If ever there was a time to heed Santayana’s warning, this is it. It is tempting to dismiss what is happening in the US today as an aberration. This might be true in some respects; in others, not. The end of the Cold War saw a surge of new Democracies. But if we...
The Future Lies in the Hands of Self-Reg Parents, Schools, and Communities I first started thinking about social justice and democracy when I was 16 years old. I had just attended a political rally where Pierre Elliot Trudeau talked about a Just Society: one in which...
The Self-Reg educator or parent seeks to understand, rather than manage a child’s behaviour. In effect, what is being reframed here is what it means to see the Kindergarten teacher as a professional and not a glorified...
Kindergarten marks a major transition in children’s lives: from being coddled infants to being treated as responsible individuals. They are students now, and as such they have to meet certain expectations, as noted in an article published on education.com: “He can...
The Different Kinds of “Why?” Parents of new babies are forever asking why. “Why is she crying? Is she hungry, wet, scared, lonely, bored?” Since we can’t just ask her, we put on our detective’s hat. We think back to previous occasions, experiment with...
This was originally an article in the Self-Reg Parenting Magazine Vol 1 Issue 2. Take a look at this picture and tell me whether there’s something in the duck’s bill: Now take a look at this picture and tell me whether there is something in the rabbit’s mouth: This...
This was originally an article in the Self-Reg Parenting Magazine Vol 1 Issue 2 Children have such different ways of responding to being over-stressed. Some get physically ill. Some get nervous and anxious. Some become manic and hyperactive. Some have trouble going to...
Parents are forever asking us: “Can Self-Reg help me with my child’s challenging behaviours? Nothing I say or do seems to help.” Self-Reg will indeed make a difference—a huge one—in dealing with problems like explosive behaviour, aggression, defiance, tantrums,...
Balance ⊢ Freedom I am still trying to understand the meaning of what we saw on the weekend of March 24, 2018: the March for our Lives. Teens around the world, rising up against – what exactly? The lack of gun control? Political apathy and cynicism? Insidious...
In some ways, Janus would be the perfect symbol for Self-Reg. Partly, because Janus was the god of beginnings and transitions; but mostly, because Janus’ two faces were supposed to represent looking to the future and looking to the past. We might say the same thing...
Experiments are all around us, if only we take the time to observe and reflect on them. We just had one with our 16-year-old son that would have been so easy to dismiss as yet another absurd teenager annoyance. But this one clearly demanded a bit of serious thought....
There is a widespread tendency to see resilience as a trait. For Self-Reg, it is an aspiration. We are constantly looking for ways to build a child or teen’s resilience: their capacity, as Ungar puts it, to access the resources that sustain wellbeing. And, Lord knows,...
Neuroscientists have recently made a startling discovery as to why so many students these days are having trouble with math. Brain imaging has shown that starting at a young age, a simple problem in arithmetic can trigger a fight-or-flight reaction. When...
Math shouldn’t be seen as just a tool, or a compulsory subject. It is an enriching mental experience. Yet more and more young children are fleeing from it, right at the start. Read the Self-Reg view from Dr. Stuart Shanker in this three-part series on math for...
In the 18th and 19th centuries, the Biblical aphorism that one should “Pour oil on troubled waters” began to be seen in literal terms, as an empirical phenomenon worthy of study. Benjamin Franklin performed an experiment on a pond to prove the wisdom of this practice,...
This is an excerpt of Dr. Shanker’s monthly article for Psychology Today. Read the full article, When to Push a Child, here. There is a fundamental difference between perseverance and compulsion. Perseverance is Blue Brain. It is fueled by interest and desire....
We all want the best for our kids, and these days there is a growing chorus of voices telling us that this means pushing them to work harder. Just about every aspect of a child or teen’s life these days is a competition. But to excel at school, sports, the arts,...
We are in the midst of one of the most exciting and profound revolutions ever seen in our understanding of human functioning and development. As a result of striking advances in neuroscience, physiology and psychology, we are unravelling the complex interrelationship...