Creating a Family Culture Around Emotional Self-Regulation

Most of us know a family that speaks a foreign language at home. Children in these families can switch seamlessly between the language they speak with their parents and the one they speak with their peers, teachers, and other adults. This facility with multiple languages benefits children in numerous ways, including in being able to navigate a multicultural world. When I’m working with parents whose children struggle with emotional self-regulation, I try to frame self-regulation as a type of language that takes time and effort to learn and master. As with a foreign language, the key to helping children strengthen their self-regulation skills is to foster an immersive environment in which they can practice, make mistakes, and ultimately grow. To this end, I encourage families to practice self-regulation together. Creating a family culture around emotional self-regulation accomplishes several goals. First, if everyone is practicing and playing together, then the “game” of acquiring better self-regulation skills is more fun. And who wants to be left out of a good time? Second, if the whole family is practicing, then no child is singled out as the “bad” one. For many families, the simple fact that everyone is joining together to work on self-regulation can be comforting to the child who is always getting into trouble at school and is constantly on “timeout.” On some level, children like this understand that they are “different” from other children, but they s...
Source: World of Psychology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Children and Teens Family Parenting Child Development emotion dysregulation Emotion Regulation Self Regulation Source Type: blogs