Emotion Regulation

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March 10, 2023

What is emotion regulation, and how can teachers promote strategies that help children cope more effectively in the classroom?

Course Enquiry
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Galea, E (2023, March 10). Emotion Regulation. Retrieved from https://www.structural-learning.com/post/emotion-regulation

What is emotion regulation?

A revolution in neuroscience has occurred in the past two decades, transforming how we view the connections between learning, emotions, and the brain. A growing body of evidence suggests that emotions and learning are inevitably linked.

We all know that ‘we feel, therefore we learn’. Emotional learning is a key aspect of teaching children, so in this blog post, we will be exploring different strategies in which to support it within the school context.

Teachers often disregard a child's emotions in favor of expecting him or her to give their best effort to the task at hand because they believe that emotion is separate from cognition. We’ve also heard the distinction before,  differentiated as matters of the heart and matters of the mind, but there is no truth to this at all and it is a complete misconception for emotion and cognition to be considered as two separate entities. Rather, both emotion and cognition are interlinked and equally contribute to the control of thought and behavior.

Emotional regulation is the process of managing and controlling emotions in order to create an optimal learning environment. It involves recognizing and understanding feelings, constructively expressing them, moderating emotional responses through strategies such as self-talk or calming activities, and using appropriate problem-solving methods.

The goal of emotional regulation is to help individuals manage their emotions so that they are better able to think logically and engage productively in learning tasks without disruption.

 

Emotion and Cognition

A key area in the field of neuroscience is the interaction between emotion and cognition and it is this interaction which is essential for the adaptation of individuals to the environment. Emotion and cognition work together to activate particular brain areas, systems, and behaviors that seek adaptable responses to the event.

This interaction plays a significant role in the attentional deployment as well as the processes and regulation of emotion and cognition, which are integrated very early in development and have a great impact on later development too. In fact, emotions serve as an influential medium for increasing or impeding learning, therefore, they are critical in students’ academic development.

When our emotions are so intense that we become dysregulated, our executive function (the management system of our brain) does not work at full capacity. Our ability to think clearly and put the executive function into action is directly related to what we feel and how intensely we feel it.

The two key brain areas for emotion regulation, the pre-frontal cortex, and the amygdala, would be unable to interact with one another in a dysregulated state, leaving our emotions in charge (emotional dysregulation).

As the emotions decrease in their intensity, they become easier to manage. When emotions are well-managed, the pathways in the brain re-open, freeing up space for the executive function to mobilise. Therefore, it is crucial that emotion and cognition are working in tandem in order to function well.

 

Emotion and Cognition
Emotion and Cognition

What effect does poor emotional regulation have on children?

Research (Rudasill & RimmKaufman, 2009) shows that in educational settings, preschool children with low emotion regulation skills have more conflict with their teachers. Poor emotion regulation has a detrimental effect on academic performance and social interactions. It can also result in internalising and externalising disorders, which add to societal issues.

Therefore, integrating knowledge about cognitive emotion regulation strategies within the education system is crucial to enable a decrease in educational problems, such as absenteeism, poor school performance, early school leavers, poor interpersonal skills, and deficits in higher-order cognitive processes (executive function skills).

In fact, according to research studies (Bradvik, 2018) the prevalence of maladaptive disorders and addictions, particularly, suicide and suicidal attempts, have increased in the past few years on an international basis.

According to the World Health Organisation (2021), many suicides happen impulsively in moments of crisis with a breakdown in the ability to deal with life stresses, such as financial problems, relationship break-ups, or chronic pain and illness.

Hence, it is essential to start teaching children the skills necessary for emotion regulation at an early age so that they may learn how to manage the stressors they encounter on a daily basis and develop into resilient beings, and as they become older, they are better able to address the bigger issues.

An inability to control one's emotions can manifest in a variety of ways, including temper outbursts and breakdowns, violence, withdrawal, anxiety, low self-esteem, and academic difficulties. It may have detrimental effects on a child's overall well-being, social interactions, and mental health.

