RegulatED Reflections

Welcome to The RegulatED Blog, where we explore what it really means to support behavior in today’s classrooms. Through reflection, research, and real-world strategies, this space is dedicated to helping educators respond with regulation, connection, and intention.

A classroom filled with students participating in various learning activities.

Beyond the Function: Regulation, Belonging, and Doing Right by Kids

As a board-certified behavior analyst and former special education teacher in a social-emotional program, I was trained to keep the function of behavior at the forefront of every decision I made. Behavior is communication. When students engage in challenging behavior, it is not random. It works for them. It meets a need.

And for a long time, my practice reflected exactly that understanding.

If a behavior was attention-maintained, I withheld attention.If it was escape-maintained, I followed through and prompted completion.If it was sensory-seeking, I supported access to appropriate sensory strategies. If it was maintained by access to tangibles, I made sure those items were not available following problem behavior.

My focus was always on helping students learn functional communication, teaching them a more appropriate way to get their needs met. That lens served me well, and it still matters deeply.

But something was missing.

We know that when students are dysregulated, they are not engaging in higher-order thinking. They are not weighing consequences or making thoughtful choices. In those moments, the nervous system has taken the lead. Fight, flight, or freeze is running the show. The amygdala has hijacked the brain, and learning is simply not accessible.

Yet many of the strategies we default to in schools assume that students are capable of reasoning through those moments.

My thinking shifted significantly after reading Dr. Greg Hanley’s 2020 paper, Today’s ABA. The central question stopped me in my tracks: How are we ensuring students are happy, relaxed, and engaged?

I began to sit with another question too: What message are we sending when our response to distress is to ignore it?

Even when ignoring behavior is technically “correct” from a functional standpoint, it can land very differently for a child. It can look like: I see you struggling, but I’m not going to acknowledge it. Your way of communicating doesn’t matter.

That realization made me uncomfortable. And that discomfort mattered.

I began to wonder if ignoring wasn’t always the most supportive response. What if the response instead was: I see you. I know you’re struggling. Let me help you regulate.

What if we focused first on co-regulation? On modeling calm. On offering access to fidgets, weighted items, movement, breathing, or grounding strategies. On demonstrating that these tools are not rewards or crutches, but valid ways humans support themselves when overwhelmed, frustrated, angry, or discouraged.

What if we normalized regulation as part of being human?

That shift has fundamentally changed how I train staff, how I write behavior intervention plans, how I coach teams through crisis situations, and how I lead CPI trainings.

The focus is no longer just “What is the function of this behavior?” but also:

• What does this student need to feel safe?

• How do we support regulation so learning can happen?

• How do we acknowledge distress while still teaching new skills?

This is not an abandonment of behavioral science. It is an expansion of it.

When we unlock the behavior code by understanding why a student is behaving the way they are, we gain clarity about what skill needs to be taught next. But regulation is what allows students to access that learning in the first place. Without it, even the best-designed intervention will fall flat.

At the end of the day, we want students who are happy, relaxed, and engaged. Students who can access instruction, follow directions, and experience reinforcement through connection and social praise. We are social beings, and it feels good to be recognized for our effort.

That belief is what drives the resources I create and share. My goal is to equip educators with practical, realistic strategies for responding to challenging behavior in the moment, especially when teams are stretched, overwhelmed, or facing new levels of need. While additional supports and placements take time, educators still need tools they can use today to support students safely and effectively while identifying replacement behaviors to teach.

If you are here, it’s likely because you care deeply about doing right by kids. A sign of a strong educator is not perfection. It’s reflection. It’s the willingness to pause, adjust, and refine practice as we learn more.

One of my favorite quotes is: "When we know better, we do better."

This work is not about control. It’s about connection. It’s about creating classrooms that reflect who students are today and what they bring with them.

Whether or not we were trained for this version of education, these are the students in front of us. And it is our responsibility to meet them where they are and give them the tools they need to thrive.

I’m so glad you’re here!

Let’s learn, reflect, and build classrooms together that support the whole child.

-Hannah