How Do Emotions Affect Self Regulation

It isn’t uncommon for children who have sensory processing challenges to also struggle with self regulation. Understanding more about self regulation & sensory processing will help you know how to give your child the support they need. One of the cornerstone programs I use to educate my families on self regulation is the Alert Program®. In the Alert Program®, when they talk about self regulation they use the term ‘level of alertness’.

Recently I spoke with Mary Sue (from the Alert Program®!) about how they differentiate feelings from levels of alertness. Understanding the relationship between your child’s emotions & their level of alertness is crucial.

What is self regulation?

Let’s start at the very beginning to make sure we are all on the same page. Self regulation refers to your level of alertness and your ability to adjust that level depending on your current situation. Simply put, it’s the energy we feel. Based on the Alert Program®’s teachings, there are three levels of alertness – low, high, and just right.

• When we are in a low alert state we could be sleepy, spacey, droopy, or moving slow.

• In a high alert state we could be using a loud voice, moving too fast, or not have control of our body.

• When we are in a just right alert state, we could be feeling alert, attentive, and focused.

It’s normal to experience all levels of alertness throughout a single day. For example, when you wake up you could have a low level of alertness. Then once you have your coffee & food you have a just right level of alertness. After lunch your level of alertness is back to low, but once after school routines start you have a high level of alertness. The key here is that we need to be able to change our level of alertness when needed.

How Do Emotions Affect Self Regulation

It may seem natural to associate a high alert state with anger and sadness with a low alert state, but it’s important to keep emotions separate from the state of our nervous system.

Our emotions can affect or influence our level of alertness, however, our level of alertness & emotional state are two separate entities.For example, let’s take a look at the emotional state of anger.

When we are mad we could have a hard time listening or struggle to make good decisions. This would look like a high arousal state. At the same time, we could be mad and withdraw into ourselves, shut down, or even leave the situation entirely. This would look like a low alert state. Lastly, if we have access to good sensory strategies (like counting to ten or deep breathing exercise) we could be mad but still be able to communicate our feelings clearly. This would look like a just right alert state.

The same could be said for other feelings such as excitement, happiness, loneliness, or frustration. The important thing to remember here is that emotions do not depict a specific level of alertness. We could experience varying degrees of all sorts of emotions at any level of alertness depending on how we process sensory information.

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So while it may seem like a no brainer that your child’s level of alertness is high when they are angry, it’s important to keep in mind that they could be angry and have a low level of alertness as well. Remember that your child’s emotional state does not depict their level of alertness. It can influence it, but they are not one in the same.

If you think your child may be struggling with self regulation, we have created a free tool for you to use to keep track of their level of alertness throughout the day. After using this tool consistently for three to four weeks you will begin to see patterns arise.

These patterns will identify your child’s sensory preferences & will help you understand your child (and how to better support them on their unique road to success). Having this data will help you confidently make the best next step for your family, whether that be pursuing professional help or not. Grab your copy of the Self Regulation Crash Course below!

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Hungry for more information on self regulation?

Might I suggest you check out the Alert Program®’s online course “Your Best Self: The Alert Program For All”. We recently went through this course ourselves as a refresher and we loved it. It’s cut up into bite sized pieces & presented in a way that everyone can understand.