Developing positive mindsets towards emotional regulation

Hence, schools need to develop a mindset and culture in which teachers and students feel comfortable and talk freely about their emotions. In today’s world, it is critical that students learn to recognise the feelings they have and therefore, it is important for them to identify, control, and express healthy emotions and sentiments, as well as psychological issues.

As children learn to recognise their emotions, they will frequently begin with the most fundamental ones – emotions that are natural and shared by everybody, such as happiness, sadness, surprise, fear, disgust, and anger (Ekman, 1984) – and then move on to the secondary emotions – such as excitement, pride, embarrassment, and shame (Ekman, 1993). Naming our emotions aids in the development of emotional management abilities.

As teachers, we learn how to cope with a variety of scenarios and how to approach students and their parents. Why shouldn’t this be taught to students as well?

Regulating one's emotions is a critical strategy for students, which refers to the ability to manage and modify one's emotional experiences, expressions, and behaviors. It involves a range of cognitive and behavioral strategies that individuals use to influence how they feel and how they express their emotions (Gross, 1998, 2015).

In other words, emotion regulation is the processes, the strategies we use to increase, maintain, or decrease one or more components of an emotional response, be it physiological, behavioral, or experiential (Gross, 1998). As a result, emotion regulation leads to appropriate behavior.

 

Emotion related self-regulation
Emotion Regulation

Learning strategies and emotional regulation

The use of learning strategies alongside ER can support child self-regulation of both negative emotions (e.g. anxiety or disappointment) and positive emotions (e.g. overexcitement or overconfidence) that are considered intrusive and act as barriers towards academic success but equip them with effective strategies in order to cope with the pressures of everyday life. 

It is important to note that the process of how emotions come about can be complex and vary from person to person. Some individuals may experience emotions more intensely than others, while others may have difficulty regulating their emotional responses.

Understanding how emotions come about can help individuals better manage and respond to their emotions in a healthy and adaptive way. It is the stimulus that causes the emotion and what sets it off. A stimulus can be anything that triggers a response in the brain, such as a thought, situation, or event. This stimulus is often perceived as relevant to an individual's well-being or goals.

Once the brain receives a stimulus, it quickly evaluates the difficult situation, interpreted by the pre-frontal cortex, to determine whether it is positive or negative and whether it poses a threat or an opportunity. Finally, the emotion is expressed in a behavioral response, such as a smile, a frown, or an action that is consistent with the emotion, such as crying or laughing.

At a very young age, the pre-frontal cortex would not yet have properly matured, and reasoning abilities would not have either. In this situation, the teacher's role is particularly crucial in early childhood. The teacher in the classroom can assist the child in interpreting the emotion they are feeling in a positive way to eventually result in appropriate behavior.

By doing this, the teacher would have assisted the student in stabilising his or her emotions, enabling the student to concentrate on the work at hand. If a child is too preoccupied with negative thoughts to pay attention in class or too reactive to manage frustrations while taking a maths test, for instance, the child’s academic performance will most likely suffer. The ability to properly cope with emotions allows a child to experience an inner sense of calm.

 

Monitoring emotions
Monitoring emotions

Enabling teachers to adopt positive emotion strategies

Emotion regulation is considered to be ‘one of the most far-ranging and influential processes at the interface of cognition and emotion’ (Koole, 2009). This is due to the fact that emotion regulation is a component of mental health, which encompasses a person’s ability to be productive, have a sound interpersonal life, and make positive social relationships.

It allows students to cope with and handle daily stressors and manage their emotional responses in a way that is adaptive and socially appropriate.

Once teachers understand the importance of adopting cognitive emotion regulation strategies within the classroom, they pave the way for their students to succeed academically. It enables their students to refocus attention and to thrive toward their goals (Gottman, Katz & Hooven, 1996), which enhances social skills, social competence, and greater popularity amongst peers (Graziano, Keane & Calkins, 2007).

In addition, behavioral control, as well as cognitive control is improved, and children are more successful at learning tasks, and less likely to exhibit withdrawn or off-task inappropriate behaviors (Boekaerts, 2003). Children’s skills in emotion regulation will help them encounter distressing social situations at home or at school.

