Britt Wheaton with the Student Needs Checklist cover and two slides from the Student Needs Workshop

FREE STUDENT NEEDS CHECKLIST + 1-HOUR WORKSHOP

Supporting behavior starts with felt safety.

Felt safety comes from 5 needs: safety, comfort, autonomy, belonging, and competency.

Here for the Student Needs Checklist? You are in the right place. It comes with the free Student Needs Workshop.

Free. The workshop arrives right away. The checklist arrives the next day.

You have tried everything you were handed.

The seat change. The fidget. The breaks. The sticker chart.

Each one worked for a while. Then the behavior came back.

Before you say the student is not trying, I want you to repeat after me and say it with your chest. It is not you. It is not the kid.

When I started working as a behavioral teacher, I tried it all. The problem was, I was choosing strategies on a hunch and on what I saw in the moment, while I was doing 101 other things. I was choosing tools for problems I didn't understand, and I was killing myself slowly over it.

The Student Needs Workshop + Checklist is how you name it.

Free. The workshop arrives right away. The checklist arrives the next day.

The behavior is coming from a compromised need.

Many of today's extreme behaviors come from neurodivergent students whose needs are compromised in the classroom.

Britt Wheaton with a Student Needs Checklist page and two workshop slides about compromised needs

When I say neurodivergent I mean:

  • ADHD
  • Autism
  • Trauma or anxiety
  • Sensory processing differences
  • Students who struggle with working memory, socializing, or sensitive nervous systems
  • Other neurological differences that lead to compromised needs in the classroom

Felt safety comes from 5 needs: safety, comfort, autonomy, belonging, and competency. These 5 needs are often compromised for neurodivergent students in general education settings. When these needs are compromised over and over again, the student's threat response becomes overreactive, and the behavior becomes MALADAPTIVE.

In your classroom, that looks like:

Big threat response behaviors that look like fight/flight.

Seeking constant affirmation or connection.

Seeking control.

These behaviors are threat responses. That means they protect the student in the moment but cause problems over time.

Identify the root of the behavior and prevent the behavior before it occurs.

Free. The workshop arrives right away. The checklist arrives the next day.

In about an hour, you'll have a plan for your toughest student.

Pick one student. Press play. Fill in the workbook while I teach. I build in time for you to write and reflect.

By the end of the Student Needs Workshop, you will have:

  • The two needs that are most compromised for that student, named
  • What is compromising them in your classroom, named
  • Strategy ideas for each need, and the one you will try first
  • A start date, so you are preventing the behavior before it happens instead of reacting after it does

This works even if:

  • You have one prep period and very little energy left
  • You have already tried the seat change, the fidget, the breaks, and the sticker chart
  • You are not a classroom teacher. Paraprofessionals, interventionists, social workers, administrators, and parents use the same process.

Free. The workshop arrives right away. The checklist arrives the next day.

Pages from the Student Needs Workshop Workbook with checkboxes and lines to write on

Three things come with your sign-up

A slide from the Student Needs Workshop

The Student Needs Workshop

I walk you through the whole process, then work a real case study all the way through so you can see it done before you try it. It runs about an hour.

Pages from the Student Needs Workshop Workbook with checkboxes and lines to write on

The Student Needs Workshop Workbook

Eight printable pages you write on. You fill it in during the video, and I build in the time. You finish the workshop holding a completed plan, not a list of things to do later.

The Student Needs Checklist, a reference guide to the five needs

The Student Needs Checklist

The reference copy. All five needs and the situations that commonly compromise them. It arrives the next day, so you watch the workshop first.

Fill out the workbook once, for one kid. Keep the checklist for every kid after that.

This workshop is a sample of The Neurodivergent and ADHD Toolkits Bundle.

The workshop helps you find the need behind a student's behavior. The Bundle, Workshop Special Edition gives you the strategies to meet it:

  • 200 strategies, sorted by which of the 5 needs they support
  • 4 kits: Instruction, Classroom Environment, Emotional Regulation, and Executive Functioning
  • 4 case studies, each worked all the way through
  • 5 ebooks
  • 2 bonus resources: Motivation Boosters: Bingo Your Directions, and Bingo The Bundle
  • 3 months in The Neighborhood, with live coaching

At the end of the workshop, I'll give you a code for The Bundle, Workshop Special Edition. The Workshop Special Edition is only available to people who watch and complete the Student Needs Workshop. It is a special Easter egg thank-you to everyone who is committed to doing the work.

Cover of The Bundle, Workshop Special Edition
Britt Wheaton, founder of Teaching to a Riot

Hey! I'm Britt!

Hi, I'm Britt. I am an AUDHD behavioral kid, turned behavioral teacher, turned neurodivergent trainer and coach. Seventeen years in K-12, thirteen of them in specialized programs.

I built this checklist because I was the kid it is written about. I was the one who took it out on my teachers until they sent me home. Nobody ever asked what need I was missing. They asked what was wrong with me.

Questions

Is this actually free?

Yes. The workshop, the workbook, and the checklist all come to your inbox for nothing.

How long does it take?

About an hour. Part of that hour is you writing while a timer runs on screen. It is built to be done in one sitting.

When do I get everything?

The workshop and the workbook arrive right away. The Student Needs Checklist arrives the next day, so you watch the workshop first.

Do I have to print the workbook?

No, but do it if you can. Writing by hand works better than typing for this, and you will want it next to you while the video plays.

What if I do not have a student in mind?

You do. It is the kid you were still thinking about on the drive home. The one you plan your whole day around. The one whose name came into your head while you were reading this page. If you really are between students right now, pick a past student whose behavior you never figured out. The process is the same, and you will already know it when your next tough student shows up.

Do I need the paid Bundle to use this?

No. The workshop and the workbook stand on their own. The Bundle is where the 200 strategies live, and I tell you about it at the end. You can finish the whole process without it.

I am not a classroom teacher. Is this still useful?

Yes. Paraprofessionals, interventionists, social workers, administrators, and parents all use this. Anywhere you are trying to figure out why a kid is doing what they are doing, the process is the same.

Does this replace a Functional Behavior Assessment, an IEP, or a 504?

No. It runs alongside those. If a student is causing harm to themselves or someone else, you handle safety first and you do this afterward.

Pick the student. I will take it from there.

About an hour from now you could have an actual answer about the kid who has been costing you your peace and your sleep.

Free. The workshop arrives right away. The checklist arrives the next day.

Neurodivergent students aren't broken. The system is. Let's change that.

Britt Wheaton next to the words: Not ready to sign up yet? Read the blog first. It helps you learn why the behavior is happening.

Not ready to sign up yet? Start with the blog.

I write about neurodivergent students, behavior, and what to do about it in a real classroom. Each post helps you learn why a behavior is happening. Read as much as you want. You do not need to give me your email to read it.

Read the blog

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