysregulation before bringing the cortex back online.🧠🌱
Pupils brains are organised as a set of specific networks & systems that are different to the bottom than they are from the top.
The lowest part is their survival HQ.
The middle part is their emotional system.
The top part is their wise brain.
Educators need to know this.🧠🌱
Schools & orgs have been contacting me for in-person keynote events. These workshop can be tricky working in a school full-time.
My dates for 10,11,12 August discussions are taking place with various settings, first come first serve basis.Some other dates are available 🧠🌱
Pupils cannot learn if they are anxious, stressed, worried, or afraid.
Their brain is not absorbing the lesson,it's searching for safety.🧠🌱
Micromanagement behaviour strategies encourage pupils to suppress their emotions & robs them of the opportunity to learn how to regulate them.They need to be able to express their emotions without fear of punishment. Instead,give them the opportunity to learn how to regulate them.🧠🌱
Some of our young people have lived through hell & horrors you can't even imagine.
Get to know them & they will want you to hear their stories so they can learn,grow & heal.
An empathetic witness & a listening ear is the antidote to trauma.
You cannot use top-down mechanisms to calm young people down if they have lower regulatory systems that are disrupted & disorganised.
Educators need to know this.🧠🌱
How many education settings are punishing young people for neurobiological executive functioning challenges & environmental factors. Understanding these challenges helps schools be more proactive,instead of reactive. Punishing these behaviours reinforces shame not skills.🧠🌱
If a pupil is dysregulated/distressed,it narrows the cortex.
No matter how good your curriculum is,you're not going to get much change because the part of the brain you are trying to reach is unavailable.
Regulation is essential in educational settings. 🧠🌱
When our children & young people become distressed, they look for guidance how to manage these internal states from an adult who knows how to effectively co regulate.
Your regulation is the anchor
Join me ,tomorrow night 7pm.
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1982229154...
24 hours to register for this important workshop.
Supporting emotional co-regulation in children & young people.
Regulation isn't a skill young people learn in isolation. They learn regulation through the support from their caregivers & educators.
Join me.🧠🌱
In the middle of survival mode & in a dysregulated state, children & young people cannot just think their way out of it when their cortex is offline,it is neurobiologically impossible.They need adults to help their brains feel safe again.
Wednesday night,we will explore more🧠🌱
This Wednesday,we will be exploring children & young people's behaviour,what their brain & nervous system need supporting big feelings. Understanding,connrc,co-regulation.
When we connect first, everything changes.
Attendees from as far as Singapore have registered.
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This Tuesday. 7pm-8.30pm.
A one night only with new content.
Taking a deeper understanding of the why behind children's behaviour.
Understanding brain state models.
How stress,fear,changes the nervous system How we respond, changes the way children's nervous systems respond.🧠🌱
Neuroscience shows us that when the nervous system regulates first,then the brain can learn.
School systems that support regulation builds learning environments.
A school system that punishes dysregulation, will always create more of it 🧠🌱
Looking forward to releasing this new presentation.
Equipping adults who look after our children & young people with tools & practical strategies to respond to dysregulation by understanding the function of behaviour.
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1982229154...
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Learning isn't just thinking, its regulation.
Before a pupils brain can learn it asks questions:
Am I safe here?
Do I belong?
Do I need to protect myself?
When the nervous system feels safe the brain can access learning.
If it doesn't feel safe, learning becomes harder🧠🌱
Whiteboard visual in my nurture classroom. This teaches our young people more about the brain.This also helps empower our young people to understand more about how they might be feeling.A brilliant way to help them identify, manage stress & build strong self-regulation skills🧠🌱