Block 2: References and activities.

Activities:

First of all we worked in an activity related with the emotional regulation. To work emotional regulation with children, we chose an activity inspired on a video we found on Youtube. The activity is called the Marshmallow Test.

The required conditions to do the experiment are to leave the child alone in a room without possible distractions, just the table over which we will put the marshmallow in a plate and the chair where the child will sit. We will see the child’s reactions and movements through a camera, which will be placed inside the room without the child knowing it.

Once we have put the marshmallow in the plate, the child will be explained that he/she will be left alone and that he/she has two possibilities.

One of them is to eat the marshmallow and the other one will be to wait until we come back. It is so important to emphasize the benefits that waiting will have: getting another marshmallow and being able to eat two in spite of one.

Which are the objectives we want to achieve by this first part of the activity?

We want them to have self-control of impulses through deferred gratification, so, the child will have to resist temptations if he/she wants to get another marshmallow. Furthermore, they will experiment feelings like frustration or impotence, so that, the child will have to deal with feelings like these and, even the child will not know it, he/she will be developing its emotional regulation’s skills.

Once this first part is finished and the child has or has not get the extra marshmallow depending on the reaction he/she has had, if he/she has eaten it before we come back or not, we will add a post-experimental activity which, even if it does not appear in the video, we have considered interesting in order to work a bit more on the emotional regulation dimension.On this post-experimental part, children will be given a sheet of paper which they will have to separate in two halves by making a straight line. On the left side they will have to draw the character that comes into their minds when they think of the desire to eat the marshmallow. On the other side of the paper, they will have to draw the character that comes into their minds when they think of the consequences of eating the marshmallow before the teacher coming back. Thereafter, they will have to put a name to each character to identify them.

Finally, they will group in pairs or small groups and they will have to explain their drawings and why have they drawn them the way they did.

The objectives of this second part of the activity, wants to achieve child’s expression of feelings using drawing as a source to make it easier. Children of that age can have several difficulties when expressing their feelings and drawing and then talking but about their drawing is an indirect way we, as teachers, can use to start developing the difficult dimension feeling’s expression represents. 

We also did a debate in class in which we were asked to defend the idea that is needed to adapt the answer yes to the question "Do we need to adapt emotional education because of gender differences?". Our main ideas where:

There is evidence that certain brain areas devoted to emotional processing may be larger in women than in men and it also shows brain activity by gender difference. So boys and girls they process their emotions differently.

For instance, their strategies to deal with stress. There are two basic responses: action or interaction. Women tend to feel an urge for achieving safety through interactions, being friendly and talking. However, men tend to follow the “fight” or “flight” system, moving toward action or inaction when stressed and seeking for safety. 

That is an interesting fact in order to adapt the emotional education to gender differences because boys and girls have different brain areas so they need a different rhythm of teaching and to respect this different rhythms is something essential in order to provide a significant learning for both, boys and girls.

Moreover, I've found a webpage (http://kidsrelaxation.com/uncategorized/lions-breath/) in which they suggest activities about emotional regulation, the explanation is really well done and most of them don't need any special material or space, I found it useful as usually the teachers don't have the material or the installations that they want and you have to fix it with the things you can.

References:

Bernstein, Elizabeth: The Friendship Bank: How and Why Even the Most Giving Friend Expects Payback. Seen from: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304713704579093141120660698

Lewis, C: http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/10554-friendship-is-born-at-that-moment-when-one-person-says

Tv3: No em ratllis. Seen from: http://www.tv3.cat/videos/206039

LaPlante,  Logan: Hackschooling Makes Me Happy. Seen from TedxUniversityofNevada: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h11u3vtcpaY#t=300

Filella, Gemma; Ribes, Ramona; Soldevila, Anna: Una propuesta de contenidos para desarrollar la conciencia y la regulación emocional en la Educación Primaria

Rostan, Carles; Esteban, Moisés; Sidera, Francesc Sidera: Les emocions dels nens/es en edat escolar. From The magazine FEP.net 4. June 2007.