Promoting Self-Regulation Through Instructional and Behavioral Interventions

1. Promoting Self-Regulation Through Instructional and Behavioral Interventions Mini-Skills Presentation NASP 2012 Annual Convention, Philadelphia Elena Savina, PhD, Samantha Tynan, Ed.M., Phoebe Wan, M.A., Marlana Ashe, Ed.S. Combined-Integrated Doctoral Program in Clinical and School Psychology, James Madison University, VA

2. FACTS • THREE million children in this country take drugs for problems in focusing (A. Srouffe, New York Times, January 28, 2012) • Prescription of psychotropic medication to children under 5 years of age is rapidly increasing (Zito et al., 2000) • Preschool-age children are being expelled for unmanageable behavior three time more often than children in elementary school (Gilliam, 2005) • Academic learning time ranges from 50 to 110 min per school day (Huitt, 2005)

3. What is self-regulation? Which situations require self-regulation? How does self-regulation work? How does self-regulation develop? How can self-regulation be improved?

4. Definitions of Self-Regulation • Self-regulation is internally directed capacity to: -regulate affect, attention, and behavior (Raffaelli, Crockett, & Shen, 2005). -voluntarily adjust behaviors to situational demands(Posner & Rothbart, 2000) -generate socially approved behavior in the absence of external monitors (Kopp, 1982) • It implies temporal orientation as it inhibits immediate response in the service of a long-term goal • It is guided by internal representations such as verbal rules, images, emotions, goals, and needs (Esleinger, 1996)

5. Definitions of Self-Regulation (cont.) Self-regulation is often conceptualized as: • Effortful control which is voluntary ability to inhibit, activate, or change attention and behavior (Posner & Rothbart, 2000) • Executive function which is a collection of processes that control, organize, and direct goal-oriented cognitive, emotional and behavioral responses (Gioia, Isquith, & Guy, 2001)

6. Situations that Require Self-Regulation • Child needs to do something that he/she does not want to do • Stop doing something the child wants to do • Taking turns and waiting • Delaying gratification of needs • Adjusting emotional reactions to situational demands • Following instructions • Managing (planning, organizing, prioritizing) everyday activities • Monitoring and controlling task performance

7. What We Regulate? • Behavior • Emotions • Motivation • Cognition

8. Regulation of Behavior: Response Inhibition • Inhibitory control refers to the ability to suppress inappropriate responses (Rothbart, 1989) • Poor response inhibition is associated with externalizing problems (Rothbart & Bates, 1998) and depression (Lengua, 2003) • Good inhibitory control is related to lower internalizing and externalizing problems and higher social competence (Lengua, 2003; Winsler et al., 1997) • Inhibitory control is associated with delayed gratification (Mischel, Shoda, & Rodriguez, 1989), • Delayed gratification in preschool age predicts cognitive, self-regulatory, and coping competence, as well as SAT in adolescentce (Shoda et al., 1990)

9. Emotion Regulation • Emotion regulation is a process by which an individual initiates, modulates, or maintains internal emotional states and their behavioral expressions (Eisenberg et al., 2000; Rothbart, 1989) • Attentional processes are important for emotion regulation (Eisenberg et al., 2000) • Emotion overregulation can be maladaptive as in the case of blunted emotion expression (Thoits, 1985)

10. Emotion Regulation Strategies (Gross, 1998) • Situation selection: selecting/avoiding situations that evoke desirable/undesirable emotions • Situation modification: seeking help in problem solving, or to confirm the legitimacy of an emotion response • Attention deployment: distraction and concentration/rumination • Cognitive change: appraisal of situation to alter its emotional significance • Response modulation: attempts to alter experiential, behavioral, and physiological responses directly

11. Regulation of Motivation • Is activated when motivation to perform a behavior is not strong or when a motivational conflict is present • Self-regulation requires strength (willpower) and motivation to achieve the goal (Baumeister & Vohs, 2007) • Is necessary for task initiation and also associated with persistence • Self-regulation of motivation includes boosting of self-confidence/self-efficacy and controlling one’s interest

