
Explore self-regulation in the classroom, its impact on student participation and behavior, and how teachers and families can use effective strategies to improve learning outcomes.
Develop and apply evidence-based self-regulation strategies in the classroom, collaborating with teachers and caregivers to improve student participation, behavior, and learning through occupational therapy perspectives in school, home, and community.
Create and disseminate evidence-based self-regulation resources for classrooms, including handouts on proprioception, interoception, yoga, and calming corners, to support teachers, staff, parents, and students.
Develop professional advocacy and collaboration with teachers to implement an interoception-centered self-regulation program in the classroom, including mindfulness and emotion-recognition activities to support student participation.
Collaborate with caregivers to identify home and community self-regulation challenges, then develop and send home handouts and activities—proprioceptive and self-regulation practices, coping skills, and routines—to boost school participation.
Review and showcase the self-regulation program for the classroom, outlining interoception, mindfulness, emotion recognition activities, and teacher resources to sustain occupational therapy-led classroom support.
Explore how references and articles underpin the needs assessment and capstone project, highlighting critically appraised topics and evidence used to develop course materials.
This course was created for my doctoral capstone project and focuses on self-regulation of students in the classroom setting to promote increased participation in learning. This course reviews the literature and need for this project as well as explains learning objectives and artifacts created with the goal of improving the occupation of learning for all students. During this experience, I spent 14 weeks in a 2nd grade classroom where I had the opportunity to get an in depth look at classroom management and how dysregulation impacts the entire learning environment. Through collaboration with teachers and working directly with students, I was able to gain a valuable perspective of what an occupational therapists role in the school setting could be focused on. Research, discussions, and observation guided the resources I provided to teachers and families within this course to promote focus and regulation for improved participation in the academic setting. This course includes a specific program centered around interoception with guidelines for sustainable use in the classroom. Included in this program are general handouts supporting self-regulation for teachers and caregivers to implement as well as activities for building interoceptive awareness. Following this presentation my goal is for individuals to understand the impact self-regulation has on classroom participation and to be able to utilize the provided resources to promote increased learning and self-regulation in children across all occupations!