Teaching Self-Regulation Skills to Students with Behavior Problems: Essential Instructional Components

Zach is a sixth-grade student receiving special education services for an emotional and behavioral disorder (EBD). Like many students who exhibit significant behavioral problems, Zach has challenges that affect his school performance, including difficulty controlling his emotions. For instance, when asked to do independent work, he sometimes becomes frustrated and angry, throws objects, calls the teacher inappropriate names, and refuses to complete activities. Zach also has trouble working toward goals, evidenced by his difficulty with remembering tasks, following step-by-step directions, and completing assignments. Zach does, however, excel at science and enjoys playing basketball with his friends in the neighborhood. The middle school coach, who knows Zach from city league play, has told him he has a real chance of making the team as a seventh grader. Zach talks often about how good he will be when he makes the team, but his teachers remind him that to be a team member, he has to have good grades and stay out of trouble. Zach is unable to visualize what it will take to make this happen and struggles with formulating and following through with plans, resulting in chronic frustration. In addition, Zach’s trouble with social interactions causes frequent conflicts with peers, which is a problem if he wants to be on the basketball team. Rather than using strategies for solving problems or thinking through the consequences of his actions, Zach reacts automatically with aggressive and sometimes even violent acts. Lately, Zach’s teacher, Ms. Allen, has noticed that his social and behavioral issues are increasing, especially when working with peers or doing academic work. One day, Ms. Allen notices that Zach is not working on his assignment. She reminds him how important it is to keep his grades up to try out for the basketball team. Zach refuses to continue working and crumples his paper. To prevent a behavioral outburst, Ms. Allen assigns him to work with a peer, but conflict soon ensues, with name-calling and yelling. Ms. Allen realizes that Zach’s outbursts are worsening, and previous supports and strategies do not seem to be improving his behavior. Unfortunately, Zach’s inability to manage his own behavior is an all too common occurrence in middle school classrooms with adolescents who exhibit EBD. As illustrated in the example, students with EBD can disrupt the learning environment and have difficulty establishing appropriate social relationships with peers and adults (Kauffman & Landrum, 2009). A key component of their maladaptive behavior is an inability to self-regulate (Blair & Diamond, 2008). Recently, researchers such as Rueda, Posner, and Rothbart (2005) have argued that self-regulation (SR), a person’s intentional or effortful control over thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, is critical for academic, social, and behavioral achievement. For students with a behavioral profile like Zach’s, teachers need to teach selfregulatory skills explicitly. Researchers have shown that doing so can result in improved student outcomes in both academics and behavior (e.g., Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group [CPPRG], 2010). An individual’s ability to use SR skills effectively or engage in effortful control (e.g., delay gratification, control impulses, moderate expression of negative emotions) relies on internal mechanisms, or cognitive processes, referred to as executive functioning (Miyake & Friedman, 2012; Rueda et al., 2005). Although executive functions (EF) are complex interrelated neurocognitive processes, they can be described best as an air traffic control mechanism in the brain that helps people produce goaloriented action (e.g., Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, 2011). Miyake and Friedman (2012) theorized that when students engage in SR, they are drawing on this set of cognitive processes, which allows them to control their impulses, remember and use information, and change their way of thinking. An ever-increasing research base demonstrates how EF are at the core of self-regulatory abilities and are essential for social, emotional, and academic success (e.g., Blair & Diamond, 2008). In fact, Blair (2002) argued that EF is a better predictor of school readiness and success than students’ prior academic knowledge or IQ when entering school. Fortunately for students like Zach, adolescence is a pivotal developmental period for EF. Although EF begins to develop early in childhood and continues into adulthood, Zelazo, Carlson, and Kesek (2008) believe that adolescence is a peak time for cognitive growth. As such, it is a prime time for teachers to TEACHING SELF-REGULATION SKILLS TO STUDENTS