The FlexiDen - Redefining regulation spaces

Self-regulation is the ability to notice, manage, and respond to your internal experiences – things like your emotions, thoughts, impulses, and physical sensations – in a way that is intentional and appropriate to the situation.

Self-regulation is a crucial life skill, and this life skill starts to develop in early childhood.

Causes of dysregulation

Self-regulation isn’t automatic. It’s often taught.

For many children presenting with special educational needs and disabilities, there can be particular difficulty in regulating emotions. This might be because of developmental differences. It might be due to autistic spectrum condition, ADHD, or other neurodevelopmental conditions.

As these children struggle to process the information coming in from the environment around them, that information might be sounds, things they can see or smell, or textures within the environment that they are struggling to integrate and make sense of.

For many children with sensory system dysregulation, there are difficulties in being both emotionally and physically regulated. This is why our environments play such an important role, providing opportunities for children to feel calm, comfortable, and regulated within educational spaces.

Some children in our classrooms may have unmet physical needs. They may arrive first thing in the morning feeling hungry, tired, or physically dysregulated, and need plenty of opportunities to move to release those feelings from the body in order to sit and regulate for learning.

 

What skills are needed?

There are many skills that are needed in order to be able to independently self-regulate. One is self-awareness.

Self-awareness is recognising what’s happening within the body. How is my body responding to this situation? Is this a new experience for me or have I experienced this in the past? And how have I worked through these emotions and these sensations before?

What is this sensation? Where am I feeling it in my body? And how do I manage this feeling? How do I regulate myself in order to be able to work through it?

Children also need something called cognitive flexibility, which is one of those higher-order functions within the brain and doesn’t start to kick in until the child starts to enter the early years.

This is particularly important when it comes to self-regulation, because when a child is experiencing a stressful situation, whether that is related to their learning or something that they’re finding challenging or an environmental stressor, cognitive flexibility is the ability to be able to redirect your attention.

That might be through a distraction, that might be taking part in an activity that’s helping you to regulate.

Children also need emotional literacy. Emotional literacy is the language that we use that helps us to explain how we’re feeling. Language such as happy, sad, worried, angry, anxious, excited.

Children need to be able to understand them, link them to those internal systems, but also be able to use them in a way that other people are going to be able to understand and make sense of.

Another key executive function that’s required for self-regulation is inhibitory control, otherwise known as impulse control. That is the ability to think before behaving.

When it comes to stressful situations where children’s stress levels might be becoming slightly elevated, they need the ability to be able to stop and think. Think about how they’re feeling, how their body is responding, but also recognise what their next steps are, how to manage it, who to ask for help, how to use the skills that they’ve learned to then proactively take the next steps in regulation.

Neurodevelopment – the first five years

When we look at Bruce Perry’s neurosequential model of brain development, we’re informed that children’s brains are developed from the bottom up.

What tends to happen in the first five years is a child will go through sensory development. Their sensory system starts to integrate, which helps them to make sense of their environments, but also of their internal world as well.

As children are going through the early years, they’re growing in independence. They’re learning how to connect with others through social development. This takes time and this takes skill.

Bruce Perry’s model tells us that within the first five years, the limbic brain also goes through its rapid period of growth. The limbic brain is the area of the brain that governs our emotions. It’s our fight, flight, or freeze area of the brain.

For children in the first three to five years of life, their brain is going through this rapid period of emotional growth, which means they are working through those systems. That brain is connecting, helping them to try and make sense of all of those emotions and how they’re feeling.

And then the final stage of brain development is the top part of the brain. A child needs a developed prefrontal cortex. Research within the field of neuroscience and developmental psychology tells us that the prefrontal cortex begins to develop in a child’s early years, but that it continues to mature into early adulthood.

And the top part of the brain houses what we call our executive functions. There are eight executive functions that mature over time. Our executive functions start to develop in our early years and progress and mature as children go through childhood and into early adulthood.

But in the first five years of life, it takes lots and lots of repeated opportunities, experiences, and adults that are going to support them whilst they scaffold the development of these key skills.

The role of the adult

Adults play one of the most important roles in self-regulation. The American psychologist Carl Rogers refers to the concept of unconditional positive regard. This is the idea that adults offer consistent support without judgment, fostering a sense of safety and understanding.

