Early Self Regulation Has Lifetime Effects: A Teachers Perspective - Coursework Example

Early Self Regulation has Lifetime Effects: A Teachers Perspective al Affiliation) Introduction Although evidence exist relatingself regulation with their academic skills, the role of moderators and the relations nature is still not well understood. These papers seek to support the fact that early self regulation has lifetime effect to the people. Most kindergarten teachers are usually in contact with most children and can influence their self regulation by impacting academic skills. Early intervention to promote self regulation among the preschool and kindergarten children has a long term effect in their academic achievement. Self regulation and academic skills Self regulation is the transactional and internal processes that people use to control their behavior which is goal directed in varying contexts and over time. Several researchers have employed the term when exploring the relationship between early academic skills and self regulations. Self regulation in childhood is considered a period of rapid development. Perils of failure and essence of academic skills acquisition in the early are well documented. It is important for kindergarten teachers to be aware of the factors that can influence academic skills acquisition during the kindergarten years and preschool years. Various studies have explored the essence of self regulation to the achievement of early academic skills. Methods used to assess the impact of self regulation on the achievement of the academic skills are still unclear. The absence of clarity has prevented the ability to effectively target self regulation in curricula, teaching strategies and interventions aimed at improving the academic skills of the young children. The study conducted by Nicholas & Laura (2012) was based on finding out the relationship that exists between self regulation and the achievement of academic skills among the young children. Few studies have indicated that a relationship exist between literally skills, maths and self regulation. The finding of the study revealed that self regulation affected the achievement of skills by the young children in kindergarten and preschool years. Researchers have continued to relate early maths skills acquisition and self regulation. The connection has been linked to the brain functioning, it has been found out that completion of self regulation tasks and solving of mathematics problem is accomplished by the same brain region. The study however did not consider other moderators such as gender and its relationship on self regulation. Self control optimism and self regulation A study conducted by Charles (2013) revealed that both self control and optimism contribute directly to the functions of self regulations. The study indicated that previous psychological researchers have dealt with two human experience properties that entailed self control and optimism. The increased level of the properties has been known to be important in a number of ways. Self control is believed to contribute to success in academics and development of interpersonal relationships that are considered essential. It is also believed to have less influence of aggression, substance abuse and eating disorder. Negative emotions are inhibited by high self control. High self control increase the way people relate to each other. On the other hand, children with less self control are not successful in their academic achievements. The study relates disruptions with interpersonal well being. Kindergarten teachers are to improve the self control skills in the children to help them achieve success in their academics and relate well with each other. The study focused on relating academic achievements and self regulation among the kindergarten children. According to the findings, children in intervention groups were found to posses higher levels of self regulations compared to those in the control groups. The self regulation intervention related to the acquisition of the skills in mathematics especially for the preschools who were learners in English language. The finding indicated that schools should be able to provide interventions aimed at promoting self regulations especially among the English language learners in kindergarten and preschool years. The study focused on behavioral aspects that impacted on self regulations in classrooms. The behavior aspects that were considered entailed; attention flexibility, inhibitory control and working memory (Charles, 2003). The study relates self regulation to the three behavioral aspects. Self regulation according to the study involves developmental and environmental processes. The quality of care given to the children helps in linking self regulations and environmental inputs such as poverty. The study affirms that development of self regulation is vital during the early childhood periods and that teachers and parent should provide the children with better skills to help in the developments. In order to improve the readiness of children for school, providing self regulation skills by the teachers in preschool period is vital to the child. The period I considered vital to the kids because it is the time when prefrontal cortex of the brain develops. Prefrontal cortex is the brain portion that deals with self regulation. Self regulation program interventions and achievement of academic skills The findings of the study also reveal that promoting self regulation impacts positively on the academic success of the child. Self regulation is believed to help children avoid destructions, navigate learning environment, stay on task, pay attention and help navigate through various difficulties in classroom situation. Studies have indicated that strong self regulation developed during kindergarten and preschool years, results to improved scores and achievement measures. Strong self regulation has been been shown to cause achievement in academic success not only in kindergarten years but also in high school and college levels. The teachers are therefore advised to promote self regulation among the preschool and kindergarten children with an intention of long term academic achievements (Nicholas & Laura, 2012). Factors such as poverty have also been found to impact negatively on self regulation and academic achievements. Studies have shown that students coming from poor families have low levels of self regulation skills related to their peers from well off families. Psychological models have shown that poverty influences self regulation due to reduction of the home environment. In other words, stress related to poverty affects the ability of the parents in developing an environment that allows self regulation development among the children. Being an English language learner and at the same time coming from poor families have been shown to affect the academic performance and knowledge acquisition (Baumeister & Vonasch, 2014). Parents with low education level and poor are unable to engage in behaviors that can promote self regulation among the children. Schools with such students should therefore provide interventions aimed at improving self regulation during the preschool and kindergarten periods. The intervention should be done early enough since it will determine their performance in later years. Self regulation intervention has grown due to the existence of evidence that supports its positive impact on the academic success for the children. The intervention has been applied to decrease behavior and improve self regulation among children in foster care through the kid in transition to school