“Fight or flight” refers to an automatic physiological reaction to an event that is perceived as stressful or frightening. The perception of threat activates the sympathetic nervous system and triggers an acute stress response. The threat doesn’t have to be real; we just need to perceive it as a threat. This is what we refer to when we talk about “aversions”. When we look at interactions and programming for children who are deafblind and who may also have additional challenges, we want to avoid things that trigger this response.

The parasympathetic nervous system causes changes in your body that are associated with things that let you “rest and digest”. So back to the snake example, if you look again where you thought you saw a snake and realize that the what you saw was only a stick, your parasympathetic system returns you to your base state where respiration, heart rate, and lung function return to normal. Your pupils constrict, you are able to produce more saliva, and you are once again able to expend the energy to digest food.

The PNS is tied to functions primarily in the right hemisphere of the brain. Like fight or flight, when we are fully in rest and digest mode, we are usually in a state, maybe daydreaming or even asleep. These states are also not conducive to learning.

We also want to avoid activities and environments that cause the learner to move into “rest and digest” mode during instruction. Instead we want to help the child move into a calm and alert or active and alert state, where they are able to engage fully in learning. These states are more conducive to engaging in interactions and participating actively in independent learning. Our challenge as educators is to develop learning activities and environments that cause the child to alert, become curious, and seek to engage with the person, object, or environment. We refer to sensory experiences that help the child achieve these states “appetites”.