Common Stereotypes Around Emotional Regulation
Have you noticed one of your pupils struggling with their emotions or reacting differently over a small situation?
This pupil is not being ‘rude’ or a ‘trouble causer’, but could most likely be struggling with regulating their emotions. Indicating they may have difficulty with Emotional Regulation.
What is Emotional Regulation – is this a ‘get out of jail free’ card for children who are naughty?
What Is Emotional Regulation?
Emotional Regulation is the ability to manage our emotions. It can also be a Speech, Language and Social Communication need (SLCN).
Emotional regulation can impact our expressive language skills when needing to express how we feel to others. It also impacts our ability to adjust alertness and awareness of how emotions are revealed in social settings/situations.
Different strategy approaches can be implemented to support emotional regulation.
Some common stereotypes others make can be to assume the child is ‘naughty’, they are demonstrating attention-seeking behaviour or being rude. Emotional dysregulation can be caused by adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), such as bereavement, abuse, divorce, or brain injury/trauma.
Why is it Important?
Emotional Regulation can have an adverse impact on many aspects of our life. Without the ability to regulate our emotions, we may not understand social situations as they may have been intended. As a result, it will have a direct impact on how we respond to these situations.
As our behaviour is a result of our emotional state, without emotional regulation, our behaviours may be less predictable. It can even impact how we are perceived by others in certain circumstances.
As such, it may even impact maintaining or creating relationships with others. Therefore, especially as a child or young person, it is vital we are able to regulate our emotions.
Emotion Recognition
The first step for emotion recognition is for the child to be able to recognise different emotions. There are 6 main emotions people have that they feel, these are:
- Happy
- Sad
- Angry
- Scared
- Worried
- Bored
You can help children to recognise their emotions by using different activities. The activities could look at the children labelling emotions of characters on a tv show i.e. You could use the characters from Shrek to ask the following:
How does Shrek feel?
Is Donkey happy or sad?
Why do you think they feel this way?
Top Tip: You do not have to restrict the characters/activities. Use something your child enjoys to increase their engagement levels.
Zones of Regulation
The Zones of Regulation is a systematic cognitive behavioural approach. It draws in ideologies from cognitive behaviour therapy and was developed by a range of professionals.
The Zones of Regulation consist of 4 concrete-coloured zones. The aim of the programme is to help children to become more aware of and independent in controlling their emotions and impulses, manage their sensory needs, and improve their ability to react and respond to social situations.
So, who can use Zones of Regulation?
The short answer, everyone! We would just recommend that the children can recognise colours and feelings consistently, and are above 4 years old.
After this, there are no limitations! Emotional regulation can even be great for secondary school students, or anyone who may struggle with self-regulation. These students might include those with an SLCN or other Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) diagnoses.
Goals of Zones of Regulation:
- Identify feelings and levels of alertness
- Explore effective regulation tools
- When and how to use tools
- Problem solve positive situations
- Understand how their behaviours influence others’ thoughts and feelings
- Moving towards independent emotion regulation
How Can You Support Emotional Recognition at Home and in School Settings?
Breathing exercises (help to calm down/ ease the child)
Breathing during stressful times, or when they are highly stimulated, can help to ease the child. Try breathing exercises such as inhaling and exhaling, , pacing your breathing, so you breathe slowly. This can help to calm down the child and put them at ease when they are struggling.
Listen to music to wind down
Putting on some soothing music can help the child to wind down and to allow them some time to think about their emotions.
Whole classroom approaches
Trying whole classroom approaches can help to support the child and ensure they are not feeling singled out. There are a few methods you might want to try with this approach. Methods might include taking short breaks between tasks when you notice the child becoming frustrated or upset, keeping emotion emoji charts on the table so that you are able to check in with the child. This will also allow the children to recognise how they are feeling throughout the school day.
By using this method with their peers, you also teach the child co-regulation strategies, such as language strategies.
Sensory strategies
Using sensory strategies such as fidget spinners, squeeze balls, bubbles etc can help to centre the child’s focus on what is going on in front of them.
How can Chatterbug Help?
If you’re looking for ways to boost your and other staff’s skill sets, Chatterbug is here to help.
We offer an Emotional Regulation Overview Training, that improves your understanding, helps you find other resources and gives you support systems to use within your school.
This training is essential to create equal opportunities in your classroom.
You can secure your place on the course here.
Early intervention is also key in supporting these individuals’ speech, language, and communication development. Chatterbug has a variety of services to assess, support, and intervene with these individuals.
You can also check out social media for all our best tips and other useful information about SLCN.
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