MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS
WHAT ARE NEEDS?
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is a psychological theory proposing that human motivation stems from a hierarchy of five fundamental categories: physiological, safety, love, esteem, and self-actualisation, with basic needs needing to be met before moving to higher-level needs. In reality we need to feel safe, feel protection, and have confidence in our abilities to be able to learn and progress. We will break down physiological needs in more detail as these can often be missed either at school or home to allow our children to flourish. This is not about neglect, though still important to be aware of, more to examine how everyday pressures can get in the way of reaching our self-esteem goals.
After reading this article you feel any areas covered are missing for your child, we can offer a basic needs check-in across home and school to engage support in these areas.
PHYSIOLOGICAL - BREATHING
What is it?
This is our most basic need for survival - the ability to breathe, filling our lungs with air, oxygenating our blood, our heart beat and brain functioning. And thus the first thing we check for in first aid if someone appears unconscious.
PHYSIOLOGICAL - WATER
What is it?
In our need for survival, we need fresh water, whilst the body can go days without food, we need to keep our body hydrated to continue to function.
What does this mean day to day?
One of the first triggers to a child's dysregulation is being thirsty. This can happen for many reasons - they miss the internal cues in their body that they need a drink, they are too focused on another task, they don’t like going to the bathroom, sensory sensitivities, limited access to drinks (classroom, travelling), low self confidence to ask or move to get a drink.
Ensuring that we are hydrated keeps us regulated, as well as our children. Find out what they like - icy cold, fizzy, play around with a slice of lemon, create a mystery drink! Keep drinks ready in the fridge, have water bottles or travel cups ready. Ensure school knows your child needs their water bottle close by. Set a reminder on your phone that you can regularly get them drinks, catching them before the anger and short tempered shouting starts (and making it harder to start the cycle of regulation to decompression to access a drink).
PHYSIOLOGICAL - NUTRITION
What is it?
Access to nutritious food to give the body the range of micronutrients it needs as well as the fuel to navigate the day.
What does this mean day to day?
Children may feel or appear lethargic or appear to suddenly ‘drop’ in mood/irritability - you’ve all heard of getting hangry!
If children's diets are restricted (ARFID) it can be around the sensory issues of food, the demand of eating food, but often can be a sign that the child is struggling to decompress and will seek safety in a limited number of known foods. It is hard to distinguish /evidence this, but when the child's environment becomes more stable they will likely be open to trying new foods. This can take weeks (think at least three weeks into summer holidays) and it will be very small changes to start with, trying a sauce, enquiring about food, looking at different foods at the supermarket, a different brand, or a different flavour under a known brand, eating a larger quantity of food than previously, asking for more food.
To support this, recognise where the original triggers around food have come from, and let them build confidence in their food choices.
offer alternatives at the table (fruit plate, deconstructed salad).
assign them the job of clearing plates and scraping left overs into the bin.
take them food shopping, to the market, explore smells, sights and texture of different foods, pick something up you haven’t tried before either, you can both explore it together.
sensory food play (see notes below).
increase the volume of foods they do like.
take photos of food and print to create a visual menu of choices.
If the issues fall around the demand of eating or they are experiencing disordered eating, do not leave out large quantities of food. Work with them to attune to their body when they are hungry, offer a small variety of foods (picky plate) so they understand that their struggle has been seen. This will build up their confidence knowing they are supported.
If a child has experienced early trauma or long term illness and missed the toddler stage of food discovery, when you are both ready, go back to basics. Create themes of food play - colours, textures, sounds, smells. Get creative with how you explore this, use citrus air diffuser oil, colour yellow, bake lemon cake, explore the bumps on the lemon peel, look up where lemons are grown and what conditions they need. Save the seeds and see what grows! This can be done over a range of different foods, incorporating number work (weights, amount needed, counting the seeds, counting yellow items on a walk), reading (instructions, research), fine motor skills (writing about yellow, colouring yellow, using kitchen equipment, yellow/lemon scented dough), social skills (talking together as you connect over the foods) and opportunities for emotional check in too (what does that texture feel like, what does that colour mean to you?) These extra steps will come naturally, but exploring any foods that the child is interested in will be a fantastic start.
PHYSIOLOGICAL - SHELTER
What is it?
The basic need for shelter, to keep you safe from the weather, away from predators, warmth, allowing the nervous system time to reset and rest.
What does this mean day to day?
