Self-regulation skills are important for learning. People who can self-regulate are able to control and manage their behaviours, focus, problem solve and manage challenges successfully. Children and adults who have good self-regulation skills are aware of their own reactions and behaviours and can control and direct these.
Achieving a good level of self-regulation in our pre-school years has been shown to have lots of advantages. Some of these advantages include being able to cope with school, being better able to make friends and maintain friendships, developing confidence about learning, understanding and problem solving and developing a good level of emotional well-being.
There are a number of ways in which we develop self-regulation skills in nursery. One of these ways is to explore and develop our communication skills during play. Often, when we are little, we use our bodies to communicate rather than verbal language. In nursery we are supported by staff to use words to say what we want/don’t want, what we feel and what we think during play situations. Play is hard work and often we feel frustrated, angry, sad, happy and excited in short spaces of time! All of these feelings are normal and natural and our adults help us work through them in our play, when we need them to. We are supported to link our behaviours with our feelings and to listen to what our peers are saying with their words and with their bodies as we play. Becoming aware of our own feelings and behaviours during play helps us to develop self-regulation.
Another factor that helps us develop self-regulations skills in nursery is that the adults around us help us to feel that we have control over our world, which in turn supports us to control our behaviours even when we have rules to follow. In some situations in nursery we are offered controlled choices. This means that we are given a few options on how to complete certain tasks or how we want to take part in something. Example of these choices would be “Do you want to take your hat off first or your coat?” if we were finding this part of our morning routine tricky and “Would you like a banana or grapes?” during snack when we would really want something less healthy that is not on the menu! Giving us the power to make choices allows us to take part in decision-making processes which increases our engagement and helps us to negotiate our world calmly. In nursery we are free to take our play in directions of our choosing, with adults offering guidance, support and challenge to our learning within this.
Another important way in which we develop our self-regulation skills in nursery is through following routines. Routines create a clear structure for us to follow and help us to organise ourselves. Examples of these in the nursery include hanging our coats up on our pegs, washing hands, signing/marking on the “I’m here” sheet, brushing teeth, waiting our turn at snack times, sharing resources during snack and group play. Within these routines, the adults around us create spaces for us to gain independence and to become more responsible for our own decision making and support us to gradually develop regulation within routines that we find difficult.
Finally, the play based approach in nursery means that we are offered high levels of physical and intellectual challenge as we negotiate, co-operate and problem solve. Being challenged within our play has been linked with developing good self-regulation skills. Through play we learn how to persevere and we develop independence and resilience as we “figure things out”. We learn to collaborate with others, to resist urges that disrupt our play and naturally learn about other people’s feelings and behaviours as well as our own.
Thank you for having a look at our blog for this week. If there’s any specific “themes” you would like to find out more about please do get in touch. For anyone who wants to read a bit more about the importance of developing self-regulation in the early years here are a few links below.
https://education.gov.scot/media/3bjpr3wa/realisingtheambition.pdf (pg 23)
