The Term You Are Looking For is Dysregulation
The Term You Are Looking For is Dysregulation
The child is having a meltdown. The child is having a tantrum. The child just doesn’t like to hear the word no. The child never gets told no. The child is crying for no reason. The child cries over everything.
Let’s take a deep breath, calm our nervous systems, and rethink the situation. The term we are looking for in these moments is dysregulation. Emotional dysregulation is an inability to cope with or control one’s emotions. In young children specifically, they have difficulty with the intensity and quality of those emotions.
Although this can be very frustrating for adults, it is normal for young children to have difficulty managing their big emotions as they don’t have all the self-regulation skills. Self-regulation is a person’s ability to manage emotions even in difficult situations. This skill isn’t always easy for adults, so we can not expect young children to self-regulate alone. They need a trusted adult to help them with this through co-regulation.
If you find it challenging to navigate life in the classroom with children experiencing dysregulation , you may benefit from any of the following live virtual workshop sessions that I am offering:
Nurturing Relationships: Co-Regulation
From Excitement to Anger: Tools for Guiding Big Feelings
Refocusing the Lens of Power Struggles
Refocusing the Lens of Purposeful Misbehavior
Appropriate Expectations Biting.
You can find additional information on these workshops here.
