There are many social and emotional developments that happen during the early

childhood stage. Self-regulation is one of them. Preschoolers are able to verbalize a

variety of emotional self-regulation strategies. They are able to restrict sensory input, talk
to themselves, and change their goals so that they are able to self-regulate their emotions.
Preschoolers are able to respond to emotional cues and understand that their peers may
feel differently than they do. During the early childhood stage, vocabulary and language
development helps young children be able to express and empathize with peers. Children
learn a lot from adults in their environment on how to handle their social and emotional
needs. A childs temperament does affect their ability to self-regulate and show empathy.
Some children may be more caring which leads to higher levels of sympathy, where
another child may have a more aggressive nature which makes it hard for them to see
circumstances from anothers view (Berk, 2012, p. 411, 415-417).

Four Tips to Promote Emotional Self-Regulation in Early Childhood

1. Be emotionally supportive when a child is unhappy and use the experience to teach the
child to cope with their emotions (Cole, Dennis, Smith-Simon, & Cohen, 2009)
2. Be a model for the young child to learn from of the proper way to handle emotions and
on how to respond to others emotions (Cole, Dennis, Smith-Simon, & Cohen, 2009).
3. Create make-believe scenarios to act out with the young child to help the child have
emotional understanding (Berk, 2012, p.416).
4. Help the young child learn to be kind by hosting a play date and sharing their toys or by
helping the community through an organization (Berk, 2012, p. 418).

Two Behavior Strategies for a Child who is Struggling with Self-Regulation

1. Caregivers should be nearby to support the child work through their feelings before they
act on them. A child who is starting to get angry because their friend took their toy
could be coached on how to talk to their friend to get their toy back the appropriate
way.
2. Use a timer to help the child know when their turn will happen so that they can be able
to share materials.

Good emotional self-regulation is vital for empathy to result in sympathy and prosocial
behavior because children are in many different social settings. They need to be able to
enter and work in groups of their peers appropriately. Being able to be successful in
social settings and be empathetic and have good prosocial behavior, all starts with
emotional self-regulation.