Does this sound familiar: A young client walks into your therapy room and immediately tips out a box of toys, scattering the contents across the floor. As you bend down to tidy up, they grab the markers and sweep them off the table. You turn to collect your visual schedule and when you look back, they’re climbing onto the table.
Or perhaps it looks very different: A client comes in, drops heavily into the chair and slumps forward. You explain the plan for the session and their head sinks into their hands. You introduce an engaging new activity… and they stare past you, disconnected and distant.
Two very different presentations. The same underlying question: What state is this child’s nervous system in right now? Both scenarios are evidence of a dysregulated child and when a child is dysregulated, communication and learning is impacted. A dysregulated nervous system affects attention, processing, motor planning, emotional availability and social engagement. You cannot expect language from a nervous system that is in fight, flight, freeze or shutdown.