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Writer's pictureBehaviour Mentor

Self-Regulation: Find Your Own Route



I recently took this photograph while walking in the "Swiss Grand Canyon". The beauty of this place and the interesting route and gorge carved out by the river Rhine reminded me of how there are many routes to a destination. The river regulates its own course.


It may be a tad clichéd but I related this back to how there is no "one size fits all" approach to behaviour and how we all need to find the route that works for us and our students. Which leads to the subject of this blog post: The importance of self-regulation skills and how behaviour plans do not help teach these.



As many of you will already know… I am not a great promoter of Behaviour Plans.


Much as I can relate to the need for a documented approach to addressing behaviour within the classroom I still believe that behaviour is personal and as such needs to be addressed on an individual basis as our behaviour is what sets us apart. As individuals, we all respond to social cues and situations based on our own personal experience and life stories.

And that is okay…


Of course, we can teach our students to behave in a particular way whether that be a socially-expected or our predetermined acceptable response. However, that does not ensure that the student will always behave in that way. Nor does it ensure growth in our students’ ability to self-regulate. Illustrated by Michelle Garcia Winner (2019) in her article “the process involved in helping students learn to self-regulate and how this is very different from encouraging students to behave”.


If we think about traditional Behaviour Plans they are generally based on external sanction/reward systems where students are motivated by the receiving of rewards and discouraged from certain behaviours through the application of unwelcome sanctions. There are undoubtedly students who will respond to such a system but for many, the system only sets them up to fail over and over again. The traditional behaviour plans often overlook the need for learning to take place in order to ensure longterm success in the classroom.


I have been thinking a lot about how I can raise awareness of the need to move away from traditional behaviour plans and promote alternative approaches which can be beneficial for the students in our care. I believe that students who exhibit challenging behaviour are in fact communicating to us that they are distressed.


I am making a conscious effort to move away from the use of the term challenging with respect to behaviour as I believe that by using it we already label the student as having a deficit. Therefore, by replacing challenging I hope to highlight that the student is in need of our help and understanding. But do I want to use the term distressing instead? I am not sure.


If we are to promote improved behaviour in the classroom we must aim to support learning and skill acquisition to that end. Behaviour which is defined by the ability to read and respond to social cues and situations in an acceptable way requires self-regulation and self-regulation is complex.


Self-regulation is an internal decision-making process and this is where the impact of behaviour plans can come unstuck. Behaviour plans are created as a blueprint for behaviour but they do not take into account all the external factors impacting the behaviour or the internal processes. Self-regulation requires the skills to navigate social situations in an acceptable way through the regulation of our emotions and feelings. This involves the interpretation of social situations and the application of strategies to navigate those situations in a calm and regulated manner. As previously stated self-regulation is complex and requires the balancing of many variables to ensure success. If we are to expect our students to find success with self-regulation then we must create an environment where they feel valued and understood. They must have the chance to take risks in the knowledge that the adults around them will be empathetic towards them and establish achievable goals based on the needs of the individual. Realistic expectations must be discussed in collaboration with the student where mutual respect and trust can be achieved.


There is no quick fix here but together we can affect change. Through the building of realistic goals with trusted adults, students will be enabled to take ownership of their own behaviour and regulate their social responses. If an environment is created where the student feels they are being heard and valued then they will acquire the ability to respond appropriately.




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