What is self-regulation?
Self-regulation refers to several complicated processes that allow children to appropriately respond to their environment (Bronson 2000). In many ways, human self-regulation is
like a thermostat. A thermostat senses and measures tem- perature, and compares its reading to a preset threshold (Derryberry & Reed 1996). When the reading passes the threshold, the thermostat turns either a heating or cooling
system on or off. Similarly, children must learn to evaluate
what they see, hear, touch, taste, and smell, and compare
it to what they already know. Children must also learn to then use self-regulation to communicate with any number of systems (such as motor or language systems) to choose and carry out a response.
Self-regulation is clearly not an isolated skill. Children must translate what they experience into information they can use to regulate thoughts, emotions, and behaviors (Blair & Diamond 2008). Infants translate the feel of sooth- ing touch and the sound of soft voices into cues that help
them develop self-calming skills. Toddlers and preschoolers begin to translate cues from adults, such as “Your turn is next,” into regulation that helps them inhibit urges to grab food or toys. They begin to learn how long they must usu- ally wait to be served food or to have a turn playing with a desired toy, which helps them regulate emotional tension.
Because self-regulation involves different domains, regu- lation of one domain affects other areas of development. Emotional and cognitive self-regulation are not separate, distinct skills. Rather, thinking affects emotions and emo- tions affect cognitive development (Blair & Diamond 2008). Children who cannot effectively regulate anxiety or discour- agement tend to move away from, rather than engage in, challenging learning activities. Conversely, when children regulate uncomfortable emotions, they can relax and focus on learning cognitive skills. Similarly, children experience better emotional regulation when they replace thoughts
like “I’m not good at this” with thoughts like “This is dif- ficult, but I can do it if I keep trying.” Regulating anxiety
and thinking helps children persist in challenging activities, which increases their opportunities to practice the skills required for an activity.
Self-regulation is also like using a thermostat because both are active, intentional processes. Setting a thermostat requires an intentional decision and the device actively monitors environmental temperature. Similarly, self-regula- tion requires intentional decisions (“I will not hit Andrew!”) and active processes (sitting on one’s hands so they are
unavailable for hitting). Although children’s behavior is regulated by many processes that function outside their awareness, researchers have found children’s intentional self-regulation predicts school success (Zimmerman
1994). When provided with appropriate opportunities, young children can and do learn intentional self-regula- tion. Researchers Elena Bodrova and Deborah Leong, for example, taught preschoolers to plan their play activities and found planning helped children develop stronger self- regulation skills (Bodrova & Leong 2007). Planning is an important part of self-regulation. Teachers might suggest
that children sit on their hands to remind themselves to not hit or touch another child. To use this practice, children must think about potential future actions and then imagine and enact alternative behaviors.
Finally, just as a thermostat monitors conditions to main- tain optimal temperature, self-regulation monitors condi- tions to maintain optimal arousal for a given task (Blair & Diamond 2008). Everyone experiences peaks and lows in levels of attention, emotion, and motivation. As children develop, they learn that some activities require them to
pay attention more (that is, the activities require increased attentional arousal). For example, children need more attentional arousal to watch a play than to chase a friend. The same is true for motivational arousal. Children need to
“wake up” motivation more to stick with a challenging task