12. Regulation of Cognition: Metacognition • Metacognition is awareness of one’s cognition and understanding how knowledge and strategies are interconnected • It is knowing what one knows and does not know • Metacognition involves: • Analyzing of task demands and selecting a strategy • Revising plans and strategies when facing new information or mistakes • Self-monitoring of task performance • Self-evaluation (Borkiwski & Burke, 1996)

13. CORE SELF-REGULATION PROCESSES

14. Behavioral Inhibition • Intact behavioral inhibition is a prerequisite for self-regulation; it provides a delay period for executive function to occur (Barkley, 1998) • Delayed responding is fundamental for self-regulation as it allows two important processes to take place: separation of affect and prolongation (Bronowsky, 1967) • Separation of affect is a delay between a stimulus and the response that allows to separate message from its emotional charge • Prolongation is the ability to prolong the effect of stimulus by fixing it mentally

15. Working Memory Working memory allows to: • Simultaneously process information • Temporarily store goals and intentions • Supervise and monitor ongoing processes (Oberaurer, 2003)

16. Private Speech as a Mechanism of Self-regulation • Psychological processes are mediated by semiotic systems such as language (Vygotsky, 1981) • Through using those systems (also called psychological tools), mental processes are transformed from spontaneous and immediate to mediated and voluntary psychological tools S R S R

17. Private Speech as a Mechanism of Self-regulation (cont.) • Inner speech is an internalized self-regulation tool • Private speech is an intermediate step towards development of inner speech • Verbal self-regulation originates in social interactions Steps in development of self-regulation: • someone regulates child's behavior • child regulates someone else's behavior by external speech and regulates his/her own behavior by private speech • child regulates his/her own behavior by inner speech (Karpov & Haywood, 1998)

18. Developmental Hierarchical-Integrative Perspective on Self-Regulation • Self-regulation requires integration of physiological, emotional, attentional and cognitive processes (Calkings & Fox, 2002) • Three systems of brain are involved in self-regulation: brainstem, limbic, and cortical (Tucker, Derryberry, & Luu, 2000)

19. Developmental Trajectory of Self-Regulation (Feldman, 2009) Physiological self-regulation (coordination of sleep/wake cycles and cardiac vagal tone) Emergence of emotion regulation Emergence of attention regulation Development of compliance, behavioral inhibition, delay gratification, self-restraint, and private speech • Neonatal period • First year • Second year • Preschool years

20. Developmental Perspective(Feldman, 2009) • Physiological, emotional, and attentional functions develop on top of each other • Even minor disruptions to lower levels lead to dysfunctions in higher systems • Regulatory functions are open to contextual influences

21. Early Childhood Parental Practices and Self-Regulation • Caregiving practices related to feeding, soothing, and sleeping mediate development of self-regulation (Melendez, 2005) • Timing of caregiver response to baby’s distress is important to support self-regulation • Scaffolding and direct teaching help infants sustain attention (Smith et al.,1997) • Maternal responsiveness and cognitive stimulation are positively related to child attention

22. Behavioral and Instructional Classroom Interventions to Support Self-Regulation

23. What Research Informs Us • Executive functions rather than general intelligence predict how children do in math and reading at the end of kindergarten (Blair & Razza, 2007) • Classrooms with structure and good behavior management have positive effect on students’ self-regulation (Cameron, 2005; Connor et al., 2010) • Disruptive behaviors decrease dramatically when active responding is used (Armendariz & Umbreit, 1999) • Students in high mnemonic classrooms outperform peers in low mnemonic classes on memory measures (Ornstein, Grammer, & Coffman, 2010)

