The Steps: There are 5 steps in The Shanker Method of Self-Reg: → Reframe the behaviour → Recognize the stressors → Reduce the stress → Reflect: Enhance stress awareness → Restore energyThe Shanker Method As this Self-Reg diagram converys, the 5 steps are not a linear...
What is self-regulation? Recent research in neuroscience and physiology has profoundly altered our understanding of the mechanisms behind a child’s response to stress, and has also reinforced what physicians have intuitively understood for generations: that children’s...
Self-regulation in preschoolers The early years are a time of extraordinary growth and development. Children’s capacity for self-regulation—how they manage energy expenditure in response to stressors and then recover from the effort—is wired during these critical...
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....
The Shanker Self-Reg® Framework Self-regulation refers to the manner in which an individual deals with stress, in all its many forms, and then recovers from the energy expended. An individual (child or adult) exposed to too much stress in the early years, may develop...
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...
If Self-Reg teaches us anything, it is that it is next to impossible to ever be certain about a child’s intellectual potential: even when this might seem to be set in stone. Children are forever surprising us, and for that matter, themselves. And the whole point of...
Back in 2001, David Sobel, an Education Prof at Antioch University in New England, published a fascinating book called Children’s Special Places. He was interested in the question of when and why children build forts. This typically begins around the age of 5 or 6....
Purpose: The practice of Self–Reg draws a fundamental distinction between self–regulation and self–control. Self–regulation seeks to identify and reduce the causes of problems in mood, thought, and behaviour. Self–regulation is always searching for hidden stressors....
This Self-Reg Information Sheet is based on ideas and content developed by Dr. Stuart Shanker. It is intended to increase educators’ and parents’ understanding of anxiety and how to support children dealing with anxiety on a day-to-day basis. It is not meant to...
The first question that we need to ask is perhaps the most important: are we, in fact, witnessing an ADHD epidemic? T he data certainly seems to indicate that this is the case. The percentage of 4-17 year-olds in the U.S. diagnosed with ADHD has risen from 7.8% in...
Trauma and the brain To this day, many children are still experiencing the effects of the trauma that their grandparents and parents went through in residential schools. Other events in a child’s life can also be traumatic and have a similar long-term impact....