Do you think you understand Self-Reg? Are you sure? Stuart Shanker and Susan Hopkins have come across a number of misconceptions about Self-Reg over the past few years. They deconstruct 12 of them in this video blog series. You can watch the videos at the links below or on our YouTube channel.
12 Self-Reg Misconceptions
- Misconception 1: “Lots of older children aren’t very good at regulating themselves. I don’t see how kindergarten children can learn to self-regulate.”
- Misconception 2: “Children need to experience and navigate stress in order to develop resilience. Self-Reg is just bubble-wrapping.”
- Misconception 3: “Self-Reg doesn’t have the kind of measurable outcomes schools need these days.”
- Misconception 4: “Self-Reg is just another way of doing functional behavioural analysis, and it’s less systematic and objective.”
- Misconception 5: “We already do Self-Reg. We’ve got bikes, adaptive seating and quiet corners in our school.”
- Misconception 6: “No matter how passionate they are, one Self-Reg practitioner can’t make change on their own unless lots of people get on board.”
- Misconception 7: “We need to get to the parents. Self-Reg has got to start in the home.”
- Misconception 8: “Self-Reg is yet another one of those programs that works best for the kids that need it least, and doesn’t work with the most challenging kids.”
- Misconception 9: “Teachers need a comprehensive set of concrete classroom strategies to do Self-Reg.”
- Misconception 10: “Self-Reg is a new way to teach kids to make good choices and be accountable for their behaviour. That’s what the “self” means.”
- Misconception 11: “A lot of the stressors Self-Reg talks about are ones we can’t reduce because they are simply part of life and school. Kids have to learn to cope.”
- Misconception 12: “Self-regulation sounds great, but I don’t think it can help me with that one child whose issues go way beyond stress.”
