Self-regulation in Early Childhood

Emotional Development of Early Childhood children:

At the beginning of this stage children are very egocentric. The world revolves around them. Due
to this egocentric thinking children often to not understand how their behaviors and emotions
affect others. As a child grows and slowly leaves the egocentric thinking they begin to
understand how others feel and how their actions and emotions affect others. They quickly learn
that hitting someone hurts them or that when they act out in anger it scares their classmates. An
increase in language development also helps to provide children with words to use instead of
actions.

How to promote selfregulation:

Modeling: Show your child how you
control and handle your emotions
Practice: Role-play with your child through
situations to help them learn how to react
appropriately.
Use soft kind language: Be sure to take a
breath and use soft-kind language when
dealing with a childs emotional behavior.
When the parent demonstrates anger and
frustration it doesnt help the child learn to
regulate their emotions.

Behavioral Strategies:
Teach alternative behaviors: Teach
children appropriate behaviors to use in
place of the unwanted behavior. For
example, instead of telling the child not to
hit their friend teach them to hit a pillow or
bean bag instead. This gives the child the
opportunity to get their frustrations out
without harming others or themselves.
Use positive reinforcement: When a child
does an appropriate behavior be sure to
praise and reward the child instantly. This
will help reinforce what behavior is wanted
instead of focusing on the negative.

Redirect: Redirect and capture the childs

attention. When a child focuses on you,
remind them to use their words or gentle
hands to solve their conflict.

Why is good emotional self-regulation important?

As children grow and learn this self-regulation they are able to carry these skills with them
throughout their growth. If children learn these skills at an early age it helps them to think and
control themselves when they reach adolescence. According to Berk, 4-year-olds who were
better at delaying gratification were especially adept as adolescents in applying metacognitive
skills to their behavior and in inhibiting impulsive responding (p. 516). These self-regulation
skills will be beneficial especially when peer pressure and social norms become a concern to
the child.
Berk, L. E. (2013).Child development. (9th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.