The importance of understanding what drives behaviour
Mar 2025
Written by Noel Macnamara
As a kinship carer and a therapeutic specialist, I have found it’s critical to know the difference between top-down and bottom-up behaviours and I think understanding it will help those of you caring for children who have experienced adverse childhoods and trauma.
Two main categories of behaviour
Different parts of the brain work together to help us use information to survive and thrive in the world. Top-down and bottom-up approaches are two different strategies for processing information:
Bottom-up behaviours are instinctual and unintentional. Human brains evolved to quickly and automatically take, process, and respond to sensory information (seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, smelling) about the physical and social world.
This approach deals with the lower parts of the brain i.e. the brain stem and limbic system. They are survival-based stress responses and operate through the activation of the brain’s threat-detection system and are parts responsible for the fight, flight, freeze, or fawn memories, learning, and body reflexes. Infants only have bottom-up behaviours. They are called bottom-up because they come from cues in the body and areas of the brain that are driven by instincts.
Two steps are involved in generating bottom-up feelings:
- Stimuli occur (such as an instant feeling of fear in response to a car pulling out in front of you).
- An emotion is sparked.
Top-down behaviour is deliberate and intentional. This part is associated with thinking and logic, higher order emotion awareness, and speaking. Top-down thinking and behaviours develop over many years through connections to the prefrontal cortex of the brain. They are called top-down because they are literally driven by the top part of our bodies, the “executive function” centre of our brain. Human beings have the unique ability to assign meaning to things based on learning memory, logic, and reasoning skills.
Top-down emotions occur in three steps:
- Stimuli occur (such as a feeling of anxiety after deciding that you didn’t study hard enough for a test)
- Our thinking patterns make us aware of what is happening, so we give ourselves a quick pep-talk of what’s happening
- We feel something based on the thoughts about the stimuli.
Trauma-informed caring
These two types of behaviours have completely different causes and should lead to very different solutions depending on the type of behaviour. However, we can easily get locked into believing that all behaviours that challenge are alike and the main way we solve them is some form of punishment.
This is very important! Bottom-up behaviours do not respond to rewards, consequences or punishments.
Bottom-up behaviours are brain-based stress responses that require understanding, compassion and actively helping a children and young people feel safe, based on their individual needs. When we punish a bottom-up behaviour, we can easily make matters worse. And this is why so much of our efforts fall short, or even deepen a child or young person’s emotional and behavioural challenges.
Carers can avoid making matters worse by differentiating between the two types of behaviours. If the behaviour is bottom-up, use bottom-up strategies first.
Bottom-up approach in trauma-informed caring
A bottom-up approach focuses on building safety and trust through sensory and body-based experiences before engaging with higher-level cognitive and emotional processing. Here’s how carers can implement a bottom-up approach:
Establish safety and routine
- Predictability: Create consistent daily routines to help the child feel safe and grounded.
- Safe environment: Ensure the home and caregiving space are calm and comforting.
- Positive touch and physical safety: Use non-threatening, nurturing gestures like hugs (if the child is comfortable) or gentle pats, virtual hugs, high fives as appropriate.
- Time-in: When we use time in, we’re sending a powerful message: “I’m here for you, and we can work through this together.” It’s about helping children learn to regulate their emotions with our support, rather than leaving them to figure it all out alone.
Use sensory-based interventions
- Soothing activities: Engage in sensory activities such as playing with kinetic sand, painting, music or working with playdough.
- Movement: Encourage activities that incorporate movement like yoga, dancing, trampolining or simple exercises to help the child regulate their nervous system.
- Deep pressure techniques: Weighted blankets or pressure vests can provide calming sensations.
Mindfulness and grounding techniques
- Deep breathing: Practice deep, slow breaths together to promote relaxation.
- Grounding exercises: Activities that encourage the child to be present, such as feeling different textures or naming what they see, hear, or smell.
- Guided visualisation: Short, imaginative exercises where they envision a safe space can help reduce anxiety.
Co-regulation practices
- Model calm behaviour: Carers should manage their own stress and respond in a composed manner to help the child mirror this state.
- Shared activities: Play games or engage in activities that encourage connection, like building with blocks or playing music.
- Attuned responses: React sensitively to the child’s cues and needs, validating their feelings without immediately trying to talk them out of negative emotions.
A bottom-up approach helps rebuild the pathways in the brain affected by trauma, allowing the child to access higher-level thinking and emotional processing over time.
Top-down approach in trauma-informed caring
A top-down approach involves engaging a child’s higher-level cognitive processes, such as reasoning, understanding, and reflection, to help them process their trauma and develop coping skills. This approach focuses on helping children use their thoughts to regulate their feelings and behaviours.
Here are ways carers can implement a top-down approach with children who have experienced trauma:
Teach emotional literacy
- Name emotions: Help the child identify and label their emotions by using emotion charts or discussing feelings during different situations.
- Emotion words: Introduce and use a wide range of words for emotions, from basic (happy, sad) to more complex (frustrated, overwhelmed).
Use cognitive reframing
- Challenge negative thoughts: Guide the child in recognising unhelpful thought patterns and reframe them with more balanced or positive perspectives.
- Perspective taking: Encourage the child to think of different interpretations of an event or consider another person’s point of view.
Problem-solving skills
- Develop solutions together: Involve the child in finding solutions to problems they face, fostering a sense of control and self-efficacy.
- Step-by-step planning: Teach them to break down problems into manageable steps and plan a way to tackle each part.
Mindfulness and reflection practices
- Guided journaling: Encourage writing or drawing about their day, focusing on what went well and what felt challenging, to help them process their emotions.
- Reflective discussions: Have calm and open conversations about events or reactions, guiding them to understand why they might feel or act a certain way.
Teach coping strategies
- Calming techniques: Equip them with strategies such as counting to ten, visualisation, or creating a mental “safe space” they can visit when anxious.
- Self-talk: Model and practice using positive or calming self-talk in difficult situations, like saying, “I can get through this” or “I am safe now.”
Set goals and build self-reflection
- Encourage short-term goals: Help the child set small, achievable goals that reinforce their sense of competence.
- Review progress: Celebrate progress and growth, reflecting on what strategies worked and why.
Encourage safe expression of emotions
- Talk it out: When the child is calm, discuss emotions and triggers in a supportive way.
- Therapeutic play or art: Engage in guided activities that help the child express complex emotions through drawing or role-playing.
Model problem-solving and emotional regulation
- Share your thought process: Carers can model how to think through a challenging situation by talking about their own reactions and solutions aloud.
- Stay patient and present: Acknowledge that trauma processing can be difficult and be patient with the child’s pace and needs.
The bottom-up and top-down distinction is valuable, because we, as carers, often jump straight to top-down regulation strategies even though the child is just not ready or able to respond in the way we would hope. This can lead to strategies that escalate the problem. Some of the children in our care will need substantial groundwork in bottom-up regulation before they are ready to gain insights into their actions or they are able to communicate their needs effectively.
For more practical strategies to respond to behaviours that challenge, don’t miss our upcoming workshop on 26th of March: Shut off, sad, hurt, and angry: Behaviours that Challenge .
