In this instructional video, board‑certified behavior analyst Sasha Long explains the escalation cycle—a visual model that maps how problem behaviors develop from a calm state, through agitation and acceleration, to a peak, and finally into de‑escalation and recovery. She argues that understanding each phase enables educators to apply phase‑specific, evidence‑based strategies that prevent crises and keep students safe. The video outlines proactive, antecedent‑based interventions for the calm (green) stage, boundary‑setting and conditional reinforcement techniques for the buildup/agitation stage, safety‑first, low‑demand de‑escalation tactics for the peak (red) stage, and rapport‑building, instructional follow‑up during recovery. Long also promotes handouts and a mini‑unit that package these strategies for families and team members, encouraging viewers to adopt a consistent, team‑wide approach to behavior management.
Chapters
Have you heard of the escalation cycle? If you haven't yet, this is an important tool for understanding how big behaviors build and fall, and knowledge of the escalation cycle really helps you prevent problem behaviors and help students safely de-escalate. I'm Sasha Long. I'm a former special education teacher and board-certified behavior analyst, and I am all about real-world actionable strategies that work, and the escalation cycle is one of them. So this is kind of a depiction of what the escalation cycle looks like. It's a visual representation of how behaviors build. A meltdown typically doesn't come out of nowhere. There's usually a trigger. We have agitation, behaviors start to accelerate, we get to the peak, and then we're moving towards de-escalation and recovery. When we understand what each phase of the escalation cycle looks like with learners, we are able to better implement strategies to hopefully stop when we get to this agitation phase or acceleration and not get to the peak. I've created some handouts that really help break this down because when you're looking at the escalation cycle, you wanna make sure everyone's on the same page that, hey, when we're seeing these behaviors in this agitation stage, there are certain strategies we wanna use. And let me tell you, those strategies are different than the strategies you might use at the peak. Let's talk about this. What do we do at each stage of this escalation cycle? And this is a tool that I actually created for students help identify where they are in the cycle. So when we're calm, you might not think, but there are actually strategies we want to be using in the green, in the calm strategy, because we want to keep them there. We don't want this escalation to happen. We want students to stay in the green. So there are strategies we have to implement. These are all of our proactive antecedent-based interventions. We are preventing problem behaviors before they start. Strategies in this umbrella include a structured predictable environment, use of a visual schedule, choice, clarifying expectations both verbally and visually, having engaging on-level academic and recreational activities, having reinforcement in place. All of those strategies will help keep you in the calm. So think about what are my green strategies? Make sure we have those. Then when we get to the buildup, I've kind of simplified it here for my student session, but this is where we think about the trigger, the agitation, that acceleration. Something happens. The child is told no. The child has an unpreferred activity. There's a change in the child's schedule. Something they don't like happens. So what can we do when we're in this stage to not go to red? And the answer isn't be like, okay, well, you can have what you want. We can set boundaries in place and hold and enforce those boundaries while still preventing the escalation to the peak. We want to prevent the power struggle, and this is where we're starting to get into that power struggle. So, for some of the examples I gave— being told no, having a change in the schedule, having an unpreferred activity— we can still make those same expectations in place for that student without it accelerating to the peak. We can say no and give a reason. We can give no with a conditional yes. When there's an unpreferred activity, we can attach that to a reinforcer. We can use a first-then. We can make that unpreferred activity more preferred by letting them do that activity with a friend or listen to music. If there's a change in the schedule, we can prepare of the change and give a break. All of these embedded strategies will help prevent us from going to agitation to acceleration and a peak, and that's what our goal is. We're not removing demands. We're not loosening expectations. We are just giving more supports when we see that there is a trigger here. Now, once we have escalation at a peak, because sometimes there's things that are outside of our control— we can't control being short-staffed, we can't control the fire alarm being pulled, or the child not feeling well or sleeping well— all of those things can contribute to that peak happening. Now, when we're at the peak, when we're at the very top of this escalation cycle, our strategies are different than we're here. Our strategies at the peak are related to safety and de-escalation and getting down that mountain. I like this visual. I think about this so often. When we're at the peak, my strategies change. I have a lot of videos on de-escalation because our goals at de-escalation are different than they were before. Once that child is in the red, they're at the peak. Learning is not happening. We are not teaching skills in this moment. We were able to teach skills here. We're not teaching skills here. This is where we're seeing aggression, self-injury, eloping, property destruction. Our goal here is to move to de-escalation, is to move to recovery. So we are doing what we need to do to help that child get there because they're not able to on their own. This is where we are giving space, minimal verbal, We are backing off. We are doing no demands. We are removing children and items in the proximity so they can stay safe and not hurt themselves or other people. Now, some people say, "Oh, we're just letting them do whatever they want." No. Instruction will come. Instruction will come at a time when the child is capable of receiving that instruction. In that moment, when they're at the peak, they're not. And you know what? You and I aren't either. There are times where we are so mad that we can't think rationally. And reason and problem solve. That's where that child is right now. So once— our goal at the peak is to get them down. Once we get to de-escalation, we want to get to recovery. That's when we can rebuild rapport. That's when instruction can happen. That's when we can talk about strategies for preventing this in the future and negative choices that maybe were made at the peak. But we're not doing it then, because if we do it then, we're only going to stay at the peak longer or maybe even make the peak even higher. See, this visual is great. Right? So think about the strategies you have for the calm stage, for the agitation and acceleration, and then the peak. What do those look like? Make sure your whole team is on the same page with understanding what those strategies are. If you want more information on the accel— the escalation cycle, I have a whole mini unit that includes all of these resources and other things. These handouts to me are a game changer for sharing with family members, team members, Click the link below, click subscribe to learn more behavior strategies that actually work with your students.
