Teach self-regulation (Early Childhood)

teaching practice

Save

For student year

Early Childhood

Helps students to

regulate their feelings

regulate their behaviour

feel safe, confident and included

Helps teachers to

focus on teaching

respond to children's emotions and behaviour

support children's learning

Summary

Emotional and behavioural self-regulation is the ability to control or manage one’s feelings and behaviours. Self-regulation is a key part of the early years in ECEC setting. It increases as young learners understand the need to follow rules and develop their own internal value system. Self-regulation is influenced by:

gender
temperament
cultural factors
parenting styles
life experiences.

Children take time to learn which behaviours are acceptable in which situations at home, ECEC and in the community. Learners take time to learn how to regulate feelings and behaviours by observing how people around them do this. You can assist children’s development by modelling appropriate self-regulation strategies and behaviours in the EC learning environment.

However, some learners may benefit from intentional teaching in the use of these strategies.

By building positive relationships, creating supportive environments, and explicitly teaching emotional literacy and self-regulation skills, educators can promote social emotional development and prevent challenging behaviours.

How the practice works

Watch this video to learn more about this practice.

Duration: 3:23

Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) National Quality Standards (NQS) related to this practice

Element 5.1.1: Positive educator to child interactions

Responsive and meaningful interactions build trusting relationships which engage and support each child to feel secure, confident and included.

Element 5.2.1: Collaborative learning

Children are supported to collaborate, learn from and help each other.

Element 5.2.2: Self-regulation

Each child is supported to regulate their own behaviour, respond appropriately to the behaviour of others and communicate effectively to resolve conflicts

For further information, see ACEQA’s National Quality Standard page

Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) outcomes related to this practice

Outcome 3: Children have a strong sense of wellbeing

Outcome 4: Children are confident and involved learners

For further information, see ACEQA’s Approved learning frameworks page

Join the inclusionED community

View this content in full by creating an account.

Continue

Already have an account? Log in

Preparing to teach

Seek support from:

experienced teachers
external support professionals e.g., speech pathologist, occupational therapists, psychologist
inclusion support professionals.

Take note of known stressors and minimise these.

Talk with parents/carers about the child’s strengths, strategies that are currently working well and their support needs.

Set the scene by identifying strategies, including:

providing a calm environment with consistent routines
recognising and responding to the child’s cues
modifying the environment to decrease stress

The aim of these strategies is to:

build on learner’s strengths
reduce the likelihood of learners becoming overwhelmed and overstimulated
increase on-task engagement and learning behaviours.

Plan to observe when your learners:

can and cannot self-regulate
what are the cues for when the child can’t self-regulate
what helps them to self-regulate

Become aware of activities when the learner finds it difficult to self-regulate and identify a range of possible behaviours that could assist the learner to self-regulate. For example:

take deep breaths (it can help to have learners exhale onto their hand; a long exhalation helps learners to breathe in deeply and avoid rapid, shallow intake of breath)
take a break from the activity.

Ask your colleagues for further suggestions (especially if they have worked with your learners previously). Remember that parents/carers are also a valuable source of information about their child and should be partners in decisions about establishing goals and selecting strategies.

Plan explicit teaching of strategies and plan to teach these strategies when learners are calm and ready to learn. Develop resources needed such as visual cue cards and social stories where developmentally appropriate, and ensure these resources are accessible. Identify and plan ahead of time, multiple opportunities for learners to practise the behaviour/s including:

role-play
rehearsal scenarios.

These opportunities should:

have explicit and reasonable time-limits remembering what is developmentally appropriate)
be supported by relevant visual prompts (e.g. deep breath)
include acknowledgement of learner attempts (e.g. specific verbal praise)
be followed by reward time (e.g. a favoured activity)

It works better if:

you use a strengths-based approach to support the child regulate their emotions
if you are aware of what prompts the child’s emotional dysregulation
behaviour/s taught has been selected for instruction because it meets learner need
learners’ emotions vocabulary is concurrently developed (see inclusionED practice Model Emotional Literacy ).
you are working with parents/carers and specialists in developing goals and strategies for the child that can be used across environments and people

It doesn’t work if:

learners are taught expected behaviour/s that are too hard for them to use even with scaffolding and support (i.e., sit outside of the zone of proximal development)
the educator response to unregulated behaviour is punitive rather than instructional.

In the classroom

Step 1. Manage the environment

Modify and manage the environment as much as possible.

Step 2. Observe behaviours

Observe when learners can and cannot self-regulate their feelings and behaviour, and take note of strengths and potential stressors. During these activities or when stressors are present, ensure the necessary proactive modifications are in place.

Learn from parents and specialists about what they know about the child’s self-regulation.

Step 3. Identify behaviours

Identify one or more behaviours (e.g., deep breaths, taking a break) which might enable students to regulate their feelings or behaviour.

Step 4. Explicit teaching

Explicitly teach learners the acceptable behaviour/s for particular situations.

Step 5. Provide opportunities

Provide multiple opportunities for students to practise the behaviour/s.

Step 6. Model behaviours

Model using the identified behaviour/s to regulate your own behaviour.

Model behaviours e.g., ‘Three big breaths’ and have students practise too.

Acknowledge and positively reinforce learner attempts.

Remember (Steps 4 – 6)

Communicate explicitly, describing the desired behaviours.
Communicate in a calm, predictable and positive way.
In the event that the activity is too overwhelming for a learner, be prepared to allow him/her to take a break.
If the activity has to be abandoned, communicate anticipation of a positive future outcome e.g., "All right, next time we’ll give it another try."
Acknowledge and positively reinforce all learner attempts.

Record

Keep a record to help gauge effectiveness of all strategies in supporting learner progress.

Use the EYLF Planning Cycle to teach self-regulation

Observe: how the child expresses and regulates their emotions. Observe the ‘triggers’ of the child’s dysregulation.
Assess: ask parents/carers and any specialists about the strategies they currently use to support the child’s self-regulation and what works well with other adults and in other environments.
Plan: how to intentionally teach children to regulate their emotions throughout the day and set goals with the team of educators, parents/carers and other specialists
Implement: your plan of teaching self-regulation throughout the routines and activities of the day with all the education team using developmentally appropriate strategies.
Evaluate: the impact of strategies on the child’s interactions, behaviour and wellbeing

How do I know if it's working well?

Children are building self-regulation skills through interactions with their peers and educators
Educators observe and respond to early signs of emotional dysregulation
Educators have a ‘toolkit’ of calm self-regulation strategies they can implement for all children
Educators have established and maintained a strong partnership with parents/carers to support consistent approaches to the child’s development of self-regulations skills
Educators have the knowledge, skills and confidence to support children’s self-regulation

Practice toolkit

Practice implementation planner template

We know it's not always easy to keep track of what's working and what isn't. So, we've created this template for you to record and reflect on what you're doing to create more inclusive classrooms. The implementation planner contains:

guidance around goal setting
a reflection section (what worked, didn’t work, what to change, and next steps)
prompting questions.

Implementation planner with examples

Download (103.38 KB)

Set your professional learning goal for:

Teach self-regulation (Early Childhood)

You can set and save your goal for inclusive practices using inclusionED. Saved goals will appear in your profile. Here you can access, refine and review your goal easily.

Set a Goal

Benefits of goal setting

Setting, working towards, and reflecting on goals helps you grow professionally and improve your practice. You can access AITSL learning resources for teachers to learn more about:

How to set goals

The Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership recommends using the SMART matrix to frame your goal setting.

SMART goals refers to goals that are:

Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Relevant
Time-phased

Read more about Improving teaching practices.

Resources

Related Practices

This practice is from the core research project