Neuroaffirming Behaviour Support Resource Pack

Description

Neuroaffirming Behaviour Support Resource Pack

Traditional behaviour support often asks, “How do we change the behaviour?” This resource pack invites a different question: “What is the nervous system telling us?”

Developed as a companion to The Little Black Duck’s Neuroaffirming Behaviour Support Training, this evidence-informed resource pack helps professionals, educators, support workers, and families understand behaviour through the lens of autistic neurology, sensory processing, and nervous system regulation.

Rather than viewing behaviour as something to manage or reduce, the pack explores behaviour as meaningful communication arising from an individual’s interaction with their sensory environment, cognitive processing style, relationships, and capacity. Drawing on contemporary autism research, polyvagal theory, monotropism, executive functioning, the Double Empathy Problem, and autistic-led perspectives, it provides practical frameworks that shift practice from compliance-based approaches towards understanding, connection, and regulation.

Each visual guide has been designed as an accessible teaching resource that can be used during professional development, supervision, team discussions, or parent education. Together they provide a practical foundation for creating environments that support autistic people to feel safe, understood, and able to thrive.

What’s Included

1. It’s Not Always ABC: Looking Beyond the Behaviour
2. The Sensory System
3. Recognising Parasympathetic States of Arousal
4. Understanding the Three Stages of the Autonomic Response
5. The ABCs of Behaviour
6. What is Impacting on Day-to-Day Functioning?
7. Understanding Your Capacity
8. Collaborative Conversations
9. The Double Empathy Problem
10. Executive Functioning (12 Executive Functions)
11. Understanding Executive Functioning
12. The Hand Model of the Brain
13. How the Brain Processes Social Communication
14. Behind the Mask: Understanding Autistic Camouflaging
15. In Front of the Mask: What Others See
16. Monotropism and Attention Shifting
17. The Nope Brain: Understanding Autistic “Rigid Thinking”
18. Planning for the Long Haul
19. The Pyramid of Learning
20. Improving Quality of Life in the Autistic Population
21. Autism and the Sensory System
22. Supporting Autistic Processing Styles in Therapeutic Settings
23. Understanding Autistic Cognition
24. The Allostatic Load Cycle and the Monotropic Mind
25. Anxiety and Distress in Autism
26. Autism + Environment = Outcome
27. Autism+
28. The Autistic Neurotype
29. The Autistic Energy/Rest Cycle