Real conversations about sensory regulation, nervous systems, and the people supporting them.
Who’s Regulating Who? is a podcast from The Alert Program® exploring sensory regulation in real life. Created for occupational therapists, educators, caregivers, and anyone curious about how nervous systems affect behavior, learning, relationships, and performance.
Episode 1: Regulation Isn’t the Same as Calm
Even when we know better, it’s easy to assume regulation means getting someone calm. In this episode, we explore what regulation actually looks like—and why understanding a person’s sensory needs changes the way we support behavior, attention, and participation.
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TRANSCRIPT:
We talk about regulation constantly now.
But I’m not sure we always mean the same thing by it.
I’m Jennie Largent, and this is Who’s Regulating Who? — a podcast from the Alert Program® about sensory regulation, nervous systems, and what all of this actually looks like in real life.
And yes, the title is intentional.
Who’s regulating who?
Because whenever we decide that somebody else needs to regulate, I think there’s another question sitting there:
What’s happening in us?
What are we reacting to?
What is the environment asking of this person?
Are we helping somebody understand and respond to their own nervous system…
or are we sometimes trying to get their nervous system to behave in a way that’s more comfortable for ours?
That’s the kind of question I want this show to make room for.
Not because there is one clever answer.
There isn’t.
But because regulation happens in real life.
Between people.
In classrooms.
In clinics.
At work.
At home.
In noisy hallways and difficult meetings and grocery stores and bedtime routines.
And sometimes the person trying to support regulation is having a pretty crappy nervous-system day themselves.
So…
Who’s regulating who?
That’s what we’re going to explore.
And I think there’s probably no better place to start than with something I misunderstood when I first came into this work.
Regulation does not mean calm.
Now, that sounds incredibly simple.
But think about it.
When someone seems dysregulated, what do we instinctively want?
Do we want them regulated?
Or do we actually want them…
quieter?
Still?
Focused?
Less disruptive?
Less uncomfortable?
Maybe a little easier for everybody around them
Because those things are not necessarily the same.
We say:
Calm down.
We create calm corners.
We give people calming strategies.
We talk about a regulated classroom and, if we’re not careful, what we picture is a quiet classroom.
But what if calm isn’t what the person needs?
What if they need more energy?
Movement?
Alertness?
Engagement?
What if they’re already too low?
You certainly don’t want me calm to the point of falling asleep while I’m recording this podcast.
I need to be just right for this.
And that idea is central to the Alert Program.
For anyone who doesn’t know me yet, I’m Jennie Largent.
I now lead the Alert Program into its next chapter.
And here’s another thing we should probably establish early:
I am not an occupational therapist.
My background is in business strategy, organizational change, communication, human resources and implementation.
Basically, I’ve spent a large part of my career fascinated by humans.
Why do we do what we do?
Why do groups of people behave differently than individuals?
Why does change sometimes stick — and sometimes disappear six weeks after everyone attended a fantastic training?
And one of my favorite questions:
Why can we understand something intellectually and still have such a hard time actually doing it?
That’s one reason regulation has become so fascinating to me.
But I’m also not doing this alone.
I partner closely with occupational therapists and other professionals who have spent their careers doing this work — including OTs who taught the Alert Program globally for years alongside its founders, Sherry Shellenberger and Mary Sue Williams.
You’ll hear from those professionals on this podcast.
Sometimes we’ll go deeper clinically.
Sometimes we’ll talk about schools.
Sometimes practice.
Sometimes research.
Sometimes organizations and implementation.
And sometimes it’s going to be me sitting here asking what may sound like an incredibly basic question.
Because I’m beginning to believe basic questions can be really useful.
Especially when we’ve started using a word so frequently that we’re no longer sure we’re all talking about the same thing.
And regulation is definitely one of those words.
The Alert Program has been teaching self-regulation for more than three decades.
And one of the metaphors we use is an engine.
Sometimes your engine runs high.
Sometimes it runs low.
Sometimes it runs just right for what you’re trying to do.
It’s simple.
And for many people, it makes something happening internally much easier to notice and talk about.
But I want to be really clear about something.
The engine is one metaphor. It isn’t the point of the Alert Program.
Not everybody connects with engines.
Nor should they have to.
Maybe trains make more sense.
Maybe animals.
Maybe colors.
Maybe simple words like high alert and low alert.
Maybe none of those fit.
The goal is to find language that actually helps the person recognize and communicate something about their own internal experience. Alert Program materials have long emphasized that the engine is only one way of doing that.
