PRESENTERS NAME August 26, 2014 Title of Presentation Optional sub-title Stuart Shanker August 26, 2014 BC First Wave: Three Years On

Psychophysiological View of Self-Regulation How effectively and efficiently a child deals with a stressor and then recovers from the effort Ever time a child has a stressor the brain responds with processes that consume energy This is followed by restorative processes to recover from this energy expenditure

Stress Response Adrenaline released to deal with threat: Raises heart rate Raises blood pressure Increases breathing rate Increases hyper-vigilance Increased sensitivity to low- frequency sounds

Energy Conservation To deal with high energy costs a number of systems are slowed or shut down: Digestion Cellular repair Metabolism Immune system Hearing of the human voice prefrontal cortical functioning

Threat Response Systems Three core systems for responding to threat: 1.Social Engagement 2.Fight-of-Flight 3.Freeze Experiences in the first three years critical for wiring child’s reactivity to stress.

Signs of Heightened Stress Reactivity 1.Chronic hypo- or hyperarousal 2.Hair-trigger stress response 3.Problems with attention 4.Heightened impulsivity 5.Increased sensitivity to pain (physical and emotional) 6.Problems in mood, emotion regulation, or negative bias 7.Reduced ability to read affect cues 8.Reduced ability to hear human voice 9.Blunted reward system 10.Increased immune system problems

physical Emotion al cognitiv e socialphysical emotion al cognitiv e social

Low Energy/Hig h Tension Fear, anxiety, anger Worry, fixation, distortion Social anxiety, interperson al problems Low Energy/Hig h Tension Fear, anxiety, anger Worry, fixation, distortion Social anxiety, interperson al problems

Arousal Cycle Nodes become interlocked Mutually reinforcing If cycle isn’t broken spins into flooded Cycle can be triggered at any node Different children respond to breaking the cycle at different nodes Physiological arousal must be reduced in order to break the cycle

Five Steps to Self-Regulation 1.Read the signs of excessive stress 2.Identify the stressors 3.Reduce the stressors 4.Help child or youth learn what it feels like to be calm versus hyper 5.Help child or youth develop strategies to return to calm