1. What is it, why are we talking about it, what’s new? N2N1ECE 2015 Dean
Self Regulation
What is it, why are we talking about it, what’s new?
N2N1ECE 2015
Dean

2. What’s old
Behavior management techniques that work on punishment/reward tend not to be effective
Most students want to do well, and follow rules but struggle
Expect ‘self-control’ – purposeful exert selves to stop ourselves from doing something, or to behave – effortful, taxing and draining
Need to learn “self-control”

3. What we know…
If you’re overly excited, agitated, or upset you can’t think
Difficult to maintain self-control over long periods of time
Some stress is good
Killing the mastodon, running from the T-Rex
Escaping the speeding car
Some stress is bad
Paralyzed in fear
Duration is long and intense
Can create epigenetic changes

4. What’s newish about stress
Some stress helps us develop skills to adapt to new situations
Our body regulates stress by releasing hormones through the body
Our students are facing a lot of stress – causes the brain to work less effectively
Autonomic nervous system releases epinephrine and neorepinephrine, triggering fight or flight response
Also releases cortisol (and other glucocorticoids)
Epinephrine increases the heart rate, causes blood vessels to dilate and push the blood into muscles, and constrict in the skin and gut. Also increases glucose levels in blood.
Cortisol therefore takes longer to impact, and longer to leave the body because it enters the cell nucleus throughout our body.

5. What’s NEW about stress
Cortisol (and the other glucocoricoids) attach to receptors
Outside the brain it binds to the GR receptor
Inside the brain cells it binds to GRs and MRs
MRs regulate “normal” stress (and waking)
GRs regulate stress responses – GR’s impair neural flexibility and processes involved in learning and memory

6. More About Cortisol Repeated increases in cortisol for many days…
Increases fear behaviors
Increased caution
Turns the stress pathway into a superhighway (SAM system)
These results become circular, heightened fear and anxiety, loss of interests, emotional paranoia, depression, anxiety, low self –confidence etc.
Brain is the primary stress organ. If we can’t help children regulate their feelings of stress, not only may the actual structure of the brain change, dendrites shrink, there is neuronal death, kids have lower performance on spatial memory tasks, memory tasks. Memory, attention span and self regulation are all influenced by cortisol.

7. Other causes of Stress Low SES/ living in poverty Over scheduling
Children from homes of poverty have higher cortisol levels
Over scheduling
Screen time – tv, video games
Lack of play, free physical activity
Lack of sleep/interrupted sleep
Intake of sugar, salt and fat
Parental stress
Research has, for years showed high levels of income equate to higher achievement – and kids from poverty tend to have more cognitive problems. The relationship between poverty and cortisol production is important
Study by Boyce and Ellis in 2005 found that high reactivity to stress on its own does not confer risk and indeed for some may help some development in supportive contexts - HOWEVER, in high risk environments, higher reactivity is likely to occur without support for the regulation of self, and thus lead to poor developmental outcomes.

8. Amygdala Hijack
Once stimulus enters the thymus, part of it goes directly to the amygdala, while another part goes to the neocortex. If the amygdala is told by the hippocampus it is a fight or flight situation, the Amygdala triggers the HPA axis and hijacks the rational brain….. We all know this type of hijack and know how it can be intensified (ever get into an irrational argument with your spouse or partner – you are functioning in the limbic system – if you partner remains calm and doesn’t go into that FF response, than you usually calm down quicker. They help regulate you. However, if your body has a high stress response, the cortisol is pretty much already there, the FF triggers more easily and the superhighway that we talked about a couple of slides ago is in action.
Once someone is in amygdala hijack they cannot learn. Individuals who have difficulty self-regulating are pretty much always in or close to this stage. The cortisol in their bodies keeps them close to this level.

9. What’s new
Causes of many poor behaviours is self-regulation (or lack thereof)
Reframe behavior, understanding why a child may have trouble:
Paying attention
Ignoring distractors
Inhibiting impulses
Modulating emotion
Maintaining calm focus and alertness
SR is being calm and alert
Neuro-science is teaching us a great deal more about the brain -- we also know that compensatory education and interventions can promote learning, increase the regulation of reactivity and thus promote competencies such as Executive functions and self- regulation.

10. “The better a child can stay calmly focused and alert, the better he integrates the diverse information coming in from his different senses, assimilates it, and sequences his thoughts and actions.”
Stuart Shanker

11. What’s new
Recent research is showing that self-regulation is a more important indicator of educational performance than IQ (Blair & Diamond, 2008; Duckworth & Seligman, 2005). Good self-regulation helps individuals deal with and address stress
Neuro-science is teaching us a great deal more about the brain -- we also know that compensatory education and interventions can promote learning, increase the regulation of reactivity and thus promote competencies such as Executive functions and self- regulation.

12. HAVE I CONVINCED YOU THAT WE NEED TO LOOK AT SELF REGULATION?
Self regulation can help children learn to calm themselves. Whether the deficits they experience in self reg. is a result of early life experiences, or later experiences, research has found that teaching children to self regulation in all domains can lessen the stress they face, and improve their ability to learn.

