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 The
Self-Regulatory Scale
By
Lon Woodbury
Several
years ago, I wrote, “The Structure Spectrum” (Woodbury Reports,
August 1995 #35 & August 2000 #72) based on the understanding
that when a residential placement intervention was recommended, some
children needed more intense structure than others. When a child needs
residential placement, clues from the child’s behavior should be examined
to decide how much structure would be required to adequately meet
the child’s needs, and the intensity of the structure of a particular
school or program should be considered in light of those behavioral
clues. If a child had severe clinical problems, he or she would need
a facility with considerable clinical capabilities, which often would
be a locked facility, on the extremely intensive end of the Structure
Spectrum. On the other hand, if the child is just rebellious or spoiled,
with a bad attitude and minimal clinical needs, then a locked facility
would be unnecessary, and perhaps a well-structured rural group home
with a savvy staff would be the better fit, which would be considered
at a lower level of structure on the spectrum. While this has been
a useful concept in helping parents pick the right school or program
for their child, it focuses on the external structure that a school
or program provides.
Another somewhat parallel approach to determining the best match between
special needs students and special needs schools and programs might
be to focus more on the student’s thinking processes, especially the
child’s ability to self-regulate his or her behavior. Getting a firm
handle on this seems more feasible now through new psycho-neurological
research that looks at what is called “executive functioning,” a kind
of goal-directed behavior (“Executive Functioning” New Research About
Familiar Behavior, Woodbury Reports December 5, 2002 #100). In very
general terms, a good deal of the mental processing involved in the
all-important “executive functioning” seems primarily to be associated
with the prefrontal cortex of the brain. Research also indicates that
this part of the brain can continue developing until late in life,
confirming that indeed, “Old dogs CAN learn new tricks,” at least so
far as self-regulation or executive functioning is concerned.
Although this recent psycho-neurological research on brain functioning
shows promise, it seems science is largely confirming a concept about
raising children that is as old as humankind, that is, the most important
need of children while growing up is to learn self-discipline. “Executive
functioning”, self-regulation, self-discipline, and self-control all
sound like they are referring to the same thing, which happens to be
the greatest need and purpose of raising and educating children in
all societies. The advantage of the scientific research promises to
find a way to “quantify” what in the past has been more of a subjective
art. The promise from these new scientific insights would be a very
helpful additional tool. But, we need to keep in mind that there already
exists a context of thought and human experience that these psycho-neurological
findings could supplement very nicely.
This Self-Regulatory concept, or “Executive Functioning,” or ability
to self-discipline, can be a very useful perspective in determining
what level intervention is needed for a particular child, once you
can get a fix on the child’s behavior. From that perspective,
the child can be placed on what I call the “Self-Regulatory Scale”,
which primarily describes the child’s acting-out behavior. These thoughts
don't apply as much for various levels of depression where the child
lacks motivation to even do the wrong things.
Most children more or less raise themselves, and so-so parenting is
usually adequate, along with the typical experiences a child will receive
growing up from children’s organizations, school activities, and the
like. Some children, however, are more creative and idealistic than
most, and once they recognize the inconsistencies, hypocrisies and
self-serving adults that every civilization has, these children object
and begin to rebel in some way. Other children develop distorted conclusions
based on particular negative experiences they’ve had. The degree to
which these attitudes have impacted a child’s behavior can be viewed
in terms of their ability to self-regulate, where at one extreme, they
would be considered to be relatively in control of themselves, while
at the opposite extreme their ability to self-regulate would be very
low.
When the rebellion is in its initial phase and not yet full-blown,
and a child’s ability to self-regulate is relatively good, then the
child will respond either to more effective parenting, or mild intervention
from other adults such as counselors or mentors. Or, the child would
benefit from emotional growth experiences such as an outward bound™
type of experience, or extensive involvement in some activity in which
he or she has a strong interest. However, a case of full-blown active
rebellion, possibly with disastrous consequences, can occur if all
these children encounter are the so-so or poor parenting skills of
their parents, while lacking the benefit of other adult mentors. In
that case it is likely the child would eventually need a highly structured
residential intervention. If action is taken early in the process of
rebellion, and a decision for residential placement is made, then a
well organized boarding school or military school might be very appropriate
for a child with a relatively adequate ability to self-regulate, with
the school’s discipline code providing the motivation to do so.