In our classrooms, adults play a key role in creating a nurturing environment, and this nurturing environment is there to support self-regulation.

An adult that is attuned to the child, who is able to make those reasonable adjustments to meet the child’s needs, but also to offer direct teaching and modelling skills, is demonstrating that unconditional positive regard. Showing a child that I’m there for you, that I’m here to support you no matter what, and without judgment.

It fosters that sense of safety, that sense of understanding, and helps to support the process that children go through as they make their journey through self-regulation.

That has been a child before that’s been getting really worked up, but they haven’t wanted to separate from me as an adult. And so I will go in and again and I will try and attune to their emotions. I will model the language that I think they want to hear. Like if they’re crying, I’m like, I’m really sad right now and I know what can make you feel better, a hug or a blanket.

And then I’ll go and put myself under a blanket. And using that sort of first-person language helps them to, it’s almost speaking for them and teaching them they can say that and do that. And a lot of the time, that is all it takes for a child to see that they can also go and get a blanket and might just throw themselves under it.

Sometimes they’ll throw me under more blankets instead. And even just the act of being there and being a model or example of the stuff that they can do is enough for them to realise this is a safe space. I can go in there and it might help me to feel calm.

Adults also play a significant role in the process of repair and reflection for a child. It’s important that they have a safe adult that they can go to when they’ve had a moment of dysregulation, where they can talk it through, an adult who can guide them and support them, providing that nurturing environment in order for them to develop those key skills in problem solving, next steps, reflecting on what’s happened, and how to then apply those newly experienced skills next time they experience a dysregulated moment.

Attachment theory

Attachment and self-regulation are inherently linked. As we learn to regulate ourselves through being regulated by others first, young children are biologically wired to seek proximity to a small number of trusted adults.

This is evident within our statutory frameworks, particularly within early years. The role of the key person plays a crucial part in understanding children, but also in providing them with a safe person in order to make the next steps within their learning and their development.

John Bowlby famously said that life is best organised as a series of daring ventures from a secure base. And I particularly like that quote when it comes to thinking about secure attachments in the early years, that actually when children are securely attached to caregivers and to significant adults, they’re able to take those necessary risks that we need to learn and to develop, with underpinnings from attachment theory.

The key person plays a fundamental role in a child’s early development. Children need to feel emotionally secure to engage in learning opportunities. Research time and time again from attachment theory tells us that a secure attachment develops when adults are consistent, responsive, and emotionally available to children.

The key person helps the baby or the young child to feel confident that they are held in mind, that they are thought about, and that they are loved.

This experience of being cared for by reliable adults who meet their physical needs whilst remaining attentive and playful, alongside being affectionate and thoughtful, allows children to form secure attachment. This secure base provides the child with the confidence to explore and interact with the environment and the world around them.

This attachment figure within the early years setting plays a crucial role in the child’s development and emerging skills for learning.

There’s also influential work in the field of developmental psychology around the zone of proximal development, which describes the space between what a child can do independently and what they can achieve with sensitive adult support and scaffolding.

The zone of proximal development plays a significant role in a child’s learning and development through warm, responsive relationships.

The key person models skills. They co-regulate emotions and they gradually reduce support as the child becomes more confident and capable. This ensures that development is stretched but never overwhelmed.

So what it looks like as a teacher is about promoting the behaviour that you want to see from the children. For example, if I’m acting calm, it’s most likely that the children will become calm.

So whether that’s me sitting in the FlexiDen and just reading a book without having to say anything, naturally the children would follow that. I’ve had many instances where I’ve just gone in there, sat down, and then about two minutes later I’ll have a whole group of children with me sitting and reading, talking, even interacting with each other without me actually having to say anything.

They’ve just seen me do it, so they’re naturally going to copy that.

Statutory guidance

Statutory guidance across the UK recognises the importance of these key relationships. The overarching principles refer to children learning to be strong and independent through positive relationships.

The statutory guidance also highlights how the role of adults and the environment are intertwined in facilitating both learning and development. Another overarching principle states that children learn and develop well in enabling environments, with teaching and support from adults who respond to their individual interests and needs and help them to build their learning over time.