What strategies can teachers use to regulate children’s emotions?

According to Gross' (1998) process model of ER, emotion may be regulated at five points in the emotion-generative process: (a) selection of the situation, (b) modification of the situation, (c) deployment of attention (distraction), (d) change of cognition (positive reappraisal), and (e) modulation of responses (Refer to Figure 1).

 

Emotion regulation strategies
Emotion regulation strategies

 

Figure 1. Gross’ process model of ER

 

The process model divides these strategies into two categories: antecedent-focused (situation selection, situation modification, distraction, and cognitive change) and response-focused (response modulation). According to Gross (1998), antecedent-focused strategies are more effective at reducing emotional experience because they take place before an emotional reaction is fully generated, as opposed to after, as the response-focused strategy does. The strategies are:

Situation Selection: This refers to entering into or avoiding a specific situation.

Situation Modification: This involves adjusting a situation to change its emotional impact.

Distraction: This involves diverting attention away from the emotion or the source of the emotion, such as by engaging in a different activity.

Cognitive reappraisal: This involves changing the way one thinks about a situation to alter the emotional response. For example, reframing a negative event in a more positive light.

Response Modulation: This involves the efforts to modify an emotion after it has been fully generated, generally by inhibiting the expression of an emotion, such as not showing anger or frustration, which refers to suppression.

If suppressing emotions happens from time to time, it will not have dramatic effects on the individual. However, if practised consistently, this might result in serious psychological conditions over time. The solution to suppressing emotions is to learn new and healthier ways to regulate students’ emotions. Giving teachers awareness of alternative strategies to rely on, they are less likely to resort to negating students’ thoughts.

Rather, teachers need to present the children with a rich repertoire of strategies to be able to tackle their emotions effectively which are the antecedent-focused strategies that happen before an initial emotion occurs. It is the antecedent-focused strategies that are recommended and encouraged for use in class.

 

Emotional regulation chart
Emotional regulation chart

How does children’s emotional regulation develop?

Children are not born with cognitive emotion regulation capabilities. Children learn and practise these emotion regulation skills through a nurturing relationship with a caring teacher or caregiver within a structured and supportive environment.

Through co-regulation, the teacher supports and scaffolds the children’s thoughts and social behavior within the occurring situation, adopting cognitive emotion regulation strategies. Co-regulation will look different at different ages as a child's capacity for emotional self-regulation grows, but it remains a critical resource across development in children.

Co-regulation can also happen between a more regulated peer, who co-regulates with a less regulated peer, using these cognitive emotion regulation strategies, which we call peer or other regulation.

The implementation of these cognitive emotion regulation strategies is based on Vygotsky’s (1978) scaffolding, in which the expert, in this case, the teacher or a more regulated peer, supports the novice, the less regulated child, and builds on the already acquired knowledge or the skill level just above where the student currently is, until the child is able to self-regulate. In this perspective, the concept of these interactive supportive processes is built on Vygotsky’s notion of the zone of proximal development.

 

Final thoughts on self-regulation

During early childhood education, the children, at such a young age, would need constant repetition, as is done with the academic skills or any other skill in that case, so that these emotion regulation strategies are internalised and result in behavioral self-regulation, which involves the control of emotion.

If you had ever talked yourself out of a bad mood or calmed yourself down when you were angry, you were displaying effective emotional and behavioral self-regulation. The co-regulation that occurs in the classroom may eventually lead to self-regulation, which brings about positive results, such as well-being, social skills, and academic success.

This demonstrates why caregiving, whether by an educator or a parent, is a vital component in helping and supporting children to develop emotional self-regulation skills.

Supporting children to self-regulate:

helps keep disruptive emotions in check and think before they act;

helps maintain the proper mindset during challenging situations;

leads the children to positive mental health & physical behavior;

and helps them to handle life’s obstacles & make the most of the situation.

When we work on a child’s self-regulation skills, we are creating that stable internal platform that makes growth possible: any and all kinds of growth (Stuart Shanker).

