Self-Reg Books

The foundation of self-regulation is the feeling of calmness and safety that children experience with their parents. Children’s ability to deal with stress in life, whatever its source, stems from the security they experience in their families.

In Self-Reg, Dr. Shanker helps us begin to recognize, not just when our child is becoming dysregulated, but what to do about it: the process that will enable us to experience that calmly focused state where learning and growth can occur.  Learning The Shanker Method of self-regulation has an unexpected benefit for us parents. As we come to understand our own hidden stressors and how those impact our brains and bodies, we find science that answers many questions and invites us to have a new gentler lens on ourselves as parents.

Shanker Self-Reg® begins with distinguishing between misbehaviour and stress behaviour, recognizing that something that we automatically assume is due to a lack of self-control is, in fact, a sign of an excessive stress-load. Important examples of when we may need to reframe behaviour are things like: restlessness, a negative outlook, emotional volatility, sudden outbursts, heightened impulsivity, low frustration tolerance, aggression, oppositional behaviour, social withdrawal, and a lack of empathy.

Votre enfant, Self-Reg et vous : comprendre l’autorégulation pour vivre mieux

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Self-Reg est un livre pionnier qui présente une toute nouvelle compréhension des émotions et du comportement de votre enfant ; il offre aux parents un guide pratique pour aider leurs enfants à s’engager dans l’apprentissage et la vie avec calme et succès. Fondé sur les décennies de recherche et de travaux du Prof. Stuart Shanker avec des enfants et des parents, Self-Reg réoriente le pouvoir de la relation parent-enfant, pour un changement positif. L’autorégulation est la façon dont le système nerveux réagit au stress. Aujourd’hui, toute une génération d’enfants et d’adolescents est soumise à des niveaux de stress excessivement élevés et nous assistons à une explosion de problèmes émotionnels, sociaux, d’apprentissage, de comportement et de santé physique. Mais peu de parents reconnaissent les “facteurs de stress cachés” (physiologiques, sociaux et émotionnels) avec lesquels leurs enfants sont aux prises. Selon une conception de l’éducation très ancrée, les enfants manquent de maîtrise de soi ou de volonté, mais en réalité, c’est l’excès de stress qui est la véritable cause de ces problèmes.

Self-Reg Schools: A Handbook for Educators answers that question by detailing how four models, or streams, of self-regulation environments develop in our classrooms and schools. Each stream is outlined with practical tools and strategies you can use to enhance your classroom so that it reflects and embodies the theory and practice of self-regulation for the benefit of all—you, your students, parents, and the community at large. This includes:

• a description of each stream—What does it look like? sound like? feel like?
• scenarios based on real classrooms and real teachers that exemplify the stream
• an easy-to-implement model that can be used with students, parents, and other practitioners, along with application tips
• stories from the field, written by practising educators, that explore one or more stream characteristics
• strategies to help you begin or extend the stream in your classroom
• an additional chapter that features three expert contributors–Drs. Jean Clinton, Gerard Costa and Heather Yang writing on anxiety, autism, and ADHD
• an accompanying website that features videos, line masters and additional hands-on support

Where Calm, Alert and Learning answered the what and why of self-regulation, this handbook answers that all-important question of how to do it and, more importantly, gives you the tools you need to make it happen!

“The better we understand self-regulation, the better we can implement educational practices that enhance student’s capacity to learn and develop the skills necessary to deal with life’s challenges.”

– Dr. Stuart Shanker, in Calm Alert and Learning.

Scientific research in a number of fields is telling us that the key to student success is not so much intelligence but abilities like concentration, delay of gratification and emotional intelligence: abilities which are dependent on self-regulation. 

But can a child’s ability to self-regulate be improved? Canada’s leading expert on self-regulation, Dr. Stuart Shanker, says it can and that educators have an important role to play in helping students develop this crucial set of abilities.

Published in 2012, Calm Alert and Learning continues to be one of the top-selling educational publications in Canada. It has helped thousands of Canadian educators develop new ways to understand and address the challenges their students face.

For Stuart Shanker, the possibility of a truly just and free society begins with how we see and nurture our children.

Shanker is renowned for using cutting-edge neuroscience to help children feel happy and think clearly by better regulating themselves. In his new book, Reframed, Shanker explores self-regulation in wider, social terms. Whereas his two previous books, Calm, Alert, and Learning and Self-Reg, were written for educators and parents, Reframed, the final book in the trilogy, unpacks the unique science and conceptual practices that are the very lifeblood of Self-Reg, making it an accessible read for new Self-Reggers.

Reframed is grounded in the three basic principles of Shanker Self-Reg®:

– There is no such thing as a bad, lazy, or stupid kid.

– All people can learn to self-regulate in ways that promote rather than constrict growth.

– There is no such thing as a “fixed outcome”: trajectories can always be changed, at any point in the lifespan, if only we have the right knowledge and tools.

Only a society that embraces these principles and strives to practice them, argues Shanker, can become a truly just society. The paradigm revolution presented in Reframed not only helps us understand the harrowing time we are living through, but inspires a profound sense of hope for the future. Shanker shows us how to build a compassionate society, one mind at a time.