#15 - PIC Your Impulses – Playful Interactions To Control Your Impulses
This week’s post comes to us from Social and Emotional Learning Enthusiast and Harvard alumna, Jayanti Bhatia.
Many would agree that their children, especially 3-6-year-olds, are restless and cannot regulate emotions or impulses.
But not many would know that self-regulation affects not only physical, emotional, and social wellbeing but also academic achievement; research shows that young children with poor self-regulation skills tend to make less academic progress (McClelland et al., 2007). Self-regulation is broadly defined as the ability to manage frustration, desire, and anger/aggression, and the ability to share, take turns, and comply with teacher or caregiver requests (Jones et al., 2016). Further, inhibition or impulse control is a simple sub-set skill that falls under self-regulation and is defined as the ability to wait, take turns, or refrain from speaking when necessary. It lies at the intersection of cognitive and emotional skills as seen in fig. 1. This makes impulse control a critical skill for child development and is thus the focus of the PIC strategy.
Fig 1. Map of EF and Regulation-Related Skills (Jones et al., 2016)
Building on research, the PIC strategy aims to tap on the benefits of playful parent-child interactions and two-generation support. Together both these reinforce each other and play a crucial role in shaping young children’s developmental outcomes. For children, responsive relationships with adults have a double benefit, both promoting healthy brain development and providing the buffering protection from toxic stress (Center on the Developing Child, 2017). Further on, “play is the perfect breeding ground for these important positive interactions” (Lego Foundation, 2019). Lego’s “Playful Parenting in the Early Years” report highlights that a range of socioemotional and cognitive skills including self-regulation can be practiced through early interactions with others, including parent-child play. Two-generation (2Gen) approaches, in turn, build family well-being by intentionally and simultaneously working with children and the adults in their lives together. A family is an interdependent unit central to the success of children and it is thus imperative to focus on the family as a whole rather than just the primary caregiver or the child (Aspen Institute, n.d.).
Keeping these aspects in mind, I designed the “PIC your Impulses – Playful Interactions to Control your Impulses” strategy as part of one of my courses to build impulse control of preschool children and build positive parent-child relationships. While this was originally designed for children experiencing homelessness, it can easily be translated to any other context and is easy to adapt.
Fig 2. PIC your Impulses contextual information
PIC taps on the fact that there are numerous moments of opportunities in everyday routine that can be easily utilized without any additional resources or efforts. PIC can be easily embedded and carried out during waiting times such as waiting for the school bus, subway, meal preparation, and grocery queue amongst many other such simple moments, which if productively utilized can prove to be of immense value. Lego report highlights this fact by stating that “High-quality play moments between a parent and child can happen during everyday routines, such as cooking, feeding, bath time and bed-time”(Lego Foundation, 2019). Second, waiting and taking turns lies at the heart of impulse control, so young children displaying impulsivity may actually have difficulty taking turns. The PIC strategy thus uses the power of taking turns and making wait time more fun and meaningful for both preschoolers and their primary caregivers.
The strategy has three integral components: a) Ask, b) Act, and c) Take Turns. The primary caregivers and preschoolers can ask each other simple questions regarding the day, feelings, and favorite things. The other has to respond through an act. Depending on whatever is easy and fun for the child, the act could be child’s favorite dance step, action, clap, any movement, or a simple enaction of the answer. Each of them has to take turns to do so and it is this piece of engagement and waiting that can help develop impulse control. While the interaction is ongoing, the child has to resist and control his/her desire to talk and act, and at the same time, it makes the parent-child dyad productively utilize the otherwise boring wait time and build a wait-time routine ritual. Over time with practice, children should be able to successfully control their impulses. This is also a fun way to strengthen the bond between preschoolers and their primary caregivers.
So, what are you waiting for? Go, try this, and let us know your thoughts and feedback!
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References
Aspen Institute (n.d.). What Is 2GEN? Available at https://ascend.aspeninstitute.org/two-generation/what-is-2gen/
Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University (2017). 3 principles to improve outcomes for children and families. Available at http://www.developingchild.net
Jones, S. M., Bailey, R., Barnes, S. P., & Partee, A. (2016). Executive Function Mapping Project: Untangling the Terms and Skills Related to Executive Function and Self-Regulation in Early Childhood Executive Summary. OPRE Report # 2016-88, Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Lego Foundation (2019). Playful Parenting in the Early Years. Available at https://www.legofoundation.com/media/1695/what-we-mean-by-playful-parenting-in-the-early-years.pdf
McClelland, M.M., Cameron, E.C., Wanless, B.S., & Murray, A. (2007). Executive function, behavioral self-regulation, and social-emotional competence: Links to school readiness
Jayanti Bhatia is an alumna of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is an SEL Expert Contributor for Inside SEL, Steering Committee Member at SEL4CA, and a consultant at Avenues: The World School.