The Framework
A Whole-Child Framework.
Understand First. Then Support.
The BOUNCE Approach® is a developmental framework for understanding what sits beneath behaviour. Used in homes, classrooms and services across the UK to help adults understand children before deciding how to support them.
Not a behaviour programme, a diagnosis or a collection of strategies – a way of seeing children through six interconnected areas of development.
“What does this child need right now?”
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Grounded in evidence
Grounded in evidence. Designed for practice.
BOUNCE® brings together well-established research from six disciplines – usually taught separately – into one practical framework.
Polyvagal Theory
Understanding how the nervous system detects safety and threat.
Attachment Theory
How relationships shape regulation, trust and development.
Sensory Integration & Interoception
How children experience and interpret their bodies and the world around them.
Trauma-Informed & Neurosequential Models
Support is most effective when it follows the brain’s developmental sequence.
Communication Science
Behaviour, language and interaction as expressions of nervous system state.
Identity & Reflective Practice
Supporting children to develop self-awareness, resilience and a positive sense of self.
A developmental approach
The six pillars of the BOUNCE® Approach
A developmental sequence – children engage best when support matches the order in which the nervous system develops. Regulation before reasoning, safety before relationships, understanding before intervention.
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Everything rests on this
▲ Able to thrive & grow
Each level rests on the one below. When a child’s needs are met at one stage, they become developmentally able to access all those above it – you can’t reason with a child whose body doesn’t feel safe, or build identity before connection.
The base is the widest because it holds the most weight. Body and Nervous System is not the first step to get past – it is the ground the other five stand on, returned to again and again.
Foundation of safety first
← Scroll to see the full sequence →
Pillar 1 · Foundation
Body & Nervous System
Building safety, regulation and body awareness – the foundation everything else is built on.
Pillar 2
Openness to Connection & Attachment
Developing trust, co-regulation and safe relationships.
Pillar 3
Understanding Sensory Differences
Understanding how each child experiences and responds to their sensory world.
Pillar 5
Connection & Communication
Developing communication, relationships and social understanding.