24. Physical Environment that Supports On-Task Behavior • Student desks are arranged in rows (Wannarka & Ruhl, 2008) • Student desks are arranged in a way that minimizes physical contact between peers and gives teachers easy access to students • The teacher can see every student from various points in the room • Each child can clearly see the board • Students may retrieve work materials with minimal distractions to students around them • Décor in the classroom is calming and age appropriate • Only material that supports current instruction is displayed

25. Routine and Rules • Established routine helps children with task initiation • Routines should be established for all classroom activities • Rules should be explicit, easy-to-understand and consistently enforced • Most effective rules are established by teacher and students; involve an average of 5 rules (Malone & Tietjens, 2000) • Mediators (cards/models/signs) can be used to prescribe rules • Rules stated in the positive mode (desired behavior) help students regulate themselves and increase independent work and problem solving

26. Strategies to Support Attention • Students’ attention is gained prior to giving instruction through visual/non-verbal stimuli • Down-time is minimal • Tasks are broken into smaller parts • Students’ active responding such as asking and answering questions is encouraged • Teacher helps student to stay on task with prompts, a private signal or hand gesture • Students are instructed to underline, rewrite, or highlight directions and instructions • School materials are organized using color coding notebooks, folders, binders, etc. • Students’ self-monitoring is encouraged by giving credit for detecting and correcting errors

27. Working Memory Strategies • Minimize factors that will interfere with attention • Make presentations linguistically simple, brief, and concise • Repeat presentation more than once • Organize presentation in an integrated manner • Use dual encoding by combining visuospatial and verbal processing (Dehn, 2008) • Teach students skills automaticity (Dehn, 2008) • Use external cues to minimize working memory demands

28. Metacognitive Strategies To promote metacognition: • Use deliberate memory demands (“remember that…”) • Ask metacognitive questions (“How did you get this answer? What should you do next?”) • Suggest memorization strategy (clustering, repetition, mnemonic, visual organizer, etc.) • Give metacognitive information (strategy rationale)- why strategy is important (Ornstein et al., 2010)

29. Emotions in the Classroom • Negative emotions can reduce working memory (Linnenbrink & Pintrich, 2000); high level of arousal is associated with lower level of executive functions (Blair et al., 2005) • When students feel emotionally and academically supported by their teacher, they are more likely to use self-regulated learning strategies (Ryan & Patrick, 2003). • Regulating students’ and their own emotions is commonly reported by teachers as one of the stressors of the job (Sutton, 2004)

30. How to Promote Emotion Regulation in the Classroom • Provide emotionally expressive and positive environment • Talk about emotional experiences and help students develop knowledge about emotional expressions, situations, and causes • Use calm and warm correction to prevent acceleration of the problem when a student act impulsively or has difficulty controlling his negative emotions

31. How to Promote Motivation Regulation Self-regulation of motivation is promoted when: • Students are engaged during instruction • They are taught to attribute their success to their effort • Persistence and sustained activity are positively reinforced • Students’ perceived control is supported • Students are taught to delay gratification • Teacher creates a sense of belonging in the classroom (McMahon, Wensman, & Rose, 2009)

32. Creating Strategic Classrooms: “Drive to Thrive” (Meltzer et al., 2007) • Teaching self-regulation strategies is linked with the curriculum • Metacognitive strategies are explicitly and systematically taught through modeling, guided practice, and frequent feedback • Students are taught to generalize metacognitive strategies • Motivation and effort are emphasized

33. Group and Individual Interventions to Promote Self-Regulation

34. Interventions that Target Private Speech • Self-regulation originates in social interactions (Vygotsky, 1981) • To promote private speech, engage children in meaningful activities with peers that require verbal coordination • Help children develop an activity plan and gradually transfer responsibility for planning/monitoring from adult to child (Karpov & Haywood, 1998) • Use effective scaffolding: more direct guidance after child fails; less direct guidance after child succeeds (Diaz & Berk, 1999) • Ask children to use self-directed speech during tasks at intermediate level of performance (Diaz & Berk, 1999)

