Call to Action

Foster Self-Regulation Skills with Games

by Rae Pica

Individuals with good self-regulation skills possess discipline, self-control, and impulse control, and are able to manage their emotions and behavior. Obviously, then, these are skills beneficial to functioning with others and among society! However, they don’t suddenly appear in individuals when they become adults; rather, they must be taught and instilled from childhood. Unfortunately, the research shows that self-regulation skills are diminishing among young children, with today’s five-year-olds acting at the level of three-year-olds and seven-year-olds just barely approximating the level of the five-year-olds of past decades. 

Games can help! Statues, for example, which I’ve mentioned in this column before, requires that children possess enough self-control to stop moving when the music stops and to hold their position until it starts again. Similarly, playing Simon Says involves thinking before acting. If a child wants to succeed at the game, she must regulate herself. 

Red Light, Green Light (a modified version that involves greater participation and thus physical activity, as well as more learning concepts) is another game that can help foster self-regulation skills. To play, ask the children to line up side by side. Then, acting as the “stoplight,” you stand a distance from the children, with your back to them. When the stoplight (you) says, “Green light,” the children run or tiptoe toward you. When the stoplight suddenly turns and says “Red light,” everyone must freeze in place and hold very still.