Understanding Behaviour by understanding the brain.

This presentation has been compiled by Sarah Gilfillan. Information in this presentation has been summarised from the work of Kathryn Berkett Neurosequential Therapist / Psychologist and other experts on behaviour and neuroscience.

How this Professional Development works.

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This PD has 3 parts. At the end of each part there is a task that will help to review what you have learned. Parts 1 and 2 there is a quiz and Part 3 a task to create a behaviour plan.

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Read part 1 which is all about the learning brain and the survival brain.

Watch the video and then take the quiz by clicking on the link.

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Take breaks between and make sure you don’t spend more than an hour at a time on the computer.

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Read Part 2 and follow the instructions - there is a video and a website link in this Part. On slide 15 there is another quiz to complete.

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Read Part 3 - and complete the task at the end.

Part 1: The survival brain and the Learning Brain.

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To help us understand how our brain affects our behaviour we can divide the brain into two main parts ...

The survival brain (red)

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The Learning brain (green)

The survival brain

Two year old brains are like red brains. They cannot think through consequences. They also cannot understand how their behaviour affects others.

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2 year old behaviour is perceived as selfish and when our red brain is activated our behaviour can appear selfish and irrational.

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When there is a stressor in the environment this activates our red brain and sends danger signals “You're going to die” to the body.

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The learning brain

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The green brain is responsible for us being able to:

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• Plan
• Sequence
• Time manage
• Think abstractly
• Have empathy and care about others
• Think about how our actions and behaviour can affect others.
• LEARN

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When we feel SAFE energy is being distributed to this part of the brain and the red brain can rest and the green brain can guide our behaviour.

Many of the children we support in school with their learning and behaviour have suffered trauma in their lives. The effects of trauma on the brain and the ability to engage in learning can be significant.

Children who suffer trauma are often operating in red brain mode.

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Part 1 Quiz

Please click on the link and complete the google form quiz.

Part 1 Quiz https://forms.gle/EWCQrG1kdLYhusK68

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Remember to have breaks when you're working.

Part 2 - Stress and the Stress response.

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Part 2: Stress

Stress is a physical, mental, or emotional factor that causes bodily or mental tension.

3 Categories of Stress:

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• Environmental - reaction to your home, classroom, where you are.
• Psychological - reaction to people or social situations
• Physical - Internal - reaction to an illness or injury to body. Basic needs not met.

The effects of stress

The children we work with are often under stress

Some children have not developed strategies to deal with these stressors that a lot of children find easier to deal with… such as:

Environmental stress - eg lighting - too bright in classroom or classroom too noisy

Psychological Stress - eg too many people at assembly, working in a group

Physical internal - eg hunger, thirst sickness hearing or vision impairment

Can you think of any children you are currently working with that may be under stress?

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Watch the following video and think about strategies you have to deal with your own levels of stress…...

What surprised you about the information in the video about stress ?

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What effects do you think experiencing chronic/long term stress has on children and adults?

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The stress response ….

or when your brain is in survival mode (red brain)

Click on the image above and read the first page of this website ….

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From Understanding Behaviour Responding Safely, 2018, Ministry of Education NZ

What does Fight, Flight and freeze look like ?

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Fight arguing, hitting, punching, throwing things, Talking back, yelling, swearing, name calling…..

Flight running out of class, fidgeting, moving and bothering others - distracting others, running away out the gate …….

Freeze refusal to speak, refusal to do anything. Withdrawn, hiding under table, putting hood over head, hiding under blanket, holding their breath

Part 2 Quiz ….

You have been learning about stress and what that looks like for our students…

Click on the Link and complete the Quiz - see how much you have learned ….go back to the presentation and look up information if you need to when completing the quiz . This is all about reviewing learning and understanding.

Quiz - Part 2 Understanding Behaviour

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When you have completed the quiz - have a break

Part 3 is all about how we can help students to get back to calm...green brain

Part 3 - Calming the survival brain …..

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ALL people need certain things to help them feel SAFE.

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When we feel safe our red brain can rest and our green brain can have the energy to think, plan, organise and LEARN.

When our survival brain is activated our brain is receiving messages that it is going to die …. This alertness to danger then triggers the fight, flight or freeze responses we learned about in Part 2.

Relationships -most important thing to the brain …. This is why it’s important to know these students really well.