program (KITS). A game used in some intervention was called purple and red light. The game focused on improving working memories, attention flexibility and inhibitory control. Additional rules and repetition of activities were done as progress in intervention was continued to increase cognitive complexity. The goal of the study was to assess the impact of the various interventions that included inhibitory control, working memory and attention flexibility. The skills were linked to the success in academics. The study revealed that children are able to achieve much from literacy, maths, and vocabulary instructions after self regulation interventions. The children who participated in the intervention were seen to improve in performance compared to the ones in control group. Addictive behavior and self regulation Self regulation theories can be applied in controlling behaviors that are addictive to the preschool and kindergarten children. Addictive behaviors such as bullying are a usual experience of the kindergarten teachers. Self regulation has been found out to be an effective way of controlling such negative behaviors among the kids. Addictive behavior is regarded as unusual kind of behavior by the public and the community at large (David et al, 2012). The individual in usually attached to such a behavior despite the call for them change. Addicts find it difficult to control the behavior. Self regulation is considered a process of changing and managing self. It is usually applied in alteration of behavior, such as changing the emotions, impulses, thoughts of the person. Problems in self regulations usually emerge from inner conflicts. Self regulation is hampered when standards are conflicting and unclear. Due to monitoring process reduction in self regulation tend to impact directly on the self awareness. Kindergarten teachers should monitor the children with addictive behaviors in class. Such behaviors usually reduce the academic performance and the teacher has to intervene to stop the behavior from progressing. The teacher should focus of factors such as intense emotions and destructions which lead to reduction in the self regulation. The child’s self regulation process has to be empowered and improved to deal with the addiction problems. Some addictive behavior such as bullying can affect other learners in class and therefore the teacher has to be in control. Role of parents in improving self regulation A study conducted by Hyein et al (2014) on indirect and direct effects of the family assessment of self regulation from toddler hood to early school age revealed indicated that self regulation plays an important role in aspects of psychopathology and adaptive development that involves externalizing behavior and school readiness. Inhibitory control is one of the most self regulated components. The component been considered part of the temperamental and executive control systems. Inhibitory control is believed to experience rapid growth during preschool and kindergarten years. The finding of the study revealed that appropriate intervention during childhood can help trace development of children and monitor their behavior as they grow from toddlers to middle childhood. During such periods interventions directed at behavior control can be done. The promotion of inhibitory control and self regulation can result to positive achievements of the child. Some school programs have targeted self regulation though the effects of the interventions have not yet been documented especially beginning with the early stages of development. The curricula should be changed to focus on toddlers and preschoolers rather than school age children. These will be important in preparing them to begin school. Family check up is a family centered strategy that has been put in place to promote positive behaviors in children with the aim of developing an effective self regulation before a toddler begins school life. There is evidence of the intervention causing positive changes in the inhibitory control from three to four years (Schmitt et al, 2012 ). The result is associated with the parents’ efforts. Inhibitory control and self regulation is believed to emerge after two years of age in children and develops rapidly during the preschool period. The kindergarten teachers should therefore take advantage of these to ensure an appropriate environment is created for the rapid development. The family members more so the parents should be at the forefront of promoting self regulations in children. Parents should learn and practice effective parenting methods aimed at creating an environment for the development of the inhibitory control and self control. They are to partner with teachers and aim at monitoring the development of the child. Parents should also be able to control their impulses which can impact on self regulation of the preschoolers through imitation and improved family management (David et al, 2012). Care givers should promote child socialization at the home environment. Curricula that are parent focused have been identified as effective in reducing disruptive child behavior and enhancing positive skills of parenting. Promotion of child socialization that is a role of both the parent and the teacher has been known to rely on the child’s self regulation. Childhood anxiety and self regulation Fearful and worried children need the guidance of the teachers and parents to assist before the condition turns into a mental disorder. Stressed children do not perform well in their studies and the development of self regulation system in them is often impaired so does the inhibitory control (Pamela, 2014). Stressful situations in the child’s environment are believed to activate the emergency control system in the body resulting to inhibition of neurogenesis and are dangerous to the mental and physical development of the child. Some of the issues that may trigger anxiety in children include trauma effects, specific phobias, social interaction and performance and obsessions and compulsions. Conclusion Parents and teachers should prepare an environment for the development of self regulation. Self regulation determines academic performance not only in kindergarten years but also in high school and college. Schools should put programs in place with an intention of promoting the development of self regulation to the children. References Baumeister, R.F., & Vonasch, A.J. (2014).Uses of self-regulation to facilitate and restrain addictive behavior, Addictive Behaviors http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2014.09.011 Charles S. Carver.(2013). Self-control and optimism are distinct and complementary strengths Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL 33124, United States David S. Yeager and Marlone D. Henderson (2012) .Boring but Important: A Self-Transcendent Purpose for Learning Fosters Academic Self-Regulation, University of Texas at Austin Hyein Chang & Daniel. (2013).Direct and Indirect Effects of the Family Check-Upon Self-Regulation from Toddlerhood to Early School-Age .Springer Science Nicholas P. Allan, Laura. (2012).Relations Between Inhibitory Control and the Development of AcademicSkills in Preschool and Kindergarten: A Meta-Analysis. Florida state university Pamela Kaiser (2014) Childhood Anxiety and Psycho physiological Reactivity: Hypnosis to Build Discrimination and Self-Regulation Skills, American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis,56:4, 343-367, Schmitt, S. A., et al. (2012).Strengthening school readiness for Head Start children: Evaluation of a self-regulation intervention. Early Childhood Research Quarterly Read More