If you are interested in participating in extensive training for emotion regulation that will support students in managing their emotions, please contact me at the email address provided (erikagalea@educationalneurosciencehub.com) for more information.

Reference List

Boekaerts, M. (2003). Toward a model that integrates motivation, affect, and learning. Journal of Educational Psychology Monograph Series, 173 - 189.

Brådvik L. (2018). Suicide Risk and Mental Disorders. International journal of environmental research and public health, 15(9), 2028. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15092028

Ekman, K. (1984). Expression and the Nature of Emotion. In K. Scherer and P. Ekman (Eds.). Approaches to Emotion, pp. 219 – 343. Lawrence Erlbaum.

Ekman, P. (1993). Facial expression and emotion. American Psychologist, 48(4), 384–392. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.48.4.384

Gottman, J. M., Katz, L. F., & Hooven, C. (1996). Parental meta-emotion philosophy and the emotional life of families: Theoretical models and preliminary data. Journal of Family Psychology, 10(3), 243–268. https://doi.org/10.1037/0893-3200.10.3.243

Graziano, P. A., Reavis, R. D., Keane, S. P., & Calkins, S. D. (2007). The role of emotion regulation in children's early academic success. Journal of School Psychology, 45(1), 3–19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsp.2006.09.002

Gross, J. J. (1998). The Emerging Field of Emotion Regulation: An Integrative View. Review of General Psychology, 2(3), 271 - 299. doi:https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.2.3.271

Gross, J. J. (2015). The Extended Process Model of Emotion Regulation: Elaborations, Applications and Future Directions. Psychological Inquiry, 26, 130 – 137. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/1047840X.2015.989751

Rudasill, K. M., & Rimm-Kaufman, S. E. (2009). Teacher–child relationship quality: The roles of child temperament and teacher–child interactions. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 24(2), 107–120. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2008.12.003

Koole, S. L. (2009) The psychology of emotion regulation: An integrative review, Cognition and Emotion, 23:1, 4-41, DOI: 10.1080/02699930802619031

Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Harvard University Press.

H. O. (2021, June 17). Suicide. World Health Organisation. Retrieved June 17, 2021, from https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/suicide

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Cognitive Development

What is emotion regulation?

A revolution in neuroscience has occurred in the past two decades, transforming how we view the connections between learning, emotions, and the brain. A growing body of evidence suggests that emotions and learning are inevitably linked.

We all know that ‘we feel, therefore we learn’. Emotional learning is a key aspect of teaching children, so in this blog post, we will be exploring different strategies in which to support it within the school context.

Teachers often disregard a child's emotions in favor of expecting him or her to give their best effort to the task at hand because they believe that emotion is separate from cognition. We’ve also heard the distinction before,  differentiated as matters of the heart and matters of the mind, but there is no truth to this at all and it is a complete misconception for emotion and cognition to be considered as two separate entities. Rather, both emotion and cognition are interlinked and equally contribute to the control of thought and behavior.

Emotional regulation is the process of managing and controlling emotions in order to create an optimal learning environment. It involves recognizing and understanding feelings, constructively expressing them, moderating emotional responses through strategies such as self-talk or calming activities, and using appropriate problem-solving methods.

The goal of emotional regulation is to help individuals manage their emotions so that they are better able to think logically and engage productively in learning tasks without disruption.

 

Emotion and Cognition

A key area in the field of neuroscience is the interaction between emotion and cognition and it is this interaction which is essential for the adaptation of individuals to the environment. Emotion and cognition work together to activate particular brain areas, systems, and behaviors that seek adaptable responses to the event.

This interaction plays a significant role in the attentional deployment as well as the processes and regulation of emotion and cognition, which are integrated very early in development and have a great impact on later development too. In fact, emotions serve as an influential medium for increasing or impeding learning, therefore, they are critical in students’ academic development.

When our emotions are so intense that we become dysregulated, our executive function (the management system of our brain) does not work at full capacity. Our ability to think clearly and put the executive function into action is directly related to what we feel and how intensely we feel it.

