Behaviors That

Still

Challenge Children and Adults

Developing Young Children’s

Self-Regulation through

Everyday Experiences

®

1, 2, 3

As university faculty,

I

often collaborate with teachers

when young children experi

-

ence learning or behavior chal

-

lenges. Every child is different.

Some have difficulty express

-

ing their ideas verbally. Some

struggle to get along with peers

or follow classroom routines. In

each case, however, one thing

is the same: improved learning

and behavior requires strong

self-regulation skills.

According to Ellen Galinsky,

president and co-founder of the

Families and Work Institute and

author of

Mind in the Making,

regulating one’s thinking, emo

-

tions, and behavior is critical

for success in school, work, and life (2010). A child who

stops playing and begins cleaning up when asked or spon

-

taneously shares a toy with a classmate, has regulated

thoughts, emotions, and behavior (Bronson 2000).

From infancy, humans automatically look in the direction

of a new or loud sound. Many other regulatory functions

become automatic, but only after a period of intentional

use. On the other hand, intentional practice is required

to learn how to regulate and coordinate the balance and

motor movements needed to ride a bike. Typically, once

one learns, the skill becomes automatic.

The process of moving from

intentional to automatic regula

-

tion is called

internalization.

Some

regulated functions, such as

greeting others appropriately

or following a sequence

to solve a math problem,

always require intentional

effort. It is not surprising

then that research has found

that young children who engage

in intentional self-regulation learn

more and go further in their educa

-

tion (Blair & Diamond 2008).

Children develop foundational

skills for self-regulation in the

first five years of life (Blair 2002;

Galinsky 2010), which means

early childhood teachers play an

important role in helping young children regulate thinking

and behavior. Fortunately, teaching self-regulation does

not require a separate curriculum. The most powerful way

teachers can help children learn self-regulation is by mod

-

eling and scaffolding it during ordinary activities. In this

article I define self-regulation and discuss how it develops.

I then describe an interaction I observed in a kindergarten

classroom and explain how the teacher used an everyday

experience to strengthen children’s self-regulation.

What is self-regulation?

Self-regulation refers to several complicated processes that

allow children to appropriately respond to their environment

(Bronson 2000). In many ways, human self-regulation is

like a thermostat. A thermostat senses and measures tem

-

perature, and compares its reading to a preset threshold

(Derryberry & Reed 1996). When the reading passes the

threshold, the thermostat turns either a heating or cooling

system on or off. Similarly, children must learn to evaluate

what they see, hear, touch, taste, and smell, and compare

Ida

Rose

Florez

Ida Rose Florez,

PhD, is an assistant professor of early child

-

hood education at Arizona State University. She studies young

children’s readiness for formal learning environments and the

role that self-regulation plays in young children’s early educa

-

tional experiences.

A study guide for this article is available online at

www.naeyc.

org/yc

.

47

Young Children

• July

2011

© Ellen B. Senisi

it to what they already know. Children must also learn to

then use self-regulation to communicate with any number

of systems (such as motor or language systems) to choose

and carry out a response.

Self-regulation is clearly not an isolated skill. Children

must translate what they experience into information they

can use to regulate thoughts, emotions, and behaviors

(Blair & Diamond 2008). Infants translate the feel of sooth

-

ing touch and the sound of soft voices into cues that help

them develop self-calming skills. Toddlers and preschoolers

begin to translate cues from adults, such as “Your turn is

next,” into regulation that helps them inhibit urges to grab

food or toys. They begin to learn how long they must usu

-

ally wait to be served food or to have a turn playing with a

desired toy, which helps them regulate emotional tension.

Because self-regulation involves different domains, regu

-

lation of one domain affects other areas of development.

Emotional and cognitive self-regulation are not separate,

distinct skills. Rather, thinking affects emotions and emo

-

tions affect cognitive development (Blair & Diamond 2008).

Children who cannot effectively regulate anxiety or discour

-

agement tend to move away from, rather than engage in,

challenging learning activities. Conversely, when children

regulate uncomfortable emotions, they can relax and focus

on learning cognitive skills. Similarly, children experience

better emotional regulation when they replace thoughts

like “I’m not good at this” with thoughts like “This is dif

-

ficult, but I can do it if I keep trying.” Regulating anxiety

and thinking helps children persist in challenging activities,

which increases their opportunities to practice the skills

required for an activity.

Self-regulation is also like using a thermostat because

both are active, intentional processes. Setting a thermostat

requires an intentional decision and the device actively

monitors environmental temperature. Similarly, self-regula

-

tion requires intentional decisions (“I will not hit Andrew!”)

and active processes (sitting on one’s hands so they are

unavailable for hitting). Although children’s behavior is

regulated by many processes that function outside their

awareness, researchers have found children’s intentional

self-regulation predicts school success (Zimmerman

1994). When provided with appropriate opportunities,

young children can and do learn intentional self-regula

-

tion. Researchers Elena Bodrova and Deborah Leong, for

example, taught preschoolers to plan their play activities

and found planning helped children develop stronger self-

regulation skills (Bodrova & Leong 2007).

Planning is an

important part of self-regulation. Teachers might suggest

that children sit on their hands to remind themselves to not

hit or touch another child. To use this practice, children

must think about potential future actions and then imagine

and enact alternative behaviors.

