Blog
Check out our blog feed for the latest news in Self-Reg, or read articles by a specific author.
Authors
Stuart Shanker
Susan Hopkins
Aviva Dunsiger
John Hoffman
Self-Reg Community
Articles
What a Smile Once Taught me about Self-Reg… Four years later
By: Kapila Love Have you ever been struck by a smile? By how it made you feel? I’m guessing that the answer is yes. Allow me to tell you my story of being awestricken by a smile. For the first time since my son’s birth, I had to leave him in the good care of my...
Could COVID Restrictions Have Supported Self-Reg?
In August when I learned about all of the COVID restrictions for this upcoming school year, I broke down into tears. How are we supposed to keep kindergarten students in their own spaces all day long?How do you eliminate hugs from kindergarten?How do you enforce...
Self-Reg Reset 2021: My Goal For This Year’s Symposium
I love the theme Susan and the team have chosen for this year’s Self-Reg Summer Symposium: “Calm, Kind and Capable, A Self-Reg Reset for Educators and Caregivers.” So much of our work is infant, child, and teen oriented that it is all too easy to overlook our own...
Reframing Ontario’s Six Essential Learning Skills (a.k.a. “I KNOW, Mom!)
By Casey Burgess, Ph.D. When my children hand over their report cards, they always point to the self-regulation section, roll their eyes, and say, "I KNOW, Mom. That isn't what self-regulation is.” They sure are learning. One time, my youngest child surprisingly...
What Happens When We’re All Caught In A Stress Cycle?
Before we left school for the April Break, I had a really interesting conversation with my teaching partner, Paula. Our conversation had us wondering: right now, are we all caught in a perpetual stress cycle? In Ontario, the Coronavirus numbers are currently out of...
Ellen’s Story: Stress Behaviour Is Not Just For Kids
A couple of weeks ago, I reached out to an acquaintance (let's call her, "Ellen") through email.** I had a question to ask her, and I thought that she might be able to provide some insights to a query of mine. This is not a colleague or a good friend, but it is...
Five Midway Lessons From the Self-Reg Foundations Course
By Kapila Love I found Self-Reg via Facebook posts, and was intrigued enough by the pretty infographics to look further, to Stuart Shanker’s Self-Reg book. From there, it was a rather lovely, slippery slope into the Foundations Course, which commenced in the Fall of...
Good Stress? Unexpected Insights From A Kindergarten Child
On Friday, my teaching partner, Paula, was away. After we cleaned up at the end of the day, I thought that we would discuss some highlights to share with Mrs. Crockett. Many children had stories to contribute, so they took turns talking. Little did I know that one of...
Self-Reg, Teens and Awareness
By: Laura Cesaroni I love all things Self-Reg and approach the people I work with through this lens. Understanding how the brain, body, and relationships impact experiences and the world they live in has been an effective process to support children, teens, families,...
Stress and The Evolving Teenaged Brain: A Study in Contrasts
In the last 20 years or so people have really latched on to the idea that teenaged brains are not fully developed. Good thing to talk about. But when the media started reporting research findings, e.g. the rational part of the brain isn’t fully developed until age 25,...
We’re Online. Now What? Self-Reg Realities In Our Physical And Virtual Classrooms.
In Southern Ontario, elementary school students are about to enter their second week of remote learning. Last Sunday, Aaron Puley, a vice principal in our Board, tweeted me this question in response to a tweet shared by The MEHRIT Centre....
A Grinchmas Christmas … Or My Self-Reg Conundrum
Every Who down in Whoville liked "special days" a lot, Except for their teachers, Crockett and Dunsiger, Who often did not. These days seem so joyful, So awesome, so fun, But we had to wonder, Are they perfect for everyone? One day was for hats, Head pieces, and such,...
Liz’s 10 Self-Reg Lessons Learned
By: Liz Shepherd Now embarking on my 5th year with The MEHRIT Centre, I have come a long way in my Self-Reg learning. No longer do I see misbehaviour, but instead stress behaviour. No longer do I view the world through a self-control lens. No longer do I see the world...
Flipping Tires & Discussing Accessories: Seeing School Life Through A Self-Reg Lens
I love a quiet, early morning start to my time at school. While our school building doesn't open until 7:00, I'm usually there at 6:35 to set-up our outdoor space. The timing works so that I'm done the set-up by the time that my pass card unlocks the front doors. This...
The Gift of Virtual Teaching
By Heather Bredin I have always wanted to create a classroom environment that communicates safety and promotes self-expression and respect. But when the COVID-19 virus hit the world, our goals shifted to a different kind of safety: physical safety from the...
Self-Reg Snails: Finding Love In Unexpected Places
Last year, my teaching partner, Paula, and I moved to a new school. Little did we know that our school would be situated in a very dense snail population. We thought that the rainy weather would bring with it lots of worms, but in fact, it brought along with it many...
And the Parenting Advice Just Keeps on Coming
Advice for parents is seldom in short supply. But this September, as kids return to school amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, I’ve noticed an uptick in parenting advice, and mental health advice in general. In 10 minutes on social media this morning I saw posts about: •...
Reframing The Coronavirus: A Tale Of Empathy
As everyone in education knows right now, schools in the midst of a pandemic look a whole lot different than they did before. My teaching partner, Paula, and I continue to play around with our classroom set-up to help "scale that condo wall" and find possibilities in...