Imagine this scenario…
A colleague tells you that a Black child they support has started compulsively tapping their head. They are worried this type of behaviour signals heightened anxiety and/or excessive stimming and believe the child may need an urgent referral to CAMHS.
As you listen, something else comes to mind. The child has recently had their hair braided. You wonder whether their scalp might simply be itchy or tender – which you can relate to as a common experience after braiding. Before you have the chance to raise this possibility, the conversation moves on. Later, you find yourself wishing you had challenged the initial assumption.
While no single explanation should ever be taken as fact, this scenario highlights how easily we can jump to conclusions about behaviour without fully exploring context, which has potential implications for how a child may be treated, responded to and pathologised.
The Importance of Staying Curious
Children communicate through their behaviour, but behaviour rarely tells the whole story. It can reflect boredom, emotional distress, sensory needs, physical discomfort, cultural experiences, environmental factors, or a combination of these.
When practitioners move too quickly towards a single explanation, they risk overlooking important information that could lead to a more accurate and compassionate understanding.
Reflective, culturally informed supervision provides space to slow down, question our thinking, and consider multiple possibilities before making decisions that may have significant consequences for a child.
Questions That Open Up Thinking
If this dilemma were explored in a We Are Akoma supervision session, practitioners would be encouraged to move away from certainty and towards curiosity by being guided to reflect on the following:
- What assumptions are each practitioner making about the child and their behaviour?
- What influenced those assumptions?
- What made it difficult to challenge a colleague’s interpretation in the moment?
- How might you respectfully invite consideration of other possible explanations for the behaviour?
- What function might the behaviour be serving for the child? Could it be helping them manage boredom, physical discomfort, sensory needs, emotions, or something else entirely?
- What important information is still missing before deciding on a course of action?
- How could that information be gathered through observation, conversation with the child, family, or others who know them well?
- How can the child’s lived experience, voice, cultural identity, and social context remain central to understanding what is happening?
How would you navigate this? Perhaps you’ve experienced similar. Let us know in the comments