1. Our belief that we can make a difference in the lives of children has a bigger impact on their achievement than race or socio-economic status. It turns hope into promise. Let’s begin with this…

2. Three Essentials for Success in a “Post-Silo” world Once we recognize that silos and turf don’t work, we build for success by paying attention to: Alignment of shared purposes toward a common goal; Sustainability of plans beyond the term of any individual, budget cycle or other mandate Coherence of the plan’s architecture, so it doesn’t only exist as one person’s dream

3. Life is a complex dance of stressors and responses Awareness of the architecture of your neurophysiology make it possible to influence your realities and the quality of your dance Understanding your survival brain and your learning brain and the situational dominance of each enhances the self in self-regulation, as does… Recognizing and maintaining your “set point” 3 Why a Self-Regulation Framework Is Key to Activating Human Potential

4. How effectively and efficiently a child deals with a stressor and then recovers from the effort Every 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 4 What is Self-Regulation?

5. 5 The Effects of Excessive Stress

6. Calm Focused Alert The Human Condition – Writ Small The Self-Regulation Matrix

7. Back Problems The Self-Regulation Wheel

8. Three core systems for responding to stress: 1.Social Engagement 2.Fight-or-Flight 3.Freeze There is a fourth, very worrying stage, dissociation, which is a last-ditch mechanism for dealing with excessive stress. 8 Stress-Response Systems

9. 1.Chronic hyper-arousal 2.Chronic hypo-arousal 3.Heightened stress reactivity 4.Increased sensitivity to pain (physical and emotional) 5.Reduced ability to regulate negative emotions 6.negative bias 7.reduced ability to read affect cues, show emotions 8.Reduced ability to hear human voice 9.Blunted reward system 10.Increased immune system problems 9 Signs of Excessive Stress

10. 1.Identify and reduce stressors 2.Develop self-awareness - interoception and exteroception 3.Develop self-regulating techniques, learning what to do to mitigate a stress response and what to avoid 10 The 3 Stages of Self-Regulation

11. 11 If child has too much stress, the result can be: Sudden transitions between arousal states Prolonged over-activation of SNS and/or PNS Inappropriate activation of SNS or PNS (i.e., in situations not warranting a heightened stress response) Diminished ability to return to baseline after activation of the stress response Allostatic Load Conditions

12. Tropotrophic: Energy is directed at internal states Metabolism Growth and restoration Immune system Ergotropic: energy is directed at external stimuli External stimuli Threats Problems 12 Tropotrophic/Ergotrophic Shift (Porges)

13. If child expending too much energy on environmental stressors, has less resources for growth and restoration Does not recognize when he is hungry, tired, cold Does not engage in basic self-regulating behaviours (eating, resting, putting on a sweater) Exacerbates his depleted energy problems 13 Results of Excessive Ergotropic Shift

14. 14 Baumeister has shown in a number of experiments that attention to a task significantly depletes energy reserves The greater the energy consumed by a task the greater the likelihood that child will shut down to try to restore energy churn out adrenaline to try to meet the demands of the situation), both states marked by decreased attentional capacity Negative emotions (frustration, shame, anxiety) are also a great drain Energy Depletion Studies

15. A child’s most fundamental need is to feel safe and secure When children are traumatized by something – even minor incidents – they try to lock the memory away, but it stays with them, stored in their body Years later, when something frightens them, they can immediately go into a state of hypertension and all the old feelings surface: e.g., panic, despair, abandonment, anger 15 Working Through an Emotional Past Emotional Past

16. The brain responds to extreme stress – e.g., trauma or poverty – by shutting down certain functions in order to sustain the costs of hypervigilance and sustained fight-or-flight (sympathetic arousal) The functions that are suppressed can include self- awareness, external awareness, attention, and mindreading, as well as tropotrophic functions The effects of extreme stress can be intergenerational because of the impact it has on child-rearing Effects of Extreme Stress

17. Why do so many of teens have low frustration tolerance, heightened impulsivity, and high levels of anxiety? There is a second, ‘prepubertal’ brain explosion, which places great demands on the teen’s autonomic nervous system Many teens today are in a state of sustained energy depletion, leaving them highly vulnerable to mental and physical health problems Self-Regulation and Adolescents