What is BABS?
Breaking All Barriers
BABS grew from something I kept seeing again and again — in homes, classrooms, and school meetings.
In real life, behaviour and learning are never truly separate.
When a child struggles, adults often experience only fragments of what is actually happening.
Behaviour challenges.
Emotional reactions.
Learning resistance.
Anxiety.
Shutdown.
Fatigue.
Inconsistency.
These are easy to treat as isolated problems.
In practice, they are usually deeply connected.
BABS exists to help parents and educators step back and make sense of that bigger picture.
Starting from a Different Place
Children are constantly managing demands that are not always obvious from the outside.
Cognitive effort.
Emotional load.
Social pressure.
Sensory input.
Environmental complexity.
When that load becomes too heavy, strain has to show up somewhere.
Sometimes it appears as behaviour.
Sometimes it appears as learning difficulty.
Often it appears as both.
Rather than focusing only on managing what is visible, BABS shifts the starting point.
Instead of asking,
How do we stop this behaviour?
We begin asking,
What might be making it hard for this child to cope, regulate, or engage?
That small shift changes everything.
Where BABS Becomes Useful
BABS is particularly helpful when experiences start feeling confusing, inconsistent, or stuck.
For example:
• A child who copes well one day and falls apart the next
• Behaviour that feels unpredictable or disproportionate
• Ongoing tension around schoolwork or expectations
• Anxiety, withdrawal, or refusal linked to school
• Repeated reports of “not trying” or “not focusing”
• Assessments that feel overwhelming or unclear
• Friction or misalignment between parents and teachers
Rather than reacting to isolated moments, BABS helps adults recognise patterns developing over time.
Patterns that often explain far more than any single incident ever could.
How BABS is Used
BABS provides a structured lens for thinking about:
• Behaviour challenges
• Learning struggles
• Regulation patterns
• School-related stress
• Environmental influences
• Assessment and diagnostic reports
• Support planning
It does not categorise children.
It helps adults interpret what they are seeing with greater clarity, coherence, and context.
BABS informs consultations, school collaboration, workshops, and applied classroom systems, including The Integrated Brain Classroom™.
Why This Matters
Without a coherent interpretive lens, adults naturally respond to the loudest signal.
Behaviour gets managed.
Learning gets remediated.
Emotions get soothed.
Yet the underlying drivers may remain unchanged.
This is where cycles of frustration and escalation often begin — not because anyone is doing something wrong, but because the full picture is harder to see.
BABS helps shift the focus.
From incidents → to patterns
From reaction → to understanding
From correction → to support
A Collaborative Framework
BABS is a collaborative body of work developed by:
Nicola Killops
Education specialist, writer, and neurodiversity advocate with a professional background in gifted education, twice-exceptionality (2e), and learning support. Extensive experience working alongside learners navigating ADHD, autism, anxiety, learning differences, and complex cognitive profiles.
Kate La Trobe
Board-Certified Behaviour Analyst (BCBA) specialising in behaviour, regulation, and evidence-informed support approaches. Professional expertise includes behaviour assessment, applied behaviour analysis, and school consultation.
Lauren Kyte
Founder and owner of Future Steps School. Specialist in Neethling Brain Instrument (NBI) brain profiling and sensory integration, with a focus on cognitive processing styles, regulation influences, and whole-child development.
The Integrated Brain Classroom™
The Integrated Brain Classroom™ is a school-based system developed from the BABS framework.
Where BABS guides understanding, The Integrated Brain Classroom™ supports implementation within educational environments.
Rather than focusing on isolated behavioural events, schools begin recognising recurring regulation patterns across contexts.
This enables more targeted, proactive, and stabilising adjustments.
Core Perspective
Behaviour is communication.
Learning depends on regulation.
Context shapes outcomes.
Understanding changes responses.
Enquiries
Nicola Killops
nicola.killops@rendercreative.info