Tag Archives: Self-regulation

Promoting Social and Emotional Development: Four New Resources for Communities and Families with Young Children

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January 18, 2017

By Kara Dukakis, Libby Doggett, and Shantel E. Meek

All children are born with the need and desire to connect with those around them. Neuroscience tells us that brain development unfolds rapidly in the first three years of life, and that social and emotional development begins in the earliest days of life. When children feel secure in their relationships and have their needs met in responsive and consistent ways, they begin forming a strong social and emotional foundation. They begin to learn to pay attention, regulate their emotions and behavior, express feelings, and overcome challenges successfully. All of these skills contribute to healthy social and emotional development.

The way in which children experience and manage their feelings and emotions depends a great deal on the relationship with their primary caregiver(s) and other important adults in their lives. The environments where children spend their time – whether at home or in an early learning setting – also affect children’s social and emotional development. Social and emotional development involves several inter-related areas, including social interaction, emotional awareness, and self-regulation.[1]

Social and emotional and cognitive development are interwoven from birth and unfold together. Unsurprisingly, social and emotional development is also closely intertwined with academic success. Learning- especially in the earliest years of life- is inherently a social process. Children learn through and with the adults in their lives. A large body of research shows that children with a strong social and emotional foundation demonstrate stronger academic achievement, are more likely to graduate high school, go to college, and fare better on overall wellness and other positive long-term outcomes.[2] Positive social and emotional development carries important benefits for all children, including young children with developmental delays or disabilities.

Many parents and caregivers, as well as teachers and early learning providers, are eager for information and resources on how to connect with babies and toddlers, manage young children’s behavior,[3] and help children develop relationships, regulate their behavior and emotions, and talk about their feelings. When the adults in children’s lives have appropriate expectations of children’s development at different ages, they have greater success – and much less frustration – with young children.

Building on prior successful partnerships to promote early brain and language development and early STEM education, today, the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services and Education are joining with Too Small to Fail to release a Fostering Healthy Social and Emotional Development in Young Children Toolkit on social and emotional development. All of the resources feature examples of simple actions to take, some of which caregivers might be doing already, such as maintaining consistent routines for young children.

This set of resources on healthy social and emotional development includes:

  • A tip sheet for parents and families of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers
  • A tip sheet for infant, toddler, and preschool providers and educators
  • A milestones chart with key information on social and emotional development from birth to age 5
  • A fact sheet on the research behind social and emotional development in early childhood and lifelong outcomes
  • A “Let’s Talk About Feelings” poster

Every day, families and educators have opportunities to nurture children’s social and emotional, development through everyday interactions and easy-to-implement activities, such as those provided in the Toolkit. If we all provide supports for our children early in life, they will have the foundation needed to benefit for a lifetime.

Kara Dukakis is Director of Too Small to Fail, a joint initiative of the Clinton Foundation and The Opportunity Institute

 Libby Doggett is Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and Early Learning, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education at the U.S. Department of Education

 Shantel E. Meek is Senior Policy Advisor for Early Childhood Development, Administration for Children and Families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

[1] Social interaction focuses on the relationships we share with others, including relationships with adults and peers; emotional awareness includes the ability to recognize and understand our own feelings and actions and those of other people, and how our own feelings and actions affect ourselves and others; and self-regulation is the ability to express thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in socially appropriate ways.

[2] Jones, Damon E., Mark Greenberg, and Max Crowley. (2015). Early social-emotional functioning and public health: The relationship between kindergarten social competence and future wellness. American Journal Public Health, 105(11), 2283–2290.

[3] Zero to Three, “Tuning In National Parent Survey” (2016).

All materials will be posted on the ECD website when they are 508 compliant. Please see additional resources at https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ecd.

 

Federal Report Recommends Teaching Self-Regulation in Schools

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12/6/16

A new federal report recommends that schools emphasize building children’s “self-regulation” skills in order to increase opportunities for student success in a number of areas. The recommendation is one of several in the report, the fourth in a series on self-regulation research and practice from the Administration for Children and Families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).

Researchers have zeroed in on the importance of self-regulation skills, which allow children to manage their thoughts and feelings, control impulses, and problem-solve.

“Self-regulation affects wellbeing across the lifespan, from mental health and emotional wellbeing to academic achievement, physical health, and socioeconomic success,” said Desiree Murray, associate director of research at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute and lead author of the report. “Unfortunately, prolonged or pronounced stress and adversity, including poverty and trauma, can delay children’s self-regulation development.”

Murray said the good news is research shows that interventions can improve outcomes for children from backgrounds of risk and adversity. Her research team, which includes Duke Center for Child and Family Policy’s Katie Rosanbalm and Christina Christopoulos, recommend embedding a focus on self-regulation in schools and other settings.