13. Definition Self-regulation is the ability to:
Attain, maintain, and change one’s level of energy to match the demands of a situation or task
Monitor, evaluate and modify one’s emotions
Sustain and shift one’s attention when necessary and ignore distractions
Understand both the meaning of a variety of social interactions and how to engage in them in a sustained way
Connect with and care about what others are thinking and feeling – to empathize and act accordingly
(Shanker, 2013)

14. 5 Domains of self-regulation
Biological (e.g. how well the child regulates her arousal state)
Emotional (e.g., how well the child monitors and modifies her emotional responses)
Cognitive (e.g. how well the child can sustain and switch her attention; inhibit impulses; deal with frustration, delay, distractions; sequence thoughts)
Social (e.g., the child’s mastery of rules of appropriate behaviour; how well they can co-regulate and develop pro-social attributes)
Pro-social
There are bottom0up and top-down interactions of all these levels – as the interactions work together, they faciliate a child’s ability to take in and process information. The better a child can stay calmly focused and alert, the better he integrates the diverse informaiton coming from different senses, assimilates it and sequences his thoughts an actions..

15. Critical Elements to Optimal Self Regulation
When feeling calmly focused and alert, you know it
When stressed, you can recognize what is causing stress
Recognize stressors both within and outside the class
Desire to deal with the stressors
Ability to develop strategies for dealing with those stressors
Ability to recover efficiently and effectively form dealing with stressors
(Shanker, 2013)

16. Stages of Arousal
Inhibition 1. Asleep 2. Drowsy 3. Hypoalert 4. Calmly focused and Alert 5. Hyperalert 6. Flooded Activation

17. Required for SR
A child cannot be self-regulated, or in earlier stages, co-regulated, unless the adult is self-regulated
Not a set of tools but a process
As a teacher you have an important role to take care of yourself, to be self-regulated so you can assist your students in regulating themselves

18. RULE SR must be explicitly use AND taught
Forms a framework for all work done in the class
Students learn to up-regulate/down-regulate
Identify states of hyper-arousal/hypo-arousal
“Herd the cows or build the fence” (Richard Lavoie)

19. Self Regulation A student with good self-regulation knows:
What it looks like to be calmly focused and alert in each of the 5 domains
How to recognize stressors and how to return to the optimal state of regulation

20. Self-Regulation WE ARE THE CO-REGULATORS
Students acquire the ability to self regulate by first being regulated
Newborns have no capacity to self regulate
Some children need more external regulation from school due to an inability to internalize regulation techniques
WE ARE THE CO-REGULATORS

21. 5 Domains – what does it look like?
BIOLOGICAL
EMOTIONAL
COGNITIVE
SOCIAL
PRO-SOCIAL
Health
Nutrition/ Water
Sleep
Exercise
Sensory Inputs
Modulate Emotions
Sustain and switch attention
Appropriate task and language demands
Perspective
Impact of actions on others
Development of empathy – doing the right thing

22. Tools – Biological Domain
Environmental Adaptation
Up-regulation
Down-regulation-safe space
Slow Starts
Sensory Circuits
Food/Hydration
Body/Brain & Emotional Language
Child-centred mindful language
Lessons: breathing/brain/mindfulness

23. Physical Environmental Metacognition
Visual
Zones
Walls: color, organization, relevancy
Ceiling/Lighting
Storage
Desks: placement, style, size
Temperature
Auditory
Acoustical
interruptions

24. Strategies Snapshot for Environment (biological domain)
Limit visual material (bright, commercially made posters, borders etc. Use bright colors for what REALLY counts
NOTHING hanging from ceiling
Use basic, natural light colors for calming
Keep clutter to a minimum – out of sight
Try to limit chair/desk noise (sliding on floors)
Arrange zones in classroom so noise in one area, quiet in another
Limit outside noise (hallways – shut doors, etc.)
Avoid noisy fans, turn off computers when not in use
Use natural light as much as possible (Remember we have full spectrum lighting)
Plan seating that will encourage students to remain calm
Provide quiet, calming area for down-regulation

25. Strategies Snapshot for Classroom Mgt. (biological domain)
Use a chime, drum or music to signal in class transitions
Keep your schedule predictable to help students anticipate transition
Plan to include transition time for each period
Use fidgets, exercise bands, worry beads etc to help student regulate (have them make them for themselves)
Observe your class; note when a number of students have trouble regulating during transitions – plan small changes such as a brief physical activity to aide transitioning (e.g. – Simon Says)
Provide choice in learning activities
Personally use self-regulation techniques and EXPLAIN to the students what you are doing to regulate yourself

26. Tool Metacognition Body: movement, furniture Hand: fidgets, exercises
Mouth; chewing, sucking

27. Routines Metacognition
Breakfast/Lunch & Check in Routines
Playground Routine
Organizational Routine
Transition Routine
Coming into class
In-class
Between classrooms
Leaving class
Morning Routine
Board Routine
Listening
Work
Movement Routines: Embedded within lesson, chunked in lessons; between lessons

28. Emotional Environmental Metacognition
Metacognitive Differentiated Instruction
Knowing learning styles
Knowing how to maximize opportunities
Metacognition of Learning
Study Skills
Mindfulness
MindUp Curriculum
SEL Learning

29. Avoid Dys-regulation
Explicit teaching and asking what is happening for the child
Predictable routines – talk about upcoming changes (why and when) – keep schedules on the wall
Regular breathing techniques
Ask “what you need” not “what are you doing”
Tone of voice, level and pace
Teach both emotional and body language