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What Makes Up Emotional Regulation?
Emotional regulation, that is, a child's ability to control and modify emotions across time helps the child to acquire meaningful social relationships. A child that is unable to regulate their emotions to an appropriate level for the context may miss opportunities to share with their peers or be shunned by friends. Continued missed opportunities for children who experience difficulty regulating their responses may impact many areas of needed growth - communication development, motor development, friendships and more. Understanding the dimensions of emotional regulation may help professionals and parents problem solve those areas of greatest need for these children. Additionally, the multidimensional nature of emotional regulation may require a multidimensional response from caregivers and professionals.
Emotional regulation consists of five dimensions. The first, cognitive appraisal allows the child to reflect on his own emotional experience, as well as, the ability to read the emotional reactions of others. In other words, the child is noticing how everyone is experiencing the event. Using these abilities, the child is able to determine an appropriate course of action based on their judgments and predictions about the event.
The arousal state or physiological regulation to the emotional experience is also a critical dimension of emotional regulation. Responses in the brain and the body work together to impact the intensity and type of responses the child has to the event(s).
The third dimension of emotional regulation communicates the reaction verbally and non-verbally between partners. This dimension is referred to as emotional expression and can range from facial expressions, giggles and crying, to changes in muscle tone and flushing of the skin. Emotional expression can be the result of both involuntary responses and intentional actions.
When a child demonstrates an emotional response to an event and monitors and adjusts for its social acceptableness they are demonstrating what is called socialization. This aspect of emotion regulation is highly impacted by cultural experience and standards. Parents and familiar partners provide much of the early feedback for the child as they learn what emotional responses are appropriate in their particular environment.
The final dimension is the child's ability to regulate emotional and mood states. This includes recovery from extreme emotional reactions and adjusting or modifying one's internal reaction to the events of the external world.
Considering all the dimensions of emotional regulation will aid parents in developing strategies to assist the child in achieving optimal emotional regulation.
Our series on emotional regulation continues in the next Parent Matters. Please be sure to check back for the next installment in this multipart series.
ˇ Compiled from readings in The SCERTS Model: A Comprehensive Educational Approach for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders, 2006, Barry Prizant, Amy Wetherby, Emily Rubin, Amy Laurent and Patrick Rydell.
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