SELF-REGULATION

Newsletter

Early Childhood
Emotional development in early childhood is extremely important; researchers have found emotional development and social skills to be essential for school readiness (Cherry, 2014). Social competence not only involves the ability to cooperate with peers; it also includes such things as the ability to show empathy, express feelings, and share generously (Cherry, 2014). At this age children are overloaded with information all at once and at some moments they may have a hard time expressing their wants and needs. Between the ages two to six years of age emotional self-regulation improves, they can understand and talk about feelings more congruently, and can begin to respond to emotions in others (No Author, 2010).

Tips
To promote emotional self-regulation at this stage of development. Modeling appropriate behavior is essential; if your child sees you sharing, expressing gratitude, being helpful, and sharing feelings, your child will have a good solid understanding of how to interact with other people (Cherry, 2014) Praise your child when they demonstrate good social behavior. Reinforcement allows them to feel good about themself and helps them understand why certain behaviors are desirable (Cherry, 2014). You can also boost empathy and build emotional intelligence by encouraging your child to think about how other people feel (Cherry, 2014). You can start by inquiring about their feeling toward certain situations with in their

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life (Cherry, 2014). Once they become skilled at expressing their own emotional reactions then you can begin to ask them about how other people may feel (Cherry, 2014). Cooperation gives your child the opportunity to interact and play with other kids, helping them see how they relate to others (Cherry, 2014). As children play and interact, they also begin to develop social problem-solving skills (Cherry, 2014).

Behavioral Strategies

Smart Reward goal of building self-control is for children to learn to consider the consequences of their actions (Roberson, 2013). Consequences are most effective when they are closely tied to the misbehavior and when they solve problems that the misbehavior has caused (Roberson, 2013). Give them words Help children learn to recognize the troubling emotions they are feeling before having and outburst to tantrum (Roberson, 2013). Parents can also help children learn to use phrases that promote self-control like, I would like it now but I can wait until later, I can share this with you and I will ask again some other time (Roberson, 2013). Pick your battles Some issues are just not worth fighting over, you may feel like you are giving in, but some issues are not worth a drawn-out conflict (Roberson, 2013). Knowing which behaviors are important to you and which are relatively insignificant teaches similar values to children and helps them learn self-restraint with their own emotions and behavior (Roberson, 2013).

Empathy
The capacity for empathy seems to be an important motivator for pro-social or altruistic behavior actions that benefit another person with no expected reward for the self (No Author, 2010). Care takers who are warm, encourage emotional responsiveness, and show sensitive, sympathetic concern for their preschooler ten to have children who are likely to show sympathy for the distress of others (No Author, 2010).

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