IT MAY SEEM IMPOSSIBLE

Often when I say I am a qualified Speech Therapist people tend to think I worked helping children "learn to talk". Whilst that's largely the case and context I move within, it can also at times come with the assumption that how I work is using reward-based activities, conditioning methodology, adult-lead intervention, what is termed 'behaviourism'. Behaviourism is a concept coined during the period when the height of psychological research was about the brain, or 'the era of the brain' as it's sometimes known, the brain being seen as the driving force of all cognition, movement, and being as humans. With this as the focus it drove theories such as behaviourism which gave us conditioning methodologies towards the study of human behaviour, specifically that by providing a stimulus followed by a reward it became more likely that an animal would repeat a behaviour. I have many reflections on behaviourism, not for this piece of writing, but safe to say, humans are not rats and we have an emotional system at play too, so reward based, behaviour modification approaches do not form part of my days. However, we live in a Western culture that still heavily sits in cognition and behaviourist practices for children and childhood. As I write this, it's important to acknowledge that the majority of my training focused on this, and I did used to use these methods, yet what's also important to acknowledge is that when we know better, we can and should do better.

I began to question behaviourism some time ago, initially from an effectiveness point of view, I was offering that sticker at the end of a session, yet many children were either indifferent to them or were less motivated by the activity and more focused on what was coming out of my bag at the end. What was I really offering in the way of learning? Then it became about the lack of consideration I was giving to wider influences on development, meaning I began to notice that by me driving the interactions with activity ideas, targets and curriculum agenda, I was missing what was right in front of me and meeting a child where they were at within their individual development and essence as a person. Were directive methods really showing me development in it's truest sense, what was I really seeing? Later it moved to be about consent and a shifting away from adultism in my view of childhood, my position in interactions in general, I felt I no longer wanted to change a child, instead to reflect on the learning environments and spaces we experience throughout development, walking alongside the families that I worked with through shared information, conversation and understanding, as opposed to the often offered fingers of blame.

I retrained, immersed myself in neuroscience and the contemporary science of neurophysiology, how the brain and the body are bi-directionally connected via the vagus nerve, how our nervous system functions, and how this information could help me to understand, on a cross-discipline level what communication development could involve. I read and read, asked questions, spoke with researchers, engaged with clinicians, learned beyond my field of speech science and absorbed information about the body and human condition that found relationships between our brain, body and environmental stimuli, and as a lover of scientific study, I couldn't stop asking questions. I was afraid to ask questions as a kid, somewhere along the line getting the message that asking questions was a problem to be stopped, yet it wasn't until completing my Postgraduate study and meeting one particular lecturer Suzanne Churcher and being in her sessions where she embraced all our questions in her attempt to provide a space where the answers between us at all levels were still evolving that this shifted. I often thought I wasn't clever enough to do higher level study, yet now there is one thing I love more than anything about what science and research has taught me, and that's to keep hold of a curious mind, keep questioning, because when we sit in the thinking that we know something for certain, we lose our ability to reflect, change practices, and do differently.

I no longer see behaviour, I witness nervous systems and how awareness around nervous system state can support our knowledge and everyday experiences in how we interact, the choices we have when it comes to actions in response, and how these foundations directly relate to development and learning. This has moved me the furthest I have ever been from seeing my role as an adult from one of teaching skills and having the answers, to being in spaces with others who facilitate learning and experiences in a co-created way. To facilitating development and learning WITH not FOR another person.

I would invite anyone interested in behaviourism and why other methods of engaging can be considered to explore other writers, clinicians and researchers. A few names that come to my mind include Naomi Fischer, Alfie Kohn, Eliza Fricker, John Holt, Peter Gray, and Self-Determination Theory. I now ask questions such as, is learning not bi-directional between adult and child? Is there not more than one version of learning environment we could offer to children? Why is it we never ask children how they want to learn, what learning feels like to them and offer them the choice to select their preference? As part of a home education call this week I was reminded about never underestimating conversations in our place as parents and facilitators of learning, in this respect talking about the difficult or often hidden parts of family life, including screen time and how we approach it, and the choices of activities we each wish to do in the week. I came away feeling this applies beyond home education into our conditioning as human beings, this sense that asking questions and offering thoughts is not of value and somehow the adults or authority figures know whats best. Yet if I apply my knowledge of co-regulation to conversations they have a powerful role to play in allowing us and our children to feel heard, our worries expressed, and cortisol levels reduced. Some conversations may seem impossible to have, fear inducing and not worth it, which may all be true, but the one around childhood in society, our practices so far and whether we are happy with them moving forward seems to me to be an important one, not just on the surface of educating our kids, but on a human centred cultural level. Change is possible, but knowing why we want it can be a good place to start.

Maybe one day we can walk together and share our thoughts, to which I have a date coming up for my co-created walking group. If you would like to come along drop me an email by hitting the subscribe button on my blog page and I will keep you updated.