When Escalation Reaches a Fight Response: Thinking About Safety Through a Nervous-System Lens

When a student reaches a point of physical escalation, it can feel confronting, especially when safety becomes a concern for other students and staff.

These are the moments that test everyone.

And they’re also the moments where the lens we use matters most.

When a child moves into a “fight” response, we’re usually seeing a nervous system that has shifted firmly into survival mode. At that point, the brain is not prioritising reasoning, reflection, or learning. It’s prioritising protection.

That doesn’t make the behaviour safe.
But it does change how we understand it.

In the moment: fewer words, less threat

When a student is in a heightened state, they are unlikely to be able to process much verbal input.

Even calm explanations or attempts to reason can increase perceived threat.

Often, fewer words, or no words, are the most likely to support de-escalation.

The priority becomes:

• Ensuring safety

• Reducing perceived threat

• Avoiding additional demands

Not teaching. Not correcting. Not processing what happened.

That work belongs later, when the nervous system has settled.

The deeper question: how did we get here?

While safety in the moment is essential, the more important work usually sits earlier on the pyramid.

Using a framework like the PDA Escalation Pyramid, we can begin to ask:

• Where were the early signs of stress?

• What cues might we have missed?

• What typically builds before this point?

It isn’t always obvious in a busy classroom. Stress doesn’t look the same every time, or for every student. It can be influenced by many factors, including:

• Sensory load

• Social complexity

• Time of day, transitions

• Perceived expectations

• Cumulative fatigue.

This is where a team approach becomes powerful.

When educators, support staff, and families share observations, patterns often start to emerge. One person may notice subtle withdrawal. Another may see rigidity increasing. Someone else may recognise that a particular demand consistently tips things into threat. I've even heard an education aide share she noticed 'ear touching' as stress increased!

No one holds the full picture alone, I continue to be amazed at what happens when we bring everyone together, with insights across settings and times of the day and week.

Planning for safety without escalating further

When there is a risk of physical escalation, a clear, shared plan matters.

That plan might include:

• Early intervention points

• Agreed responses for different phases of stress

• Pre-planned safety adjustments (including, where necessary, moving other students out of the area)

• Consistent, low-threat language

The intention isn’t to “manage behaviour.”
It’s to reduce how often a child’s nervous system needs to reach that fight state at all.

And that takes collaboration.

Supporting a student with a PDA profile when safety is involved is complex work. It asks a lot of educators and teams.

We're unlikely to prevent every escalation. But when we recognise earlier signs of stress and respond through a nervous-system lens, we often see fewer peaks — and more moments of safety for everyone involved.

This is why I created the PDA Toolkit for School— to help teams make sense of what’s happening underneath behaviour, use the Escalation Pyramid to identify phases of stress, and develop proactive plans that reduce the likelihood of reaching that fight state.

If you’d like to explore this framework further, you can find it here

👉 https://brilliantlittlegems.com.au/completepdatoolkitforschool