We all need to connect and know we have people in our lives that understand us and empathise with how we are feeling.

Students need to be able to identify who these people are in their lives that they have key relationships with that can calm them and help them to feel safe.

An example of a strategy for this would be a social story with photos for the student of key people in the school that they can talk to or get help from when they need to. For older students it would be a person in the school or a space where they can go when red brain activated.

Status

• Sometimes when we get stressed we activate our status - we posture up, we raise our voice etc and the student responds by trying to increase their status students do this by getting at this person by trying to decrease their status.
• Kids sometimes do this to teachers parents by posturing trying to look bigger, climbing up on something to get higher than teacher / TA, yelling louder than the teacher/parent.
• So OUR REACTIONS are really important - so how we do this …
• Get to same level as child - sit down, use a low calm voice, don’t confront

What behaviours have you observed when students are confronted and feel the need to increase their status - and how do you react ?

Distraction

Talk about something else in a respectful way.

When people are drawn into what’s positive they sometimes lose sight of the negative stressor.

Example for younger children:

Let’s read that book together you really like

Older kids :

Hey remember the other day when we watched that you said something really interesting about….

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Sensory

Remember the red brain is like a two year old - doesn't like activities like listening to long sentences about what they’re doing wrong - this just activates the red brain more...

Do what red brains like:

Have a drink

Safe space putting blanket over

Jumping / running - going for a walk

Walk beside them - do a drawing or another activity they like

Play with play dough / Mind Jar / Calming breathing activities

Good idea to ask students what makes them feel better so you can plan ahead for when students get into that full red brain activation stage ….

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All children are different and will respond to these strategies in different ways. Also remember that sometimes only time will help students calm down and they need to be left to do that safely.

This is more about creating a long term plan - the previous slides were about what we do when students are in full flight/flight/freeze mode and helping them through that.

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So we need to create an environment where students are less triggered to move into red brain activation.

Research has indicated that there 4 main things people need to feel safe and connected…. These can be remembered by using the following mnemonic: Some Boys have Mullets

S See Me

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B Sense of Belonging

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H Tell me what's

Happening

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M How can I

Demonstrate my

Mana

See me

We all need to be seen and we all need attention.

We often hear people say “Oh he’s just doing it for attention” AND YES he is. Every human being needs to be seen and needs attention so we can give attention to students in positive ways and be more intentional about this so hopefully it decreases their need to act out to get this attention…..Strategies in the classroom to intentionally give attention:

• Pat the student on the shoulder
• Make eye contact and smile at the student
• Check in with the student about how he or she is progressing with an assignment
• Call on the student in class (when you are pretty sure that he or she knows the answer!)
• Pass the student a note with a cheerful comment, specific praise, or compliment
• Give brief, specific praise about the student's work or behavior (e.g., "I really like to see how carefully you are drawing that map, Joanna!")
• Give the student a few words of encouragement
• Invite the student to summarize for the group the main points of a classroom discussion
• Converse briefly with the student
• Select the student to carry out a classroom task (e.g., passing out papers) that he or she likes
• see Intervention Central These strategies are taken from INtervention Central website, 2019, https://www.interventioncentral.org/behavioral-interventions/challenging-students/breaking-attention-seeking-habit-power-random-positive

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Show me I Belong

Rituals we do at school - these make children feel safe - create a ritual that you and that child do every day.

Having a karakia at the beginning of day

Having a place for them in class for their things

Welcoming them with a special greeting just for them - or a class greeting that we all have together.

Talk about the way WE do things in our class

Tell me what’s Happening

The brain feels safer when it knows what’s coming next

Timetable or visuals that alert kids to what’s happening next

Warnings about change

Social stories and lessons around change and how to build resilience

M Mana - How can I demonstrate my Mana

Having some choice or control over where they sit or what activity they are doing first etc

Strategy examples:

A Must do / Can do with visuals that the child can choose activities for what they are doing next.

Saying things like we need to do our writing task and our Maths task today what would you like to do first?

Activities - where children can choose to work with others or on their own.

Now your Task …..

Choose a student you have been working with that needs support with their behaviour.

Think about what you know about this student already and create a behaviour plan using the template on the next slide.

Click this link and it will take you to a google doc template of this plan. Make a copy and then you will be able to use and edit.

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