Past events – WCAIMH September 25, 2014: Learning to Self-regulate

SPEAKER: Lynda Phillips, Ph.D. Child &Youth Care Counselling, Faculty of Child, Family and Community Studies, Douglas College     SUMMARY: Self-regulation is an integrative construct which involves the ability to manage arousal, attention, emotion, behaviour and cognition in an adaptive way in order to engage in goal directed behaviour (Neuenschwander et. al., 2012) and is linked to school success and later productive adult functioning. Parents, caregivers and teachers, via their proximal interactions, shape a child’s skills to self-regulate throughout the course of development (McClelland & Cameron, 2011). Consequently, a child’s self-regulation cannot be reduced to aspects of either the individual or the context alone, as it grows out of the synergistic effects of both. This presentation will demonstrate how our pan-Canadian observational study using Day in The Life (DITL) methodology to explore the experiences of immigrant five-year-old children identified as ‘doing well’ as they adapt to living inter-culturally, provides an opportunity to view behaviours associated with self-regulation in real time. This methodology uses photographic techniques, digital videotaping, field notes, contextual mapping and interviews, and as such enables us to present real time examples of how the intercultural space in which a child finds himself affects the skills associated with self-regulation as he transitions from home to school. Examples of advocating for self and cooperating with others will be...

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