A Neurodevelopmental Approach to Behavior

By Anna Keltner, Program Development, Connected Kids

A CASE STUDY: SAM

Sam spends most of his time in the block center. He loves to stack the blocks into a high tower and run or kick to knock them down, causing the blocks to fly through the air, often hitting peers. During instruction, Sam reaches across the table to gather all the markers and tries to keep them for himself. He scribbles on his work instead of carefully practicing his letters and often has large outbursts. Sam is a struggling five-year-old. He is often described as impulsive, disruptive, inconsiderate, and unmotivated. His teacher is exhausted and feels like she doesn't know what else to do to manage his behaviors in class.

We have all had a Sam or a version of Sam in our classrooms and have few answers regarding how to change their behavior. We know that supporting his development in self-regulation is a good place to start, but to provide a complete picture that guides our next steps, there is more to understand about Sam and students like him.

Developmental Lag

Dr. Bruce Perry, a leading expert in complex developmental trauma, describes how trauma that occurs early in life can create a developmental lag. Through his work, we have learned that children, such as Sam, who have experienced trauma lose about half a grade level each year. Curriculum and classroom instruction is designed to meet the needs of students on a typical developmental trajectory and often provide accommodations for those slightly behind or above the norm. However, these accommodations are not enough to fully support the developmental lag children from trauma bring to the classroom. Each year a child from trauma is in school, the lag becomes more pronounced and difficult for them to tolerate, leading to various diagnoses such as oppositional defiance or ADHD. When a student enters Pre-K significantly developmentally behind, by 5th grade, they will be functioning as a 1st or 2nd grader.

In Sam’s case, he experienced complex developmental trauma and although he is chronologically five, he is developmentally functioning like a two-year-old.

Complicating matters, the development of different systems (e.g., physical, attachment, neurocognitive, social-emotional, sensory-processing, selfregulation) does not happen in parallel but instead is staggered. For example, a 14-year-old who is big for their age and has knowledge about adult topics can be significantly delayed in the development of their ability to take another perspective (e.g., their theory of mind). When a child looks like a grown-up and sounds like a grown-up but doesn’t have a basic understanding of the world around them, this can lead to surprising behaviors that can be misinterpreted.

It's tempting to focus on externalizing behaviors when dealing with struggling students. When a student runs from the classroom or hits a teacher, safety is the first priority, as it should be. However, focusing on behavior without understating their developmental lag leads to ineffective interventions. The "why" of the behavior impacts the "how" of supporting learning.

For Sam, his behavior is not that of an inconsiderate child, but instead of a child who is moving through typical developmental stages at a slower rate. To identify this developmental lag, educators must know the developmental processes that their instruction relies upon. For example, the stages of block play begin with exploration in ages 1-3 and move on to rows and towers in ages 2-4 before moving into more complex structures. Therefore, Sam needs materials like cardboard blocks or other soft building materials that will meet his developmental needs while not being a distraction in class. When students are allowed to move through the developmental stages they missed early in life, healing and academic growth will happen. For Sam's teacher, correctly identifying the underlying cause of his behavior shapes the narrative she has for him and ultimately impacts the quality of instruction she provides.

Re-framing the Narrative

Our framing of behaviors matters. Suppose we label students who run from the classroom as having attention-seeking behavior and do not understand the why of the behavior. In that case, we are not left with many effective interventions. Instead, moving beyond the externalizing behavior and considering the developmental stages of attachment, we can say that student has connection-seeking behaviors. Changing the narrative from attention-seeking to connection-seeking can produce interventions that are preventive, healing, and, in the long term, more effective.

Sam is not an unmotivated learner who scribbles on his work. He is a child being asked to do a task, writing letters, that is not developmentally appropriate. When Children have underdeveloped self-regulation and are continually asked to do tasks for which they lack the necessary skills, they become explosive in the classroom. Supporting children's development in self-regulation is a start to addressing the negative behaviors that children with complex developmental trauma bring to school. Still, it's only part of the required interventions. We must build our strategies to reach and teach these struggling students from a foundation of developmentally appropriate instruction, that meets children where they are in the developmental processes. ■

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

What is this student's behavior telling me about their development? What processes of development is my instruction relying on? How can I support their current developmental stage within the context of my classroom?