Calming Overwhelming

Emotions:
STRATEGIES TO HELP STUDENTS BECOME SELF-REGULATED
LEARNERS
What is self regulation?
 “The ability to respond to the ongoing demands of experience with the range of
emotions in a manner that is socially tolerable and sufficiently flexible to permit
spontaneous reactions as well as the ability to delay spontaneous reactions as
needed” (Cole, Michel, Teti, 1994, p. 76).
 “An individual’s ability to modify an emotional state so as to promote adaptive,
goal-oriented behaviors.” (Shaw, Stringaris, Nigg, & Leibenluft, 2014)
What is Self-Regulation?
 Different aspects of it
 Focused attention
 Managing difficult and uncomfortable emotions
 Delaying gratification
 Some developmental tasks requiring emotion regulation:
 Tolerating frustration and tolerating being alone for reasonable periods
 Engaging others, developing friendships
 Recognizing danger, coping with anxiety and fear
 Defending oneself within bounds of acceptable behavior
 Developing interest and motivation in learning
Understanding Self-Regulation
 Ability to manage emotions, impulses and behavior
 Suggests flexibility and adaptability
 Dependent on environmental and contextual supports
 Biology, Genetics, & Temperament
 Self-regulation skills that develop over time
 Motivation to self-regulate
 Caregiver support by modeling, teaching, and coaching
 Environmental context
Set of Skills that can be developed
 Working memory
 Inhibitory control
 Cognitive flexibility
 Attention

 Things that can be isolated and strengthened

How does stress affect the developing
brain?
 When stress response is prolonged, there will be long term impacts on the child’s
brain
 More active amygdala
 Smaller hippocampus
 Smaller frontal lobe
 Smaller Corpus Colosseum
 Reduced size of cortex
What does this mean?
 Frontal Lobe Functions
 Impulse Control
 Organization
 Time Management
 Understanding Social Cues
 Corpus Callosum
 Not well integrated
 Having problems using words to solve problems
What does this mean?
 Amygdala Functions
 Problems with emotional control
 Difficulty with cause and effect
 Not able to empathize
 Difficulty finding words or describing emotions
 Hyper-arousal = anxiety
 Hippocampus Functions
 Impaired learning
 Difficulty making memories or retrieving memories
 Impulsiveness
Resulting in problems at school
 School age children experience changes in brain regions that normally would
help:
 Manage fears, anxieties or aggression
 Sustain attention
 Control impulses
 Manage physical responses to danger
Implicit Memories Often Direct Behavior
 Pre-verbal experiences
 Stored in implicit memory
 Activated by experiences
 Emotional response to current events filtered by past events
 Such as:
 Reactions to authority
 Power Struggles
 Attention Seeking Behavior
For example:
 At six months old get bitten by dog on the hand
 At 2 years old get bitten again by dog on hand
 When see a dog:
 Feeling of fear
 Feeling of pain in my hand
 Barking sound
 And feeling that want to run
How do we learn to self-regulate
 It is something that we can learn
 Co-regulation
 Baby hears loud noise
 By looking at mom’s face, draws attention away from the noise
 Also has a soothing quality because Mom does not show signs of stress
 Need for self-soothing behaviors such as thumb sucking
 Reduce distress and frustration
 Re-focus attention
How do we learn to self-regulate
 Speaking in calm tones
 Modeling self-calming strategies
 Talking children through strategies when they are upset
 Use of words to express emotions
 Modeling conflict resolution skills
 Learning selective attention
 Perspective taking
Developing self-regulation
 Develops over time from birth to young adulthood
 Early childhood & adolescence are times where self-regulation skills peak due to
changes in brain architecture
 Skills can be strengthened and taught from caregivers
 Repeated practice in supportive context
 Develops in context of social relationships
 Dependent on “co-regulation” by parents or other adults
Process Regulating Emotions
 Identification of internal emotions
 Understanding different feeling states
 Applying appropriate labels (“Happy” or “Sad”)
 Express emotions safely and regulate internal experience
 Impaired ability to self-soothe
 Dissociation
 Numbing of experiences
 Avoiding uncomfortable or overwhelming emotions
 Feeling uneasy
If unable to regulate emotions…
 Develop emotional instability
 Quick responses to minor stressors
 Extremely rapid escalation of emotional response
Managing Stress
 Manageable stress builds coping skills
 Prolonged stress and adversity can disrupt the development of self-regulation
 Overwhelm child’s skills or supports
 Negatively impact development
 Creates long-term changes in neurobiology
 Situations such as:
 Poverty
 Trauma
 Homelessness
Individual responses to stress
 Individuals vary in responses to adverse experiences
 Genetics and Environment
 Protective factors
 Coping skills
 Experiencing repeated stressors may make it difficult to self-regulate when faced
with stress later
 Neurobiological changes
Responses to stress
 Internalized responses
 Depression
 Anxiety
 Dissociation
 Externalizing
 Impulsivity
 Disruptive behaviors
 Aggression
Understanding dissociation
 Coping mechanism to deal with trauma
 Allows separation from experiences
 Normal response to overwhelming circumstances
 Spacing out
 Driving on autopilot
 Getting lost in a book or movie
 Being in the zone
 Ability to shift focus
 Can become an automatic response to stress
Normal dissociation
 Child becomes absorbed in an activity and is unaware of what is happening
around them
 Child develops a “make believe world”
 Knows the difference between fantasy and real
 Child reads to end of the page and does not remember what they read
 Mind went somewhere else
 Child can block out something unpleasant without harming overall functioning
Problematic Dissociation
 “Zoning out” and not listening to teacher without having control over behavior
 This can interfere with overall learning
 “Depersonalization”
 Feeling disconnected from self
 Blocking out other senses as well
 “Derealization”
 Need to separate conscious awareness from terrifying event
 Feeling that surroundings are unfamiliar or unreal
 Feeling foggy or feeling “like I’m in a movie”
Dissociation resembles other diagnosis
 ADHD: difficulty focusing on tasks
 ODD: Explosive and aggressive outbursts
 Bi-polar disorder: frequent mood shifts
 Tyler, Cauce & Whitbeck (2004) found that dissociative behavior is widespread
among homeless and runaway youth
Externalizing with Behaviors
 Attempts to overcontrol or under control certain behaviors
 Trouble controlling and expressing emotions
 May react inappropriately to situations
 May show violent reactions
 Want to control and not change routines
Protective Factors
 Positive connection to adults within family or community
 Development of self regulation activities
 Positive self-concept
 Desire to act effectively in one’s environment
 Developing an internal locus of control
 Valuing their knowledge and story
 Helping them to see themselves as active agents versus passive victims
 Engaging youth
 Actively listening to their stories
Body can help us learn emotions
 Teaching children to read body signals
 What are the cues that my body gives me?
 Where do I feel it in my body?
 Are my muscles tighter?
 What’s going through my mind?
 Has the volume of my voice changed?
 Am I speaking any faster/slower?
Ways to support self-regulation
 Provide labels for emotions
 Demonstrate self-talk to calm down
 Demonstrate taking deep breaths
 Prompt child to follow
 Reinforce them for responding
 Explaining rules
 Talk through problems or difficult situations
 Delaying gratification
Interventions Elementary School
 Teach problem-solving
 Model conflict resolution
 Provide time, space and support to manage emotions
 Model, prompt, and reinforce organization and time management skills
 Monitor task completion while encouraging independence and providing external
consequences as needed