Finally, just as a thermostat monitors conditions to main

-

tain optimal temperature, self-regulation monitors condi

-

tions to maintain optimal arousal for a given task (Blair &

Diamond 2008). Everyone experiences peaks and lows in

levels of attention, emotion, and motivation. As children

develop, they learn that some activities require them to

pay attention more (that is, the activities require increased

attentional arousal

). For example, children need more

attentional arousal to watch a play than to chase a friend.

The same is true for motivational arousal. Children need to

“wake up” motivation more to stick with a challenging task

Self-regulation is clearly not an iso

-

lated skill. Children must translate

what they experience into infor

-

mation they can use to regulate

thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.

© Julia Luckenbill

48

Young Children

• July

2011

than to open a gift. Learning to persist in complex learning

tasks that stretch children’s skills is one of the most impor

-

tant outcomes of healthy self-regulation. To regulate vari

-

ous arousal levels, children must recognize when arousal is

not optimal and take steps to modify it. Children often do

this by squirming or looking away (such as out a window or

at other children’s activity)

to arouse fading attention,

or by withdrawing from oth

-

ers to reduce high physical

or emotional arousal.

How does self-

regulation develop?

As children develop, their

regulatory skills become

more sophisticated (Kopp

1982; Blair & Diamond

2008). Infants begin to

regulate arousal and

sensory-motor responses

even before birth. An infant

may suck her thumb after

hearing a loud sound, indicating that she is regulating her

responses to the environment. Toddlers start to inhibit

responses and comply with adult caregivers. By age 4, chil

-

dren begin to exhibit more complex forms of self-regulation,

such as anticipating appropriate responses and modifying

their responses when circumstances are subtly different.

For example, clapping is appropriate after someone speaks

during sharing time at school, but not while a teacher is

giving directions.

Self-regulation skills develop gradually, so it is important

that adults hold developmentally appropriate expectations

for children’s behavior. Vygotsky called the range of devel

-

opmentally appropriate expectations the zone of proximal

development (ZPD) (John-Steiner & Mahn 1996). The ZPD is

the “growing edge of competence” (Bronson 2000, 20) and

represents those skills a child is ready to learn. Expecting

children to demonstrate skills outside the ZPD is ineffective

and often detrimental. Punishing young children when they

fail to sustain attention longer than a few minutes or fail to

calm themselves quickly when frustrated does nothing to

help them learn self-regulation. Likewise, failing to provide

challenging opportunities for children to advance their

skills can hinder their growth.

As they develop, most children begin to use self-regula

-

tion skills without prompting or assistance. They develop

strategies to manage incoming information, choose appro

-

priate responses, and maintain levels of arousal that allow

them to actively participate in learning. When children

routinely self-regulate without adult assistance, they have

internalized self-regulation (Bronson 2000). Vygotsky

([1934]1986) described internalization as a process in

which children progress from co-regulating behavior with

an adult to doing so independently. Thus, to develop self-

regulation skills, children need many opportunities to expe

-

rience and practice with adults and capable peers.

Supporting self-regulation in a

kindergarten classroom

In the following vignette, I describe an

interaction I observed between Melissa, a

kindergarten teacher, and two children, Lucy

and Tricia, as they explored the science cen

-

ter. Melissa used this everyday interaction

to help the children practice and strengthen

self-regulation skills.

I sit quietly in a corner, observing Lucy, a

kindergartner with a moderate speech and

language delay. The children experiment with

clay and rocks, water and blocks, and dirt and

seeds. Their teacher, Melissa, moves among

them, using her presence, words, and actions

to direct the children’s attention and help

them stay motivated and engaged. Melissa makes her way

to the water table where 5-year-old Tricia constructs intri

-

cate waterways with plastic blocks. Lucy leans on the table,

watching silently.

“What are you doing, Tricia?” Melissa says as she pulls up

a chair and sits next to the table.

Tricia focuses intently as she repositions a block then straight

-

ens and looks at Melissa, “I’m making the water go fast!”

Putting her hand in the water, Melissa smiles, “Wow, it is

moving fast! May I play?”

“Sure!” Tricia nods.

Melissa turns to Lucy, “Want to play with us?” Lucy nods

and Melissa hands her a block, “Where do you want to put

it?” Lucy looks down and shrugs.

“Lucy, try putting it here.” Tricia points to the next hole in

the path.

Lucy hesitates but takes the block. She tries putting the

block in an empty space, but it doesn’t fit. Lucy rests the

block on the side of the water table and looks down. Gently

rubbing Lucy’s back, Melissa asks, “Do you need help?”

Lucy nods. Melissa leans in and whispers, “Tricia’s been

doing this a lot; why don’t you ask her how to do it? I bet she

could show you.”

Lucy looks up at Tricia, “Can you help me?”

“Sure!” Tricia takes Lucy’s hand and positions it over the

next space in the path. “Okay, push hard.” Lucy leans on the

block, pushing, but it does not go in. Tricia moves closer to

Lucy. “Push really, really hard. You can do it!” Lucy, lips tight

and determined, pushes the block hard into the hole. Water

swirls around it as a smile spreads across her face.

Self-regulation skills

develop gradually,

so it is important that

adults hold develop

-

mentally appropriate

expectations for chil

-

dren’s behavior.

Behaviors That

Still

Challenge Children and Adults