Understanding behaviour begins with understanding the person.

Look beneath what you can see.

Behaviour is the observable output of processes occurring within a person and between that person and their environment. A child who shouts, runs, refuses, withdraws or puts their head on the desk is showing us something real, and it may need a response. But the behaviour itself does not tell us why it occurred. Neurobiological Architects treats behaviour as the beginning of our investigation rather than the end of our explanation.

Consider the biological conditions in which behaviour occurs.

The brain is a living biological organ, and how well it functions depends on the condition of the body that supports it. It needs oxygen, glucose, sleep, movement, nutrition, hydration and physiological stability. A child who is tired, hungry, in pain, unwell or physically uncomfortable does not bring the same nervous system into the classroom as they would on a well rested, comfortable day.

Understand the whole interacting system.

The brain develops, regulates, learns and produces behaviour as part of an integrated system that includes the body, development, relationships, experience and environment. A useful Neurobiological Architects formulation keeps all six of these domains in view, while remembering that they are only separated on paper to make them easier to think about. In the child, they are always interacting.

Consider what previous experience has taught the person to expect.

The brain does not passively wait for the world to happen. It uses previous experience, current information and the state of the body to anticipate what may happen next and to prepare the person to respond. A child may not only be reacting to what is happening now; their nervous system may also be preparing for what it expects is about to happen.

Distinguish possessing a capacity from accessing it.

Having a skill and being able to use that skill at a particular moment are not the same thing. The ability to communicate, remember instructions, think flexibly, inhibit an impulse, tolerate frustration and consider another person’s point of view can change with a child’s physiological and regulatory state.

Understand what the demand requires before interpreting unwillingness.

Before interpreting a child’s behaviour as unwillingness to meet an expectation, we consider what capacities that expectation requires and whether those capacities are currently available. What looks like won’t may sometimes be can’t, and very often it is can’t yet, under these conditions, without this support.

Teach the profile, not the label.

Children develop across many interacting domains, at different rates and along different trajectories. Attention, inhibition, planning, emotional regulation, language, motor skills and social understanding develop over many years, and rarely in step with each other. Chronological age alone cannot tell us what a child can access in a particular situation.

Observe without assuming that behaviour explains itself.

Behaviour provides information about the interaction between a person, their current state, their capacities, their experiences and the environment around them. It is data, not a verdict. But it does not explain itself, and what we observe is not the same as how we interpret it.

Adapt unnecessary barriers while preserving meaningful goals.

If behaviour emerges through the interaction between a person and their environment, effective support must look at the environment as well as the person. Environment means far more than the physical room. It includes the sensory environment, the way information is communicated, the social and relational setting, the timing and predictability of the day, and the combined demands being placed on the child.

Recognise that adults are part of the developmental environment.

Children experience the world through relationships as well as environments. Our voice, facial expression, pace, proximity, predictability and responses all give information to a child’s nervous system. The people around a child become part of the conditions in which regulation, learning, communication and development take place.

Formulate, support, observe, learn and adapt.

Do not rush from observing behaviour to choosing an intervention. First develop the best available understanding of why this behaviour may be happening for this person, in this context, at this time. The quality of any intervention depends on the quality of the understanding beneath it.

Support what matters without making sameness the goal.

Human beings develop, communicate, learn, move, regulate, perceive and interact in different ways. Difference should not automatically be treated as something to be corrected. Neurobiological Architects recognises human neurodevelopmental diversity while also recognising that neurodiversity and disability can coexist, and that genuine difficulty deserves genuine support.