HRE, which stands for “Happy, Relaxed, and Engaged”, is a concept from Dr. Gregory Hanley’s groundbreaking paper, “A Perspective on Today’s ABA” (Hanley, 2020), in which compassionate and trauma-informed teaching is rooted in a place where autistic learners feel safe and in control. The learner should be calm and comfortable before teaching opportunities are presented. A “happy” learner should be content with where they are and what they have and should not be attempting to leave or engaging in any problem behaviors. A “relaxed” learner should be calm and not be displaying anxious or uncalm behaviors. An “engaged” learner should be oriented toward and interacting with an item/activity/person of their choice without engaging in problem behaviors. So long as the behaviors are not causing a safety concern to the learner, others, or the environment (i.e. property destruction), they should be allowed to engage however they choose during this time. Every person’s HRE state is unique and it is vital to identify the individual learner’s HRE conditions for implementing a compassionate behavior change program (Grover, et. al., 2022). HRE requires that all three parts are present at the same time. According to Dr. Hanley, when a learner is HRE, it is less likely they will engage in severe problem behavior, which allows for more challenging skills to be taught while prioritizing safety and positive relationships.
VIDEO SUMMARY
How To Use
HRE conditions should be prioritized and reached at the start of any behavior change program, and should be returned to frequently. Teaching opportunities should be sprinkled throughout HRE time, rather than the opposite, which is how traditional compliance-based applied behavior analysis (ABA) programs have been (Evans, 2023).
Steps
- Collect information about the learner. Find out what the learner loves and what they hate. Learn about how they communicate. Interview the learner and those who know them best. Do preference assessments to find as many different types of preferred items/activities/interactions as possible.
- Promote happiness.
- Create a welcoming environment. Make the setting comfortable and safe with many of the learner’s preferences freely available.
- Be available to the learner. Stay at or below their level, orient toward them, and respond to every time the learner tries to engage with you. Make genuine compliments and comments, as long as they don’t upset the learner.
- Promote relaxation.
- Remove all demands.
- Provide signals that it is the learner’s time to decide what they’d like to do
- Promote engagement.
- Have a large variety of preferred items/activities available and change out materials regularly, so that the learner doesn’t get bored
- Don’t engage with the learner’s things unless they invite you (by asking/telling, or with non-vocal cues) to do so
- Once invited, you can engage in the items in a way that looks like a shared experience rather than supervising the learner
When To Use
Especially for students who have a history of engaging in severe problem behaviors, teachers should allow the student to get to, and remain HRE, for at least 5 consecutive minutes before initiating teacher/adult-led time. Return to learner-led HRE time for at least 30 consecutive seconds between teaching opportunities. If during teacher/adult-led time, the learner engages in any severe problem behavior, immediately acknowledge them with an empathetic statement and return to learner-led HRE time. If during teacher/adult-led time, the learner engages in any low-level problem behavior (not severe and not likely to escalate to severe behavior), immediately acknowledge them with an empathetic statement, and then try to encourage the learner to persist with the task, even though it may be difficult. If during learner-led HRE time, the learner engages in any severe problem behavior, immediately acknowledge them with an empathetic statement and try to give them whatever you think they may be wanting (if possible) in order to try to stop the behavior as quickly and safely as possible. Don’t make them ask for anything, but rather assume what they might want/need and get that to them. You can also make changes to the environment by turning down the lights, putting on calming music, giving space, etc. to try to calm them.
Variations
There are endless possibilities of what HRE may look like, depending on the individual and their preferences at any given time. Frequent preference assessments, monitoring motivation in-the-moment, and gathering information via sources like the ‘HRE Context Questionnaire Form’, or other forms, will provide data to guide the creation of a context that is likely to bring about a state of HRE for a learner.
Additional Resources
Summary
Every person’s HRE state is unique and it is vital to identify the individual learner’s HRE conditions for implementing a compassionate behavior change program (Grover, et. al., 2022). HRE requires that all three parts; being happy, relaxed, and engaged, are present at the same time. According to Dr. Hanley, when a learner is HRE, it is less likely they will engage in severe problem behavior, which allows for more challenging skills to be taught while prioritizing safety and positive relationships.
Credits
The contents of this handout were developed under a grant from the Nebraska Department of Education, IDEA parts B and C from the U.S. Department of Education. However, this content does not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.
Research
Evans, A. (2023, March 2). Happy, relaxed, and engaged in today’s aba. ThinkPsych. https://thinkpsych.com/blogs/posts/happy-relaxed-and-engaged-in-todays-aba
Gaunt, S., & Karpel, S. (2023, January 17). What is happy relaxed engaged in Aba?. How to ABA. https://howtoaba.com/happy-relaxed-engaged/
Gover, H. C., Staubitz, J. E., & Juárez, A. P. (2022). Revisiting Reinforcement: A Focus on Happy, Relaxed, and Engaged Students. TEACHING Exceptional Children, 55(1), 72–74. https://doi.org/10.1177/00400599221123185
Hanley, G. (2023, March 9). A perspective on Today’s ABA from Dr. Hanley. Practical Functional Assessment. https://practicalfunctionalassessment.com/2021/09/09/a-perspective-on-todays-aba-by-dr-greg-hanley/