And I think this matters even more as we take this work into different environments and communities.
How do people here communicate?
What’s appropriate for their age?
Their environment?
Their culture?
Their interests?
Their communication style?
What language will actually mean something to them?
Because if we’re so attached to our terminology that the person we’re trying to support can’t connect with it…
we’ve probably missed the point.
The framework matters.
The concepts matter.
But the way we communicate and apply them should have enough flexibility to meet the humans and environments we’re actually working with.
And that balance — what needs to stay consistent and what needs to flex — is something I think we’re going to talk about a lot on this show.
Because the other really important piece here is this:
“Just right” isn’t one universal state.
It’s contextual.
The state I need to fall asleep is very different from the state I need to lead a meeting.
A child sitting down to read may need something different from that same child walking onto the playground.
An OT moving from one client to another may need to shift.
An educator standing in front of 25 nervous systems is certainly not working with one universal version of regulated.
And frankly, the state I need to have this conversation with you might be completely different from the one I’ll need when I finish recording and want to sit quietly with a cup of coffee.
We’re always adjusting.
Sometimes without even realizing we’re doing it.
And once I really understood that, the conversation changed for me.
Instead of:
How do I get this person to calm down?
we can ask:
What’s happening right now?
What is this person trying to do?
What are we noticing?
What might support the state they need?
What could we try?
And then maybe the most important question:
Did it actually help?
That’s detective work.
And detective work is another foundational part of the Alert Program.
Observe.
Try something.
Notice.
Adjust.
We’re not looking for some magical sensory strategy that works for everybody.
Because there isn’t one.
People are different.
Environments are different.
Demands are different.
And even the same person’s needs change.
Sleep changes.
Stress changes.
Noise changes.
Movement changes.
Hormones change.
Our surroundings change.
The people around us change.
And that flexibility is one of the reasons I think this framework has lasted.
The Alert Program has been around a long time.
And sometimes in business, “this has been around for decades” can sound like code for:
This is outdated and not valid.
The educators, therapists, and clinic leaders who have relied on the Alert Program for years know why it still holds up: the core framework is clear and consistent, but flexible enough to adapt to different people, environments, cultures, and situations.
It’s structured enough to guide you, but simple enough not to collapse under its own weight.
Here’s where some of the newer research gets really interesting.
There’s increasing attention in occupational therapy and related fields around in-ter-o-ception.
That’s basically our ability to sense what’s happening inside our bodies.
Heartbeat.
Breathing.
Temperature.
Fatigue.
Hunger.
Tension.
Those internal signals.
A recent scoping review in the Australian Occupational Therapy Journal looked specifically at in-ter-o-ception in pediatric occupational therapy.
And what I appreciate about the research is that it doesn’t say:
Great. Mystery solved.
It describes interoception as an emerging area of OT practice and also points out that the evidence base still has significant gaps.
I love that.
Because good research should make us more curious.
Not less.
And when I look at that through an Alert Program lens, there’s an interesting connection.
For decades, this program has been asking people to become curious about their state.
What am I noticing?
How alert do I feel?
What seems to change that?
What happens when I move?
When I listen?
When I touch something?
When I eat or drink something?
What helps my nervous system?
And then we experiment.
That is such a different posture from simply deciding:
That person is dysregulated. Fix them.
Which brings me right back to the title of this podcast.
Who’s regulating who?
Because the adult nervous system is in the room too.
The clinician’s is.
The teacher’s is.
The parent’s is.
The leader’s is.
And then there is the larger environment.
The schedule.
The physical space.
The expectations.
The transitions.
The noise.
The culture.
The systems we’ve created.
So when something isn’t working, maybe the most useful question isn’t always:
What’s wrong with this person’s regulation?
Maybe sometimes it’s:
What’s happening around them?
Or:
What’s happening between us?
Or even:
What am I bringing into this interaction?
That’s white space I want this podcast to create.
Not to eliminate professional judgment.
Quite the opposite.
To make our judgment more curious.
More intentional.
And hopefully more useful.
And then there’s another layer.
You can understand all of this beautifully…
and still fail to implement it.
This is the part where my own background comes crashing into the conversation.
Because good ideas don’t automatically become good systems.
You can send one person to training.
They get it.
They’re excited.
They come back with a book full of notes.
Everybody is going to change EVERYTHING on Monday
Then Monday happens.
Then Tuesday happens.
Then someone calls in sick.
Then there’s a new initiative.