http://fpg.unc.edu/sites/fpg.unc.edu/files/resources/reports-and-policy-briefs/SelfRegulationReport4.pdf
Strategies for Middle School
 Monitor and reinforce task completion
 Coach organization skills
 Teach planning and prioritization
 Collaboratively problem solve social and academic issues
 Coach healthy stress management
 Encourage decision-making when less emotional
 Reduce emotional intensity of interactions and situations exceeding coping skills

http://fpg.unc.edu/sites/fpg.unc.edu/files/resources/reports-and-policy-briefs/SelfRegulationReport4.pdf
Learning to focus
 Help them focus on finishing a portion of the project rather than the entire thing
 Teach strategies to help them attain the goal
 Set aside time (15 minutes) to work without distraction
 Self-reflect on what worked and what didn’t work
 What contributed to successes
 What could do differently next time
Mindfulness
 Paying attention in specific way
 Being in the present
 Helps with emotional regulation capacity
 Helps to bring one’s thoughts and feelings to the present moment
 Focusing and directing attention to specific areas
 Taps into connections between mind and body
How can mindfulness help?
 Enhance focus
 Reduce attention problems
 Improve wellbeing
 Increase social skills
 Reduce anxiety or distress
 Reduce impulsivity and reactivity
 Bring greater calmness and awareness
 Improve cognitive performance
Mindfulness for children
 Emotional Mind: recognize emotions that are present
 Reasonable Mind: recognize thinking errors
 Wise mind: Understand the ebb and flow of negative/positive thinking
Some Mindful activities…
 Superman pose
 Wonder Woman pose
 Activate your Spidey senses
 Creating a mindful jar with glitter
 Blowing bubbles or Mindful Breath
 Use of a tool such as a chime or bell
 Listen until you can no longer hear it
 Focus your attention on breathing
 Check your weather report
 Describe feelings in a particular moment
Neuroplasticity
 The brain is constantly rewiring itself
 Neurons that wire together fire together
 Constantly making new patterns
References
 Ackerman, C. (2017). Mindfulness activities for children and teens: 25 Fun exercises for kids. Retrieved from
https://positivepsychologyprogram.com/mindfulness-for-children-kids-activities/
 Barnes, A.J., Lafavor, T.L., Cutuli, J.J., Zhang, L., Oberg, C.N., & Masten, A.S. (2017). Health and self-regulation among school-aged children
experiencing family homelessness. Children: 4:70.
 Cole, P.M., Michel, M.K., & Teti, L.O. (1994). The development of emotion regulation and dysregulation: A clinical perspective. The
Development of emotion regulation: Biological and Behavioral Considerations. Monograph of the Society for Research in Child Development:
59, 2/3: 73-100.
 Cook, A., Spinazzola, J., Ford, J., Lanktree, C., Blaustein, M., Cloitre, M., … van der Kolk, B. (2005). Complex trauma in children and
adolescents. Psychiatric Annals: 35: 390-398.
 Herbers, J.E., Cutuli, J.J., Monn, A.R., Narayan, A.J., & Masten, A. (2014). Trauma, adversity and parent-child relationships among children
experiencing homelessness. Journal of Abnormal Psychology: 42: 1167-1174.
 MacDonald, S. (2014). Managing risk: Self-regulation among homeless youth. Child Adolescent Social Work Jornal, 31: 497-520.
 Shaw, P., Stringaris, A., Nigg, J., Leibenluft, E., Emotion dysregulation in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. American Journal of
Psychiatry, 171:3. March 2014.
 Tyler, K.A., Cauce, A.M., & Whitbeck, L. (2004). Family risk factors and prevalence of dissociative symptoms among homeless and runaway
youth. Child Abuse & Neglect: 28: 355-366.