Emotional Regulation and The Importance of Early Developmental Experiences

By Maude Le Roux, OTR/L, SIPT, RCTC, DIR® Expert Trainer at A Total Approach

When we study a child’s development, we look at it through a sensory lens and an emotional lens. That’s because sensory modulation and emotional regulation work together to form a whole picture of the child’s behavior. Without one or the other, any therapeutic intervention may not give the results we’re looking for.

No discussion on the emotional triggers of regulation is complete without first talking about the sense of self that develops at an early age and the difference between temperament and personality.

Some call temperament the “why” behind personality and it is, in many ways. While personality arises within an individual and is made up of certain characteristics, temperament is the inherited style of an individual, often referred to as their natural instinct or emotional constitution.

Parents can nurture a child’s temperament, which gives clues about their strengths and weaknesses. Personality develops over the years and can be influenced by education, social status and the stress of life events. The characteristics of personality are consistent but can be expressed in a multitude of ways.

What is Emotional Self-Regulation?

During his lifelong study of emotion regulation, Dr. Stuart Shanker has observed that every time children are confronted with stress, their brains respond with processes that consume energy, followed by restorative processes to recover from the energy expenditure. Therefore, he defines emotional self-regulation as how effectively a child responds to environmental stressors in the moment and how efficiently they recover from the effort.

A child who merely misbehaves in any given situation will realize they could have acted differently, that they are perfectly capable of acting differently. Whereas a child who demonstrates stress behavior is not fully aware of their actions or the reason for their actions. They have limited capacity to act differently in a stressful situation.

The challenge for parents and occupational therapists in helping the child learn how to regulate their emotions is understanding why certain levels of stress stop the child from an effective, efficient response.

Dr. Shanker’s Five Domains of Stress

To help reduce a child’s stress level that is affecting their behavior, first recognize and identify the stressors across five domains:

1) Biological Stressors – Noises, crowds, too much visual stimulation, not enough exercise, lack of sleep, eating junk food

This domain refers to the physiological process of burning energy and restoring it. It involves sensorimotor challenges and sensory adaptive responses influenced by nutrition, sleep and exercise.

2) Emotional Stressors – Strong emotions, both positive and negative

This domain taps into the child’s understanding and management of their emotions and what to do when they are overwhelmed. Have they developed language to express their feelings in the moment? Temperament plays a role here. The emotional domain can also impact the biological domain.

3) Cognitive Stressors – Difficulty processing certain kinds of information

This domain engages the memory, information processing, reasoning, problem-solving, shifting and sustaining attention, self-awareness and thought sequencing- how to plan and carry out steps to achieve a goal.

4) Social Stressors – Difficulty picking up on social cues or understanding the effect behavior has on others

This domain accesses relationship skills and the ability to adapt behavior in social situations like making friendships that last, taking turns in conversation, picking up on social and non-verbal cues and understanding how emotions affect other people’s behavior.

5) Prosocial Stressors – Difficulty coping with other people’s stress

This domain relates to spiritual, aesthetic, humanitarian and intellectual development and internal standards and values. It brings into play empathy, selflessness, social responsibility, connecting with others within group dynamics and the smooth shift from me-centered to we-centered thinking.

All of these stressors influence a child’s ability to regulate their emotions. If they can’t make sense of an emotion that they’re experiencing in a physiological way with the right adaptive response, how can they self-regulate?

Hierarchy – Levels of Regulation

I use these levels of intervention when treating children with developmental delays as related to sensory processing and self-regulation:

Level 1: Sensory Modulation coupled with Emotional Regulation

• Depends on the emotional co-regulation of the parent-child bonding process

Level 2: Sensory Discrimination

• Registering and processing information in an adequate speed and pace
• Accurately grade sensory information to match the intended intensity from auditory, visual, touch, movement, deep pressure, smell and taste stimuli

Level 3: Praxis

• Series of exams to measure anxiety-related to performance demands
• Performance anxiety due to not performing exactly as my brain wants to cognitively dictate

Level 4: Timing

• Sequencing and bilateral integration includes the ability to regulate time, handling the passage of time, pacing self through activity

 Level 5: Executive Skills

• Cognitive skills used to plan, organize and execute a task, make decisions, shift between situations or thoughts, control emotions and impulsivity, be an active problem-solver and learn from past mistakes
• Requires the regulation of timing between all systems to impact interhemispheric function and attention regulation

To bring about emotional self-control requires secondary structures early in life. Detecting, monitoring and evaluating dynamic affective-state changes is impacted by registration and discrimination challenges. Inhibiting or modifying emotional reactions is impacted by the ability to inhibit over-arousal as well as excite under-arousal. Assuring automatic self-control over time is impacted by praxis, sequencing and timing.

Our occupational therapists can help your child’s emotional regulation skills by working on focusing attention, filtering distractions, controlling impulses and coping and calming behaviors to improve self-regulation. 

Learn More About Emotional Regulation

If you’d like to learn more sensory modulation and self-regulating emotions, schedule a free phone consultation with one of our therapists who can give specific insight into our approach.