Myths and Realities of Self-Regulation
In addition to general societal trends that make the development of self-regulation less likely in some children, there are also myths about self-regulation shared by many educators and administrators. These myths translate into practices that stand in the way of effective classroom instruction that would support children’s development of self-regulation.
Myth: The children are simply very young. Most children will grow out of impulsive behaviors on their own.
Current practice in response to the myth: Teachers wait for children to develop self-regulation on their own.
Results in the classroom: Classrooms are chaotic and unmanageable. Children then practice being impulsive instead of learning ways to master their own behavior. Some children never develop satisfactory self-regulation which leads to greater problems later in their school career.
Myth: The children have a medical condition, such as ADHD and consequently cannot develop self-regulation.
Current practice in response to the myth: Although some children actually do have the medical condition of ADHD many children are wrongly labeled as having ADHD. This over identification leads to the possible use of medication when it is not warranted. Often teachers do not feel that they can do anything for these children except to send them into special education.
Results in the classroom: Children who do not need medication are often given it. Children are still not taught strategies that would help them learn to control attention and thinking, helping them to master their mental behavior. In other words, the root academic problem has not been addressed.
Myth: The children are just bullies and have aggressive personalities that cannot be changed.
Current practice in response to the myth: Many early childhood programs copy high school and middle school “zero tolerance” policies and institute a “three strikes and you are out” rule. This leads to preschool children being expelled for things such as hitting or biting.
Result in the classroom: Preschool and kindergarten children are being expelled at alarming rates. In fact, some preschools expel children at a rate that is 15 times higher than that of older children. Once expelled, these children have even fewer opportunities to learn self-regulation. Many children just move from program to program.
Myth: Children learn to regulate themselves if the teacher controls everything that children do.
Current practice in response to the myth: More and more activities in preschool and kindergarten are teacher-directed activities and conducted in large groups.
Result in the classroom: Children are “teacher-regulated” not self-regulated. When the teacher is not directing everything, as in later elementary grades where children are expected to do work independently, the children cannot work without total supervision. Children look “well-behaved” but only when supervised by adults. Children have not learned the self-regulation necessary to become an independent learner.
Myth: Parents are the primary culprits. If they did a better job of raising children, we wouldn’t have problems in self-regulation.
Current practice in response to the myth: Teachers blame the parents. This leads to the idea that “there is nothing I can do” so children are allowed to continue to be un-regulated. Teachers may send home literature or suggest parenting classes, which are usually unsuccessful at creating the conditions for change.
Result in the classroom: Children are still not taught the tools to help them become self-regulated. Parents and teachers become extremely frustrated.
How does Tools of the Mind teach self-regulation?
We have found that embedding classroom activities with specific support and assistance (scaffolds) that foster self-regulation does change the child’s level of self-regulation. We are not powerless to affect how children learn independently. However teaching self-regulation means revamping the classroom and how activities are implemented. In Tools we have eliminated those activities that actually promote unregulated behavior—such as waiting in line with nothing to do, wandering around the classroom during center time, being unclear about what to do during an activity and not being able to get help. It requires teachers to create a consistent classroom where teacher expectations are clear and enforced fairly. It means having activities where children have the responsibility for deciding and following through with this responsibility. Research shows that this approach of embedding self-regulation in all classroom activities works better than teaching self-regulation as a separate, stand alone activity.
Self-Regulation Development in Preschool
Mature intentional make-believe play is the foundation of self-regulation development in preschool. It creates conditions in which young children are able to act in a more mature way and use more mature mental functions. Children remember more, attend better, and have better self-regulation. This kind of play is the only classroom experience that naturally provides the three types of interactions which lead to self-regulation: regulation by others, regulation of others, and self-regulation.
Not all play is created equal! Most children today do not engage in the kind of intentional make believe play that fosters self-regulation. Today’s children spend more time being entertained—watching TV or playing video games. They learn to play soccer or go to art and music lessons. Many do not have long stretches of unstructured time where they go out into the back yard and play with neighborhood children of different ages who act as play mentors. Unlike twenty years ago, children come to preschool without knowing how to play in a way that will promote self-regulation. Without deliberate scaffolding by teachers providing opportunities to engage in mature play, many young children will not develop it on their own.
Mature intentional play has the following characteristics:
- Supports expressing and representing intention through planning ahead of playing (“I’m going to pretend that I am the doctor and you are the mom and you have a sick baby….”)
- Has explicit roles with rules for how to act (the doctors acts in a specific way, the patient acts in another way)
- Uses symbolic props (children invent props when they don’t have them)
- Has an extended time frame (lasts for hours and can continue for days)
- Includes extensive use of language. Children discuss who they are each going to be and what will happen in the play. For example, I ask you if you if your baby has a broken arm and you say no, a fever. I will have to give your baby a shot. The baby will cry. Then you’ll tell the baby not to cry.
- Involves an imaginary pretend scenario Children pretend that things happen that are realistic but can also be totally fantasy, such as when children pretend to go to the moon and have dinner.
Why is play central in a Tools preschool classroom?
- Children practice delayed gratification. Instead of wanting to have his birthday party right now, Nathan can pretend to have the party.
- Children learn to suppress their impulsive behavior because to stay in the play, they have to abide by the rules. Maria is the person being saved by the firemen, so she cannot get up and play with the new puzzle she sees because she is waiting to be saved.
- Children practice regulating each other’s behavior. Meili is taking the tickets for the “airplane.” She sits down in the passenger’s seat and starts to pretend to eat lunch. The other children say, “You take the tickets, you aren’t the passenger.” Children thus monitor other children’s behavior, noting when someone is playing inappropriately for the role.
- Children learn about their own actions and emotions by using them on purpose. Shawana and Toni are playing house. Shawana says, “My baby is sick so I’m going to cry. Then I’ll feed her and she’ll stop crying.” Toni says, “O.K., but my baby is being bad so I am going to get mad and then when my baby is good, I’ll be nice.” These children plan and act out different emotions and their consequences. This awareness is a necessary accomplishment in the development of social-emotional self-regulation.
- When children play in an intentional way, they think ahead by planning each scenario before they act it out. The more creative and imaginative the play, the more the children need to plan what is going to happen. Children have to coordinate the different ideas of the players. Above, Shawana and Toni need to have a play scenario that includes a good hungry baby and a bad baby. Adding in the fact that Max wants to be the dog in the family creates a situation that requires a great deal of planning to make everyone satisfied with the outcome. This is the precursor of the kind of cognitive self-regulation required to solve a complex problem or to keep a story with many characters straight.
Self-Regulation in Kindergarten
At the beginning of the year, kindergarten children may not have mature intentional play skills, and consequently will lack self-regulation. For this reason the kindergarten teachers in Tools work on self regulation in two ways. First, specific activities with make-believe play elements are used to help children develop the level of play that they should have. Children listen to stories and chapter books and act out the characters and actions that they read about. This dramatization serves two purposes. One, it improves the characteristics of play and two, it is a way to help children visualize and improve their listening comprehension skills. The second way that kindergarten teachers improve intentional play skills is to extensively use learning games and other games with rules. Vygotskians argued that games with rules have many of the characteristics of intentional make-believe play and that these can be used to help children develop self-regulation.