The two key brain areas for emotion regulation, the pre-frontal cortex, and the amygdala, would be unable to interact with one another in a dysregulated state, leaving our emotions in charge (emotional dysregulation).

As the emotions decrease in their intensity, they become easier to manage. When emotions are well-managed, the pathways in the brain re-open, freeing up space for the executive function to mobilise. Therefore, it is crucial that emotion and cognition are working in tandem in order to function well.

 

Emotion and Cognition
Emotion and Cognition

What effect does poor emotional regulation have on children?

Research (Rudasill & RimmKaufman, 2009) shows that in educational settings, preschool children with low emotion regulation skills have more conflict with their teachers. Poor emotion regulation has a detrimental effect on academic performance and social interactions. It can also result in internalising and externalising disorders, which add to societal issues.

Therefore, integrating knowledge about cognitive emotion regulation strategies within the education system is crucial to enable a decrease in educational problems, such as absenteeism, poor school performance, early school leavers, poor interpersonal skills, and deficits in higher-order cognitive processes (executive function skills).

In fact, according to research studies (Bradvik, 2018) the prevalence of maladaptive disorders and addictions, particularly, suicide and suicidal attempts, have increased in the past few years on an international basis.

According to the World Health Organisation (2021), many suicides happen impulsively in moments of crisis with a breakdown in the ability to deal with life stresses, such as financial problems, relationship break-ups, or chronic pain and illness.

Hence, it is essential to start teaching children the skills necessary for emotion regulation at an early age so that they may learn how to manage the stressors they encounter on a daily basis and develop into resilient beings, and as they become older, they are better able to address the bigger issues.

An inability to control one's emotions can manifest in a variety of ways, including temper outbursts and breakdowns, violence, withdrawal, anxiety, low self-esteem, and academic difficulties. It may have detrimental effects on a child's overall well-being, social interactions, and mental health.

Developing positive mindsets towards emotional regulation

Hence, schools need to develop a mindset and culture in which teachers and students feel comfortable and talk freely about their emotions. In today’s world, it is critical that students learn to recognise the feelings they have and therefore, it is important for them to identify, control, and express healthy emotions and sentiments, as well as psychological issues.

As children learn to recognise their emotions, they will frequently begin with the most fundamental ones – emotions that are natural and shared by everybody, such as happiness, sadness, surprise, fear, disgust, and anger (Ekman, 1984) – and then move on to the secondary emotions – such as excitement, pride, embarrassment, and shame (Ekman, 1993). Naming our emotions aids in the development of emotional management abilities.

As teachers, we learn how to cope with a variety of scenarios and how to approach students and their parents. Why shouldn’t this be taught to students as well?

Regulating one's emotions is a critical strategy for students, which refers to the ability to manage and modify one's emotional experiences, expressions, and behaviors. It involves a range of cognitive and behavioral strategies that individuals use to influence how they feel and how they express their emotions (Gross, 1998, 2015).

In other words, emotion regulation is the processes, the strategies we use to increase, maintain, or decrease one or more components of an emotional response, be it physiological, behavioral, or experiential (Gross, 1998). As a result, emotion regulation leads to appropriate behavior.

 

Emotion related self-regulation
Emotion Regulation

Learning strategies and emotional regulation

The use of learning strategies alongside ER can support child self-regulation of both negative emotions (e.g. anxiety or disappointment) and positive emotions (e.g. overexcitement or overconfidence) that are considered intrusive and act as barriers towards academic success but equip them with effective strategies in order to cope with the pressures of everyday life. 

It is important to note that the process of how emotions come about can be complex and vary from person to person. Some individuals may experience emotions more intensely than others, while others may have difficulty regulating their emotional responses.

Understanding how emotions come about can help individuals better manage and respond to their emotions in a healthy and adaptive way. It is the stimulus that causes the emotion and what sets it off. A stimulus can be anything that triggers a response in the brain, such as a thought, situation, or event. This stimulus is often perceived as relevant to an individual's well-being or goals.

