The Safe Switch

A child's safe switch is described as fragile when they have anxiety, have a trauma background, have a diagnosed or undiagnosed neurodivergence or have high personal expectations.

Regardless of the cause having a fragile switch interferes with learning progress as in moments of feeling unsafe the child cannot use their thinking brain and rely on the lower emotional brain to navigate their world to get to a place of feeling safe. A child with a safe switch that is turning off in a typical classroom will have reduced exposure to the concepts and content being delivered by an educator. They may also engage in taking actions to make themself feel safe which adults can misinterpret as challenging behaviours.

Enhancing Learning Assessors look for children with signs of body and facial tension, excessive scanning of the room, slower responses to instructions and excessive movements as well as bigger actions such as running away or expressions of distress or anger.