PRESENTERS NAME

August 26, 2014

Title of Presentation

Optional sub-title

Stuart Shanker

August 26, 2014BC First Wave:Three Years On

Psychophysiological View of Self-Regulation

How effectively and efficiently a child deals with a stressor and then recovers from the effort

•Ever time a child has a stressor the brain responds with processes that consume energy

•This is followed by restorative processes to recover from this energy expenditure

Stress Response

Adrenaline released to deal with threat:

•Raises heart rate•Raises blood pressure•Increases breathing rate•Increases hyper-vigilance•Increased sensitivity to low-frequency sounds

Energy Conservation

To deal with high energy costs a number of systems are slowed or shut down:

•Digestion•Cellular repair•Metabolism•Immune system•Hearing of the human voice•prefrontal cortical functioning

Threat Response Systems

Three core systems for responding to threat:

1. Social Engagement

2. Fight-of-Flight

3. Freeze

Experiences in the first three years critical for wiring child’s reactivity to stress.

Signs of Heightened Stress Reactivity

1. Chronic hypo- or hyperarousal

2. Hair-trigger stress response

3. Problems with attention

4. Heightened impulsivity

5. Increased sensitivity to pain (physical and emotional)

6. Problems in mood, emotion regulation, or negative bias

7. Reduced ability to read affect cues

8. Reduced ability to hear human voice

9. Blunted reward system

10. Increased immune system problems

physical

Emotional

cognitive

socialphysical

emotional

cognitive

social

Low Energy/High

Tension

Fear, anxiety, anger

Worry, fixation,

distortion

Social anxiety,

interpersonal problems

Low Energy/High

Tension

Fear, anxiety, anger

Worry, fixation,

distortion

Social anxiety,

interpersonal problems

Arousal Cycle

• Nodes become interlocked• Mutually reinforcing• If cycle isn’t broken spins into

flooded• Cycle can be triggered at any

node• Different children respond to

breaking the cycle at different nodes

• Physiological arousal must be reduced in order to break the cycle

Five Steps to Self-Regulation

1.Read the signs of excessive stress

2.Identify the stressors3.Reduce the stressors4.Help child or youth learn

what it feels like to be calm versus hyper

5.Help child or youth develop strategies to return to calm

www.self-regulation.ca