Human Growth and Development / Unit 4 HGD 0475 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Regulating Emotion, Age by Age
The idea
Infants gain regulation strategies in a sequence. Newborns use attentional distraction, turning away from something upsetting, and by four to six months they can shift attention deliberately. Self-soothing follows, sucking a thumb or rubbing a blanket. In the second year toddlers seek attention, calling, reaching and asking to be held. By about twenty-four months they add escape behaviour, hiding, protesting or avoiding. Temperament shapes how well each child manages.
In practice
One child growing from turning her head away from a loud toy to walking out of the room to escape it.
Where people slip
Cultures support regulation differently: in one comparison, US families used stimulating environments, Dutch families structure and routine, Italian families touch, and Korean families physical well-being and routine. None is the right way; each fits a culture's values. Regulation is also a building block of emotional intelligence, the next entry.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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