How to 'teach' self-regulation to children
"Saying I taught it but they didn't learn is the same as saying I sold it but they didn't buy." Thomas Guskey image from pbs.org What is self-regulation Self-regulation is the name of the game in education these days. A large portion of our students have the basic skills and intelligence to do their school work and learn at a reasonable rate but are hindered by the lack of skills in the area of "self-regulation". There are many definitions of this term that you can find but the gist is that it is the ability control one's emotions and behaviours in order meet the challenges of day-to-day life. Dr. Stuart Shanker defines it more specifically as thus: Self-Regulation refers to how people manage energy expenditure, recovery and restoration in order to enhance growth. Effective self-regulation requires learning to recognize and respond to stress in all its many facets, positive as well as negative, hidden as well as overt, minor as well as