Key points:
Self-regulation is fundamental for child development and learning and is a strong predictor of future outcomes
Self-regulation involves children’s developing ability to regulate their emotions and thoughts to enable them to act in positive ways toward a purpose.
Self-regulation grows out of co-regulation, where adults and children work together toward a common purpose, including finding ways to resolve upsets from stress in any domain and return to balance.
The foundations of emotional and cognitive self-regulation in the early years are integrally tied together, and both are necessary for behavioural self-regulation.
A pedagogy which includes co-regulation strategies will help children develop self-regulatory skills.
Self-regulation is fundamental for child development and learning and is a strong predictor of future outcomes. Self-regulation is now recognised as crucially important in young children’s development, strongly predicting children’s later success in relating to others and in their learning, while supporting lifelong mental and physical health. Developing self-regulation, like many elements of development and learning, is not something children do by themselves. It is a process that grows gradually out of co-regulation, within attuned relationships where the caregiver and baby or child are closely attentive to each other and engage in sensitive, responsive exchanges.
Self-regulation involves children’s developing ability to regulate their emotions and thoughts to enable them to act in positive ways toward a purpose. The flexibility of brain cells and pathways and rapid brain development in early childhood pave the way for the growth of self-regulation, which develops both through the maturing of the brain’s architecture and through opportunities to practice. Self-regulation develops continually, with further development taking place in adolescence and into adulthood.
Self-regulation depends on and grows out of co-regulation, where adults and children work together toward a common purpose, including finding ways to resolve upsets from stress and return to balance. Co-regulation is the supportive process whereby adults help children to manage their emotions and actions, especially when babies and children have not yet developed the skills to do so independently. Over time and with consistent practice, the process shifts from co-regulation between adult and child to the child’s self-regulation. Importantly, self-regulation should not be understood as an end destination or fixed state. Children can fluctuate in their capacity to self-regulate just as adults can. All children will continue to need responsive others to act as co-regulators, particularly during times of stress, transition or fatigue, throughout early childhood and beyond.
In its earliest stages, co-regulation involves a carer helping a baby who is overwhelmed by feelings – perhaps from being hungry, uncomfortable, or unhappy for any reason – to return to a state of calm. Through voice, sensitive handling, and tuning in to respond promptly to a baby’s signals, the adult helps the baby experience returning to balance after being in a state of emotional arousal. Each experience of co-regulation helps to build the neural pathways that regulate emotion.
Cognition interacts with emotions, as the baby learns to recognise and interpret situations, which then brings a different emotional response. For instance, a fretful baby who needs attention but can wait when hearing the carer’s voice, rather than wailing in deep distress, has learned from the adult’s prompt responses to their cues that help will be provided and it is possible to wait. Gradually an adult’s soothing a baby toward sleep at bedtime can be transferred to the baby who learns to self-soothe when waking in the night.
For young children, co-regulation also has both emotional and cognitive aspects. It includes the adult modelling calming strategies and naming and talking about feelings and ways to manage. This helps children learn to recognise their feelings and builds their cognitive awareness of strategies to reduce or manage extremes of emotion. At the same time, adults scaffold cognitive self-regulation by talking with children about thinking and learning and supporting them to focus, persist with challenge, choose strategies and so on.
The foundations of emotional and cognitive self-regulation in the early years are integrally tied together, and both are necessary for behavioural self-regulation. When a child is able to self-regulate, they are able to think before they act and can choose how they respond to emotions, situations and challenges. Emotions running very high get in the way of cognitive aspects of self-regulation, as a child who is experiencing very strong emotions will have difficulty in holding back impulses, focusing attention, or thinking in flexible ways to solve problems. Over-arousal of the emotional part of the brain constrains the thinking part, so a child who is very upset will first need help through emotional co-regulation before they can begin to think about the situation.
Cognitive regulation plays an important role in enabling children to choose how to adapt their behaviour in a particular context. This could include being able to focus or shift their attention, set and work towards a goal, or inhibit an impulse (for example, stopping saying number names once they have touch counted all objects in a set). Cognitive regulation also includes self-monitoring, problem-solving, taking different perspectives (such as being aware of others’ thinking and picturing the future), and decision-making. Children’s cognitive regulation relies on their executive functions (working memory, inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility), which require experience, practice and repetition to develop.
When feelings are in balance, a child is able to use developing cognitive skills to make decisions about their goals and what actions are needed, such as choosing to apply the executive function of resisting impulses or concentrating. At the same time, children can begin to use cognitive self-regulation to support emotional self-regulation, by monitoring their emotional state and deciding on strategies to calm themselves if necessary. A child managing their actions, then, depends on emotional and cognitive self-regulation working together with both aspects in balance.
Extremes of arousal are not necessarily to be avoided. Children need to be able to safely explore their emotional range, for example though play such as rough and tumble, in order to learn how to shift flexibly between arousal states. A child might also be under-aroused which makes it difficult to attend to their surroundings, and may need to move around to regulate their arousal to an optimum level for focus.
Self-regulation is not the same thing as compliant behaviour, such as sitting still and listening when expected to. A child who is stressed and struggling to resist the impulse to move or speak is very different from a child who is calm and alert, in a balanced state of feeling, thinking, and behaviour.
A pedagogy which includes co-regulation strategies will help children develop self-regulatory skills. Researchers have identified three basic strategies for co-regulation:
- Positive Relationships – Provide a warm, responsive relationship where children feel respected, comforted and supported in times of stress, and confident that they are cared for at all times.
- Enabling Environments – Create an environment that makes self-regulation manageable, structured in a predictable way that is physically and emotionally safe for children to explore and take risks without unnecessary stressors.
- Learning and Development – Teach self-regulation skills through modelling, suggesting strategies, providing frequent opportunities to practice, and scaffolding to support children to use self-regulation skills.