Once the brain receives a stimulus, it quickly evaluates the difficult situation, interpreted by the pre-frontal cortex, to determine whether it is positive or negative and whether it poses a threat or an opportunity. Finally, the emotion is expressed in a behavioral response, such as a smile, a frown, or an action that is consistent with the emotion, such as crying or laughing.

At a very young age, the pre-frontal cortex would not yet have properly matured, and reasoning abilities would not have either. In this situation, the teacher's role is particularly crucial in early childhood. The teacher in the classroom can assist the child in interpreting the emotion they are feeling in a positive way to eventually result in appropriate behavior.

By doing this, the teacher would have assisted the student in stabilising his or her emotions, enabling the student to concentrate on the work at hand. If a child is too preoccupied with negative thoughts to pay attention in class or too reactive to manage frustrations while taking a maths test, for instance, the child’s academic performance will most likely suffer. The ability to properly cope with emotions allows a child to experience an inner sense of calm.

 

Monitoring emotions
Monitoring emotions

Enabling teachers to adopt positive emotion strategies

Emotion regulation is considered to be ‘one of the most far-ranging and influential processes at the interface of cognition and emotion’ (Koole, 2009). This is due to the fact that emotion regulation is a component of mental health, which encompasses a person’s ability to be productive, have a sound interpersonal life, and make positive social relationships.

It allows students to cope with and handle daily stressors and manage their emotional responses in a way that is adaptive and socially appropriate.

Once teachers understand the importance of adopting cognitive emotion regulation strategies within the classroom, they pave the way for their students to succeed academically. It enables their students to refocus attention and to thrive toward their goals (Gottman, Katz & Hooven, 1996), which enhances social skills, social competence, and greater popularity amongst peers (Graziano, Keane & Calkins, 2007).

In addition, behavioral control, as well as cognitive control is improved, and children are more successful at learning tasks, and less likely to exhibit withdrawn or off-task inappropriate behaviors (Boekaerts, 2003). Children’s skills in emotion regulation will help them encounter distressing social situations at home or at school.

What strategies can teachers use to regulate children’s emotions?

According to Gross' (1998) process model of ER, emotion may be regulated at five points in the emotion-generative process: (a) selection of the situation, (b) modification of the situation, (c) deployment of attention (distraction), (d) change of cognition (positive reappraisal), and (e) modulation of responses (Refer to Figure 1).

 

Emotion regulation strategies
Emotion regulation strategies

 

Figure 1. Gross’ process model of ER

 

The process model divides these strategies into two categories: antecedent-focused (situation selection, situation modification, distraction, and cognitive change) and response-focused (response modulation). According to Gross (1998), antecedent-focused strategies are more effective at reducing emotional experience because they take place before an emotional reaction is fully generated, as opposed to after, as the response-focused strategy does. The strategies are:

Situation Selection: This refers to entering into or avoiding a specific situation.

Situation Modification: This involves adjusting a situation to change its emotional impact.

Distraction: This involves diverting attention away from the emotion or the source of the emotion, such as by engaging in a different activity.

Cognitive reappraisal: This involves changing the way one thinks about a situation to alter the emotional response. For example, reframing a negative event in a more positive light.

Response Modulation: This involves the efforts to modify an emotion after it has been fully generated, generally by inhibiting the expression of an emotion, such as not showing anger or frustration, which refers to suppression.

If suppressing emotions happens from time to time, it will not have dramatic effects on the individual. However, if practised consistently, this might result in serious psychological conditions over time. The solution to suppressing emotions is to learn new and healthier ways to regulate students’ emotions. Giving teachers awareness of alternative strategies to rely on, they are less likely to resort to negating students’ thoughts.

Rather, teachers need to present the children with a rich repertoire of strategies to be able to tackle their emotions effectively which are the antecedent-focused strategies that happen before an initial emotion occurs. It is the antecedent-focused strategies that are recommended and encouraged for use in class.

 

Emotional regulation chart
Emotional regulation chart

How does children’s emotional regulation develop?

Children are not born with cognitive emotion regulation capabilities. Children learn and practise these emotion regulation skills through a nurturing relationship with a caring teacher or caregiver within a structured and supportive environment.

