Parenting involves guiding children towards emotional maturity, which is the ability to balance emotions and respond proportionately to situations. A significant aspect of this is developing emotional regulation. The Smart Brain is still developing in children, so they often require co-regulation and explicit coaching from adults. The goal is to help them move from reactive, unhelpful responses to more considered actions aligned with reasoning and values.
Key Takeaways
- Young children’s emotional regulation skills are primarily learned from the adults around them, including parents, teachers, and coaches.
- Parents can model self-regulation by ensuring they are calm before guiding their own children in their dysregulated state. It is important to remember that a dysregulated adult seldom regulates a dysregulated child.
- Explicitly teaching children self-regulation techniques can be effective. Simple strategies like ‘tense and relax’, ‘bubble breathing’, or smelling flowers/blowing out candles can be taught in short, regular practice sessions.
Try It This Week
- Take stock of how you model self-regulation skills at home.
- Explicitly teach your child a simple regulation skill for a few minutes, a couple of times this week.
- Try creating a regulation box full of some sensory calming tools/activities so your children can use it when they need to calm.
If you would like any further support, please feel free to contact the school counsellors by emailing counsellor@mueller.qld.edu.au.