Then staffing changes.
Then the person who understood the framework leaves.
And six months later:
Is anybody still doing it?
This isn’t unique to sensory regulation.
It’s one of the oldest problems in organizational change.
And fascinatingly, Alert Program research is now asking versions of this question too.
In March 2026, researchers published a study in OTJR: Occupational Therapy Journal of Research specifically focused on implementation fidelity of the Alert Program.
They reviewed 14 studies and found variation in how completely the core elements of the program were represented.
So they developed a fidelity measure designed to help researchers and practitioners assess whether Alert is actually being delivered as intended.
When I read that, I thought:
This matters.
Because there are really two questions.
Does the framework have value?
And then:
Did we actually implement the framework?
Those cannot be the same question.
And implementation doesn’t mean making something rigid.
That’s the interesting tension.
How do we preserve the important pieces of a framework…
while allowing the flexibility required for different people, different environments, different cultures and different situations?
How does an educator understand enough to reinforce what an OT is doing?
How does a parent understand the language?
How does a clinic create consistency across clinicians?
How does a school introduce something beyond one classroom?
How does leadership support it?
And how do we keep the whole thing from depending on one incredibly passionate person who knows everything?
Those are clinical questions.
Educational questions.
Leadership questions.
And systems questions.
They’re human questions.
And that’s why I don’t want this podcast to belong exclusively to one profession.
Occupational therapists have been central to the Alert Program from the beginning and will continue to be.
But regulation doesn’t happen only in occupational therapy.
It happens everywhere humans do.
And that brings us to where Alert is now.
For several years, live Alert Program training was largely suspended as Mary Sue and Sherry moved toward retirement after decades of teaching this work around the world.
We’re bringing it back.
We are actively booking live Alert Program training again now.
And we’re doing it in partnership with experienced occupational therapists — including professionals who have spent years teaching this very program globally.
We’re also adding something that I think is essential:
implementation support.
Because I don’t just want people to walk away from a training saying:
“That was great.”
Obviously, I’d prefer you don’t say it was terrible.
But that’s really not the measure.
I want to know what happens afterward.
Do people use it?
Does the language make sense in their environment?
Does it spread?
Do people understand why they’re doing what they’re doing?
Can the framework adapt thoughtfully without losing the principles that make it Alert?
Is it still working six months later?
That is what sustainable change looks like.
And I think that’s a really exciting next chapter for a program that has already been helping people understand regulation for decades.
So I’m going to leave you with two questions today.
First:
Think about someone you support.
A student.
A client.
A child.
An employee.
A colleague.
Your partner.
Or just…
yourself.
When you say that person needs to regulate…
what do you actually mean?
Do you mean calmer?
Quieter?
More focused?
More alert?
More connected?
Ready to learn?
Ready to work?
Ready to play?
Ready to sleep?
What state are you actually trying to support?
And then the second question.
Before you decide what their nervous system needs…
what is yours doing?
Because maybe regulation isn’t simply something one person helps another person achieve.
Maybe it’s something happening between us all the time.
And that is why this show is called:
Who’s Regulating Who?
If this conversation has you wanting to understand the Alert Program framework more deeply, don’t stop with the podcast.
The Alert Program Online Course is available now at AlertProgram.com.
And if you’re listening from a school, clinic, district, organization, or team and you’re thinking:
We need our people to understand this together…
talk to us.
We are actively booking live Alert Program training, and we can also work with you beyond the training on implementation and sustainability.
Go to AlertProgram.com and reach out.
Tell us what you’re trying to accomplish.
Because understanding regulation is valuable.
Actually putting that understanding to work is where things start to change.
I’m Jennie Largent.
This is Who’s Regulating Who?
And I’ll see you next time.
Those who are interested are also welcome to send any questions or drop a note to Jennie’s inbox: development@alertprogram.com. We appreciate YOU!
About TherapyWorks, Inc.
TherapyWorks, Inc. is the company behind the Alert Program®, the essential body-first self-regulation system that helps people build practical regulation skills for daily life, learning, and work. Join what occupational therapists have known for over 40 years! The system is offered through three learning paths: the Alert Program® Online Course, Your Best Self Online Course, and in-person group training.
About Jennie Len Largent
Jennie Len Largent is a people-first business consultant specializing in human resources, professional training, and complex change. Before joining the Alert Program® as a training coordinator, she worked across financial services, technology, and the nonprofit sector. She now focuses on helping more people and organizations understand and apply practical sensory-regulation strategies.