35. Self-Regulation Interventions: Play-Focused • Play is a natural and powerful context for the development of self-regulation • It requires a child to act against immediate impulses and follow play rules (Vygotsky, 1966) • Symbolic play imposes implicit rules, while games impose explicit rules • Research indicates that children with poor self-regulation skills significantly benefit from playing games with rules (Tominey & McClelland, 2011)

36. Self-Regulation Interventions: Play-Focused (Cont.) • Enrich play experiences • Cultivate child-initiated games vs. adult-initiated games • “Tools of the Mind” (Bodrova & Leong, 2007): early childhood program aimed at development of self-regulation competence through play • Children develop play scripts, represent them symbolically, and discuss them with others • Scripts become tools that transform child’s behavior from spontaneous and impulsive to deliberate

37. CASE STUDY

38. Student Information • John is a 7 year-old, Caucasian male • He attends the second grade • John lives with his parents and maternal grandparents. He is the only child. John’s mother reported a family history of speech and language difficulties, learning disabilities and ADHD • He receives services under “Other Health Impaired”

39. Referral Questions • Inattentiveness • Impulsiveness • Poor organization skills • Lack of social skills • Awkward peer relations • Poor physical boundaries

40. Behavioral Observations Behavioral Markers Easily distracted, makes careless errors, difficulty following instructions Easily frustrated and upset Speaks out of turn,begins assignment before receiving instruction Bumps into other kids, approaches them closely Deficits Attentional problems Poor emotion regulation Weak behavioral inhibition Poor physical boundaries

41. WISC-IV Results WMI 88 Digit Span 9 Letter-Number 7 (Arithmetic) 10 PSI 78 Coding 4 Symbol Search 8 (Cancellation) 6 FSIQ 106 VCI126 Similarities 14 Vocabulary 15 Comprehension 14 PRI 115 Block Design 9 Picture Concepts 12 Matrix Reasoning 16

42. Executive Functions Assessment: NEPSY-II Clocks 4 Affect Recognition 6 Auditory Attention 3 Response Set 5 Inhibition Naming 11 Inhibition 5 Switching 5

43. BASC-2 BASC-2 Parent Teacher Hyperactivity 72 68 Aggression 52 56 Conduct Problems 57 54 Anxiety 55 54 Depression 45 49 Somatization 47 46 Attention Problems 81 79 Learning Problems 73 76 Atypicality64 61 Social Skills 42 38

44. Assessment Summary • Strengths in verbal and non-verbal reasoning abilities • Weakness in processing speed, working memory, attention and response inhibition • Weakness in perspective taking and theory of mind

45. Positive Behavior Support Plan: Recommendation for Teachers 1. Speak slowly and give John one direction at a time 2. Be in close proximity to John’s desk, place hand on his desk as you give instructions 3. Ask John to repeat instructions to check for understanding 4. Prepare John for difficult tasks (i.e. this task may be difficult and you may not do well the first time, just try your best) 5. Have John correct his errors on class work and praise corrections 6. Recognize signs when frustration is building and provide emotional support 7.Teach healthy boundaries using “Space Invaders” lesson (Baker, 2003)

46. Positive Behavior Support Plan: Metacognitive Skills Scaffold task completion and teach John metacognitive skills: • Ask John what task he has to do • Repeat it “So, you need to do….” • Ask “What do you need to do to complete this task?” • If John does not know the strategy, explain and model it • Ask John to repeat • Ask him to implement the strategy and give him a time limit for that • Ask for the answer and ask how he got this answer • Praise him • Proceed to the next task

47. Skills Building Interventions

48. Social Skills and Theory of Mind • Practice peer interactions: Conversation Freeze Game • Watch video of children interacting and pause video to ask questions about how each character feels/thinks and why

49. Time Management Skills • A chart with morning routines was developed to use at home

50. Time Management Skills (cont.) Individual Interventions: • Give John multi-step tasks • Give specific time limit for each step • Complete each step • Monitor progress with a timer