Supporting Self-Regulation

NOVEMBER 2014

Early Childhood

VOLUME 1 ISSUE 1

There are little eyes upon you,

And they are watching night and day;
There are little ears that quickly take
In every word that you say;
There are little hands all eager to do
Everything that you do,
And a little child who's dreaming of
The day he'll be like you.
You're the little child's idol,
You're the wisest of the wise,
In his little mind about you,
No suspicions ever rise;
He believes in you devoutly,
Holds all you say and do;
He will say and do in your way when
He's grown to be like you.

EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
The early childhood period from three- to eightyears-old, from about the start of preschool until
about the second grade, children are developing
the emotional skills necessary to be successful
throughout school and life. By this time young
children are aware that they are their own unique
person and develop self-conscious emotions that
link to their own self-evaluations on whats good
or bad. Because of immense language and
cognitive development they learn to use the words
and understand the meanings for different
emotions they feel. This leads to an
understanding that others may feel differently
than them and how their own behavior can affect
others, which is how empathy is developed; they
are able to detect different emotions, to take
anothers emotional perspective, and to feel with
that person, or respond emotionally in a similar
way by showing sympathy and prosocial
behaviors (Berk, 2013). All along these different
developments, understandings, and abilities are
supported by and supporting self-regulation
which requires voluntary, effortful management
of emotions through attention focusing and
shifting, the ability to inhibit thoughts and
behavior, and planning, or actively taking steps to
relieve a stressful situation (2013). A childs
temperament and choice of parenting style does
influence these developments.

There's a wide eyed little child who

Believes you're always right,
And his ears are always open and he
Watches day and night;
You are setting an example
Every day in all you do
For the little child who's waiting
To grow up to be like you.
-Unknown

Ways We Can All Promote Self-Regulation:

-talk about feelings to give
meaning to what they feel
-provide reasoning and
explanations for why we do or
do not act in certain ways
-model appropriate behaviors
towards the child and around
the child
-be warm, supportive, and
responsive to the childs needs,
abilities, and understandings

KRISTIN LYNG
Contact Information:
(518)654-6093
kristinlyng84@yahoo.com

Supporting Self-Regulation Continued

NOVEMBER 2014

Is Your Child Still Struggling to Self-Regulate?

For a moment think about the last time you lost your cool; we all have done it
from time to time and for a brief moment we were not able to self-regulate our
behavior. My point being is that this is hard to do sometimes for adults and
children alike. At the beginning of the early childhood period young children are
just learning how to do this, how their emotions lead to a feeling within them,
and that others can feel things different than them. When they start Kindergarten
they should be pretty capable of self-regulating, but some still may have a
difficult time doing so. If your child is struggling with this there could be many
reasons behind it, but it is extremely important to let their teacher know any
concerns you may have. At home you could use these strategies:
-play with your child and use role playing as a way to talk about feelings by
asking questions such as How do you feel when you see that another child has
what you would like to have? or How would it feel if someone took one of
your toys or things without your permission? and then further this open
discussion by giving the child ways to identify when they feel angry (their face
feels red, their tummy swirls) and appropriate choices they have to handle the
situation like counting to ten, walking away, or calmly explaining themselves
(NASP, nd).
-using daily life experiences to work on using their words to explain how they
feel and you can help them through this at first by guiding them and offering
suggestions, but as they gain more experience you slowly pull back your help;
using reading time to talk about how the characters feel and what they should do;
and being a good role model by showing that you are able to self-regulate.

Their hands only stay this size for a little while & they will
never be that small again so take advantage of the influence
you have on their development!

VOLUME 1 ISSUE 1

Self-regulated children can delay

gratification and suppress their
immediate impulses enough to
think ahead to the possible
consequences of their action or to
consider alternative actions that
would be more appropriate
(Bodrova & Leong, 2008).
SELF-REGULATION = EMPATHY = SYMPATHY
= PRO-SOCIAL BEHAVIORS

It is always important to remember that each and

every child develops at their own rate. There are
many influences on development of selfregulation, but self-regulation also influences their
ability to be empathetic towards others. During
this period young children that experience
negative emotion intensely have greater difficulty
shifting their attention away from disturbing events
and inhibiting their feelings and are therefore
more likely to be anxious and fearful, respond
with irritation to others distress, react angrily or
aggressively when frustrated, and get along poorly
with teachers and peers (Berk, 2013). If a child
cannot regulate their own feelings and behaviors,
then they have a difficult time with social
relationships which also influences self-regulation
development. All the domains of development
(physical, cognitive, social, emotional, language)
are interrelated and interdependent of one another.
So difficulties can be caused by another domain
and have influence on another domain, such as a
child that has a speech delay may have trouble
being able to self-regulate because they cannot
verbalize what they feel, which can then have a
negative effect on social-emotional development.

Reference
Berk, L. E. (2013).Child Development. (9th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Bodrova, E. & Leong, D. J. (2008). Developing Self-Regulation in Kindergarten. The
National Association for the Education of Young Children. Retrieved from
https://www.naeyc.org/files/yc/file/200803/BTJ_Primary_Interest.pdf
National Association of School Psychologist. (2002). Teaching Young Children SelfControl Skills. Retrieved from
http://www.nasponline.org/resources/handouts/revisedPDFs/selfcontrol.pdf