03/25/2025
All aboard at Regulation Station đ Any surprises in this quick true or false quiz?
1. Self-regulation should be expected of a child before Kindergarten. FALSE. Just like all other skills, self-regulation does not have a hard and fast milestone. Would it be nice if children could self-regulate on their own at a young age? Of course. Does this stop it from being an expectation when children start school? Nope. LOTS of factors impact how soon children develop efficient regulatory skills.
2. Regulation can be learned. TRUE. But not always in the way youâd expect. Regulation develops from repeated experiences of co-regulation with an attuned, connected caregiver. There are programs to directly teach regulation skills and they absolutely have a place, but need to be implemented when lower level skills are more firmly in place.
3. Regulation means that the child is calm. This one might be a head scratcher, but FALSE. Regulation is about the ability to meet our own needs (physiological, sensory, motor, emotional, etc.) and the requirements of the situation. If youâre riding a roller coaster, would you be calm? Doubtful. But that doesnât mean dysregulated. Your response would likely be appropriate for the situation.
4. Children should be expected to be regulated 100% of the time. Say it louder for those in the back, SO MUCH FALSE. Even as adults, we are not regulated 100% of the time. We have bad days, we get upset, we overreact. So we canât expect kids, whose regulatory capacities and executive functions are far from developed.
5. Children learn how to regulate through their caregivers. TRUE. When your infant cries, what do you do? You pick them up, you comfort them, you try to address whatever has them upset. This is called co-regulation. Hundreds and thousands of these opportunities even beyond infancy are the foundation of developing self-regulation.