Through co-regulation, the teacher supports and scaffolds the children’s thoughts and social behavior within the occurring situation, adopting cognitive emotion regulation strategies. Co-regulation will look different at different ages as a child's capacity for emotional self-regulation grows, but it remains a critical resource across development in children.

Co-regulation can also happen between a more regulated peer, who co-regulates with a less regulated peer, using these cognitive emotion regulation strategies, which we call peer or other regulation.

The implementation of these cognitive emotion regulation strategies is based on Vygotsky’s (1978) scaffolding, in which the expert, in this case, the teacher or a more regulated peer, supports the novice, the less regulated child, and builds on the already acquired knowledge or the skill level just above where the student currently is, until the child is able to self-regulate. In this perspective, the concept of these interactive supportive processes is built on Vygotsky’s notion of the zone of proximal development.

 

Final thoughts on self-regulation

During early childhood education, the children, at such a young age, would need constant repetition, as is done with the academic skills or any other skill in that case, so that these emotion regulation strategies are internalised and result in behavioral self-regulation, which involves the control of emotion.

If you had ever talked yourself out of a bad mood or calmed yourself down when you were angry, you were displaying effective emotional and behavioral self-regulation. The co-regulation that occurs in the classroom may eventually lead to self-regulation, which brings about positive results, such as well-being, social skills, and academic success.

This demonstrates why caregiving, whether by an educator or a parent, is a vital component in helping and supporting children to develop emotional self-regulation skills.

Supporting children to self-regulate:

helps keep disruptive emotions in check and think before they act;

helps maintain the proper mindset during challenging situations;

leads the children to positive mental health & physical behavior;

and helps them to handle life’s obstacles & make the most of the situation.

When we work on a child’s self-regulation skills, we are creating that stable internal platform that makes growth possible: any and all kinds of growth (Stuart Shanker).

If you are interested in participating in extensive training for emotion regulation that will support students in managing their emotions, please contact me at the email address provided (erikagalea@educationalneurosciencehub.com) for more information.

Reference List

Boekaerts, M. (2003). Toward a model that integrates motivation, affect, and learning. Journal of Educational Psychology Monograph Series, 173 - 189.

Brådvik L. (2018). Suicide Risk and Mental Disorders. International journal of environmental research and public health, 15(9), 2028. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15092028

Ekman, K. (1984). Expression and the Nature of Emotion. In K. Scherer and P. Ekman (Eds.). Approaches to Emotion, pp. 219 – 343. Lawrence Erlbaum.

Ekman, P. (1993). Facial expression and emotion. American Psychologist, 48(4), 384–392. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.48.4.384

Gottman, J. M., Katz, L. F., & Hooven, C. (1996). Parental meta-emotion philosophy and the emotional life of families: Theoretical models and preliminary data. Journal of Family Psychology, 10(3), 243–268. https://doi.org/10.1037/0893-3200.10.3.243

Graziano, P. A., Reavis, R. D., Keane, S. P., & Calkins, S. D. (2007). The role of emotion regulation in children's early academic success. Journal of School Psychology, 45(1), 3–19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsp.2006.09.002

Gross, J. J. (1998). The Emerging Field of Emotion Regulation: An Integrative View. Review of General Psychology, 2(3), 271 - 299. doi:https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.2.3.271

Gross, J. J. (2015). The Extended Process Model of Emotion Regulation: Elaborations, Applications and Future Directions. Psychological Inquiry, 26, 130 – 137. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/1047840X.2015.989751

Rudasill, K. M., & Rimm-Kaufman, S. E. (2009). Teacher–child relationship quality: The roles of child temperament and teacher–child interactions. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 24(2), 107–120. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2008.12.003

Koole, S. L. (2009) The psychology of emotion regulation: An integrative review, Cognition and Emotion, 23:1, 4-41, DOI: 10.1080/02699930802619031

Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Harvard University Press.

H. O. (2021, June 17). Suicide. World Health Organisation. Retrieved June 17, 2021, from https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/suicide