At The Hub we often refer to this as a port of safety - meaning that we have somewhere secure to decompress. Rationally, we know that we are not being chased by sabre tooth tigers anymore, but our brains can feel the same level of threat if we are anxious, dysregulated or our nervous system isn’t able to reset. This is known as flight, fight, freeze response and activated in our limbic system, a primitive area in our brain developed to keep us alive.
Currently the pressures and demands of everyday life from school, social media, work and financial pressures can cause us to carry high levels of stress so creating a home that allows you to relax, flush the body of built up cortisol (tears, urine, sweat) will allow your brain the time it needs to reset, ready to face the world the following day.
Creating this port of safety will look different for each family dynamic, your rules will look different to others, your set up of equipment might work better in another room. Allow areas for play, discovery, physical movement. Allow your children to eat in different ways (if they struggle with formal eating at the table). Check the sensory inputs in each room, is it noisy? (Autistic individuals' sense of hearing is often heightened, hearing the hum of lights, the buzz of a plugged in charger etc), are there smells in the room, can the lights cast odd shadows? We need to create an environment where the other physiological needs here are met as a priority.
Reducing demands at home will help support your children that have had demands placed on them all day too, the sooner they feel reset, the sooner they will be able to progress to higher levels of Maslow’s Hierarchy. (Or access to physiological needs such as nutrition, all of the needs interlink and can’t be isolated, the base of the pyramid needs to be solid to support the big life advancements at the top of the pyramid).
If a child doesn’t feel safe at home from previous trauma, mixture of parenting styles, needs of siblings, financial restrictions it will be really beneficial if you can build reassurance with your young person and see what they would like to feel comfortable. This can be a small set up, soft lamp, blankets, books and toys, this may need containing so they can keep their things safe from siblings, it might mean shared spaces to be close to care givers and keep up connection. Allow them to wear clothes they are comfortable in (staying in pjs, minimal clothes or dress up), allow them to show their emotions, even when they are big and scary, showing that no matter how big they are, you are not scared of them.
PHYSIOLOGICAL - CLOTHING
What does it mean?
To help us feel protected from the elements, the right clothes allow us to explore our environment, enjoying all seasons without fear of burning or catching hypothermia. Shoes will protect our feet allowing us to hunt, explore, and work the fields for crops and cattle. Protection from rashes, stings, bites, thorns reduce the risk of illness and infection.
What does this mean day to day?
Our clothes can carry lots of sensory sensitives, stiff shoes, tight collars, and frustratingly scratchy labels, some with complex additions such as zips, buttons, buckles, laces which can add extra pressures on dressing if you have dyspraxia or other learning difficulties. If your child struggles here, accept their chosen style and buy clothes they are comfortable in.
Another sensory impact is when one of our internal senses, interoception, does not send the right signals to the hypothalamus as to how hot or cold the body is, interpreting the weather and understanding we need to use executive function (our brains terminology for doing) to change the clothes we are wearing. This can create its own demand and the fear of being exposed to a different air temperature than we currently feel safe in (short term discomfort to trade for a long term benefit). This can be a complex area to unpick but monitoring the weather, changes in their physical exertion and supporting them change to appropriate clothing will all help support them.
If a child is unable to feel safe in their clothes due to financial impacts, social expectations, neglect, storage, caregivers capacity they will struggle to complete their basis of physiological needs. This will affect each child differently depending on need, capacity for understanding, and why certain clothes may be needed (wearing a hard hat at a building site parallels wearing a sun hat in summer). Working on a child's self esteem to be comfortable in clothes that meet safety needs can work if other needs are covered first, this will be covered later on.
PHYSIOLOGICAL - SLEEP
What does this mean?
Sleep is a fundamental human need, crucial for maintaining both physical and mental well-being, impacting everything from cognitive function and mood to immune system strength and overall health.
It allows us to rest and repair, and manage stress.
What does this mean day to day?
We need to create a comforting environment for us to sleep and prioritise our rest time to ensure brain function and alertness. We can all struggle to sleep from time to time -the night owls struggle to switch off, often becoming productive as the day goes on but will want to sleep longer into the morning, unfortunately “office hours” tend to enforce strict policies working against our own rhythms.
Check room temperature, lights, shadows, odd noises the house makes, containing the use of electronics. Set alarms or reminders in the evening to trigger wind down time, meditation apps before bed and audio books or podcasts to help drift off for a restful night.
If your sleep has been disturbed, be patient with yourself, it takes a long time to recover. Allow some down time in your day to restore balance.
