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 temperature,
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 compareit
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.