The next lower level of self-regulation is evident in the teen who
might be doing well in one or more areas such as academics, but there
are the warning signs of poor judgment in activities or friends that
demonstrate that the behavior needs to be addressed. Residential placement
in a structured emotional growth school or program might be necessary
if the home environment is such that the parents can not establish
adequate controls for whatever reason. What is called a “transition”
school, or a ranch program would provide the structure to help this
child clear his/her confusion about what is appropriate.
Teens showing even lower levels of self-regulation are the ones where
things are going poorly in virtually all levels of their lives, but
they insist everything would be fine if the authority figures in their
lives would "get off their back." While they might appear
to be very impulsive and out-of-control, a close look at their behavior
would show that they still have enough self-regulatory ability to avoid
obvious discomfort or danger. For example, teens might blow up at their
parents and storm out the door, leading the parents to fear they might
have so little self-control they are unable to stay out of danger.
But, while they might storm out the door in good weather, in miserable
weather they would be more likely to blow up and head for their room
to make plans. Or, if they do run away, will run to the comfort of
a friend's house rather than a crack house or the streets. This is
usually followed by a phone call asking to come back home, but on their
own terms. Teens who act like this usually can still can self-regulate
their behavior, but their view of reality is distorted enough, (sometimes
the term “jerk” fits best) that they don't have a clue as to why things
are not working out for them. Teens acting in these ways will often
be aware at some conscious level that things could be better, and often
will ask for help when things are obviously turning sour.
These types of irrational behaviors sometimes contain indications of
a clinical problem, and also demonstrate a lower level of self-regulatory
behavior, with the possibility of a clinical problem causing the distorted
thinking. A complete psychiatric examination is important at this level
to at least rule out a serious mental/emotional clinical problem. These
teens would benefit from placement in a highly structured school or
program with at least the clinical capability to recognize psychiatric
problems and/or the capability to provide needed treatment to supplement
the environment in order to develop better "executive functioning" or
self-regulation. Outdoor oriented programs seem to be very effective
since nature itself seems to be an effective healing agency. A locked
facility is usually not necessary at this level, unless the program
is in an urban area, or the program wants to cut costs by reducing
the needs for full staffing.
An even lower level of self-regulatory ability is evident in the dangerous
combination of distorted thinking that is usually at least partly caused
by serious clinical dysfunction. Residential Treatment Centers are
designed to work with this kind of poor self-regulatory ability, and
the good ones combine an effective emotional growth structure along
with quality clinical treatment.
At the extreme lower level of self-regulatory ability or "executive
functioning", are teens who at least at times are totally unable
to control their behavior. This might be shown in explosive outbursts,
violent behaviors with minimal cause, or poor decisions with no grasp
as to why anyone would be concerned. This could be an extreme level
of rebellion, but usually the cause is a psychiatric problem that needs
sophisticated treatment. This level of self-destructive impulsive behavior
can be dangerous and usually requires a locked facility, or at least
a heavily staffed facility with motion detectors, and alarm systems.
The mental health community has developed very sophisticated means
of diagnosing and treating these disorders, and differentiating between
them in order to determine appropriate treatment intervention.
Teens who are making poor decisions can be informally categorized in
terms of the level of executive function they are demonstrating, and
can be placed on a Self-Regulatory Scale. This not only is a useful
way to incorporate the new insights coming out of brain research, and
a way to sharpen our assessment of teens at-risk, it is also a way
to look at a child’s behavior for clues about when residential placement
might be needed, and what kind of facility would be most appropriate.
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