Inclusive environments

Inclusion is firmly embedded across inspection frameworks across the UK. Ofsted formally recognises inclusion as a standalone evaluation area, highlighting the significance of inclusive practice within education.

Inclusion as a school means that every child, no matter what the need is, is included in some form. Whether it’s making the activity more engaging for children who may not be interested, or making the activity easier for children who might struggle.

There are lots of different forms of inclusion. Whether it’s having one-to-one differentiated work, a safe space children can go to, inclusion goes way beyond just the academic side of things. It goes into room design as well.

In the hub space, we use deliberately muted colours, and we make sure that the walls aren’t echoing because we want to ensure the child isn’t overstimulated when they’re hearing things.

That goes across the board in the school as well, with a lot of classrooms designing smaller learning nooks for children to work in so that they aren’t distracted by all the chatter going on.

Conditions needed to regulate

It’s important that children have predictable routines and spaces that are familiar and consistent. Children also need the opportunity to practise learned skills.

They also need to be in an environment where they can make mistakes, feel safe in making those mistakes, so that they can learn from them and repeat and practise those skills again.

Opportunities for choice and autonomy are key to supporting children to feel safe.

The physical environment plays a crucial role in supporting children to be able to self-regulate. A well-planned, organised, and predictable environment that takes into consideration children’s sensory needs supports children to feel confident, contained, and able to engage in their learning.

Co-regulation and self-regulation starts with reducing environmental distractions and stimuli.

Being able to have a space, either in a separate room or with the FlexiDen in the classroom, where you can gradually strip out extraneous stimuli and just focus on the moment with the child, allows you to gain control over more of the environment.

Sensory-aware design allows children to choose spaces that will help them to regulate their needs. Retreat spaces like the FlexiDen provide children with the opportunity to step away from busy environments for sensory rest, for self-regulation, but also to be able to make sense of those internal systems in order to support self-regulatory skills.

I took a child to a long art lesson and they had a lot of fun drawing and painting. By the end, they were so frazzled with everything that was going on.

They looked me in the eye and they said “relaxing.” They nodded at me, looked at the FlexiDen, and just flopped into it and pulled the blanket over themselves and pretended to have a nap for twenty minutes.

Any time I tried to go over, it was purely self-regulation. They looked at me and said “no, just relaxing.”

It was such an important moment of self-awareness and agency, knowing that that space was there and they could use it as they needed.

Because of the way the FlexiDen is designed, it’s open, but at the same time they feel like it’s their space. They can sit down, chill out, relax, without feeling that everybody’s watching them, but still feel included.

They can see activity going on just outside, so they don’t feel like they’re missing out. They can freely come in and out as they please.

The FlexiDen is a really dynamic piece of equipment. You can use it and set it up in a variety of ways.

One way is to use it to lead an activity and teach a skill, setting it up like a small learning nook, creating a platform and placing the activity down, with children sitting around.

That creates a much calmer space. Being sat in a busy classroom can be loud and overwhelming, but in that space it’s easier for children to attend and tolerate taking turns.

The lower ceiling, curves, and design help make the child feel safe and regulated.

As teachers, we use it to model calming behaviour. We can go in there, read a book, and children naturally follow, sit down, and join in.

The first time, they follow. The next day, they go in themselves and start reading.

Sometimes you can see emotions bubbling up, but then they take themselves to the FlexiDen, sit down, and calm within a few minutes.

I would definitely recommend the FlexiDen for any SEND school or SEND department. It’s a really lovely calming space, but it also works in mainstream settings.

There are many children in mainstream who may struggle, and not all needs are obvious. The FlexiDen provides a calming space for a wide range of needs.

Seeing the progress children make within the FlexiDen, and how it becomes integrated into their school life, is really powerful.

It allows stronger relationships to develop between adults and children, and also between children themselves.

I think we kind of lose something as we grow up, where we are too afraid to make a fool of ourselves.

So the idea that you can get in a space and, I’m not being funny, I love going in there, it helps kids feel that they’re not out of their depth, that they’re supported by people that are also the same as them.

It’s like connecting with your inner child again.