School has become difficult
Explore why attendance, participation or the school day may have become increasingly difficult.
Parents & carers
Understanding your child begins with understanding what they are experiencing.
Behaviour can tell us that something in the interaction between brain, body, development, experience, relationships or environment deserves our attention.
You do not need to know the right terminology before you begin. Start with what you are noticing.
Start with what is happening
What brought you here?
Home life feels overwhelming
Consider what may be contributing when everyone seems to be reaching their limits.
My child becomes overwhelmed very quickly
Explore regulation, nervous-system state, sensory experience and changing capacity.
Behaviour seems to come from nowhere
Understand why behaviour can look sudden even when the brain has been responding before we see it.
My child holds everything together until home
Explore accumulated load, effort, masking and recovery after the day.
I want to understand my child's diagnosis
Connect diagnostic language with everyday experience without reducing your child to a label.
A way through
Understanding before intervention.
- 01
Understand
Look beneath what you can see and begin with the whole person.
- 02
Explore
Consider the systems, experiences and conditions that may matter.
- 03
Consider
Bring the pieces together without assuming that one explanation is the answer.
- 04
Find a way forward
Use understanding to guide supportive next steps and useful resources.
Explore
What might be relevant?
Different domains can interact. These are places to explore, not conclusions about your child.
Regulation
How nervous-system state can change what is possible in a particular moment.
Sensory experience
How sound, light, touch, movement and other sensory information may affect participation.
Communication
Look beyond spoken words to the many ways needs, capacity and distress may be communicated.
Sleep
Consider how sleep and recovery can influence regulation, learning and everyday capacity.
Development
Understand behaviour in the context of a developing brain, body and individual pathway.
Environment
Explore how demands, predictability, relationships and surroundings become part of support.
The person
Consider
No single piece necessarily explains behaviour.
Understanding develops when we consider how different conditions may interact for this person, in this context, at this time.
Possible contributors are hypotheses to explore, not conclusions about the person.
Find a way forward
Resources to help you understand more.
The River and The Sourceunderstand · exploreLearning to Stayunderstand · explore · way forwardUnderstanding Myselfunderstand · exploreUnderstanding My Diagnosisunderstand · exploreMaking Sense of the World Around Meexplore · consider · way forwardHolding It Together Until Homeunderstand · consider · way forward
Educational information
These resources can help you understand what may be worth considering. They do not determine why a particular person is behaving in a particular way and do not replace individual clinical assessment, diagnosis, medical advice, safeguarding or other appropriately qualified professional support.