“For optimal self-regulation, a child or adolescent needs to have a full bucket of skills and supports on which to draw,” Murray said. “There are two crucial periods when children are developing their self-regulation skills the most—in early childhood and early adolescence—when teachers and parents can help them build the skills they need for the rest of their lives.”

Murray said many self-regulation interventions are designed for use in schools.

“Schools are an ideal place for interventions because there is opportunity to build skills in a cohesive approach from preschool through secondary school and because of the potential power of shared learning with peers,” she said. “Interventions in schools can impact the culture and climate in a way that benefits all students.”

According to the report, strengthening self-regulation can be thought of like teaching literacy. Similar to literacy, self-regulation develops with simpler skills first, which build upon one another.

Murray and her team outline a comprehensive approach to the development of self-regulation, which includes teaching skills through repeated practice and frequent feedback in a supportive context. They suggest providing universal interventions across childhood and into early adulthood, with a strong emphasis on teaching caregivers (including teachers and other school staff) how to support children.  She said the keys to this support are warm and responsive relationships, paired with positive discipline and consistency.

The report also recommends providing more intensive intervention to children who are experiencing self-regulation difficulties. In 12 elementary schools, Murray’s team is currently delivering and studying a small-group pull-out program teaching socio-emotional skills from “The Incredible Years.”

“Some children and youth may need additional supports, such as those provided by ‘Incredible Years’ programs,” Murray said. “These and other interventions may be particularly beneficial for youth who live in adversity, increasing children’s resilience to the negative effects of stress.”

Murray’s team based their report’s recommendations on two comprehensive reviews of research. “We capitalized on important recent findings from developmental neuroscience, and looked at a wide range of interventions that have been evaluated in the last 25 years,” she said.

The Office of Planning, Research & Evaluation in the DHHS’s Administration for Children and Families commissioned the report. Murray and Rosanbalm currently are developing a series of briefs to support use of their recommendations for different age groups, including new professional development for practitioners in the field.

Source: FPG Child Development Institute

Available at: http://fpg.unc.edu/node/8716

Self-Regulation and Toxic Stress: A Review of Ecological, Biological, and Developmental Studies of Self-Regulation and Stress 

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2/2015

This is the second in a series of four inter-related reports titled Self-Regulation and Toxic Stress. The first report, Foundations for Understanding Self-Regulation from an Applied Developmental Perspective, provides a comprehensive framework for understanding self-regulation in context, using a theoretical model that reflects the influence of biology, caregiving, and the environment on the development of self-regulation. This report, A Review of Ecological, Biological, and Developmental Studies of Self-Regulation and Stress, provides a cross-disciplinary review on research of the relationship between stress and self-regulation. The third report, A Comprehensive Review of Self-Regulation Interventions from Birth through Young Adulthood, will describe the strength of evidence for interventions to promote self-regulation for universal and targeted populations across development. The fourth and final report, Implications for Programs and Practice, will consider implications of findings from the prior reports for programs supported by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF). In the present report, the authors introduce and describe a set of seven key principles that summarize our understanding of self-regulation development in context.

Available here: Self-Regulation and Toxic Stress

Citation: Hamoudi, A., Murray, D. W., Sorensen, L., & Fontaine, A. (2015). Self-regulation and toxic stress: A review of ecological, biological, and developmental studies of self-regulation and stress. OPRE Report #2015-30. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Source: FPG Child Development Institute

Available at: http://fpg.unc.edu/node/7716

When Brain Science Meets Public Policy: Strategies for Building Executive Function Skills in the Early Years

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1/2015

Scientific advances over the past decade confirm how critical a child’s first five years are to health, well-being and early school success. This is when a child’s brain is growing at the fastest rate and in the most extraordinary ways. One key area of growth during this period—executive functioning and self-regulatory skills—sets the stage for subsequent learning and successful adult outcomes.

From governors’ offices and legislative office buildings to the halls of academia and classrooms for children and adults, interest in the development of executive function and self-regulation skills is increasing dramatically. This white paper explores the development of these critical life management skills, identifies evidence-based and promising practices that foster them, and suggests four strategic opportunities for policy make.

Source: Institute for Child Success

Available at: www.instituteforchildsuccess.org/mydocuments/brain_science.pdf

Children’s Engagement in Preschool and the Development of Self-Regulation

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2013

This study examined the way children’s engagement with teachers, peers, and tasks in the preschool classroom was related to their gains in self-regulation skills. Children’s positive engagement with their teachers was related to increases in their compliance and cognitive control. Children’s active and sustained engagement with classroom activities was linked with gains in their emotion management. The combination of children’s positive and prosocial engagement with teachers or peers and high task engagement or low negative classroom engagement was linked with greater gains in self-regulation.

Source: Center for the Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning, University of Virginia

Available at: http://curry.virginia.edu/uploads/resourceLibrary/CASTL_Research_Brief-Williford_et_al._%282013%29_EED.pdf