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You are listening to Supporting Supporters, a ChangetoChill podcast. This is a free mental well-being resource offered by Allina Health. My name is Tonya Freeman. I’m a licensed psychologist and regional lead psychologist with Allina Health.     

These podcast episodes are aimed with the goal of providing quick, tangible resources and information from Allina Health mental health providers on a range of mental health topics relevant to day to day lives of the listener. We invite you to join us in any way you please, whether you sit back and kick your feet up, or as you engage in movement, your daily commute, or as you prepare for your day. However you choose to join us, we welcome you and we honor your time.    

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Hi everyone! My name is Tonya Freeman, I am an early lifespan primary care psychologist with Allina Health. I want to start by thanking you for listening to our podcast, where we are hopeful to create a space to give back to you. Our teachers who are day in and day out serving our next generations in a time of so much uncertainty. Thank you again for showing up today. This podcast project is especially meaningful to me as a first-generation scholar of higher education. Without teachers who supported, motivated, and cared for me, I certainly would not be where I am today and for that I am grateful. Because of those teachers, I have become a lifelong learner and strive to find opportunities to give back and serve in unique ways.  

I value your time and feel honored you have chosen to spend a few minutes with me, for you, your students, your family, and your community as without filling your cup, it is significantly more difficult to serve others, even if serving others fills your cup. There are certainly components that drain our cups completely dry, even when we love our jobs, especially in times of so much change and uncertainty. This episode covers promoting consistency, predictability, routine and flexibility in times of uncertainty. Yes, that is a mouthful so let’s dive right in.  

Why this topic?  

In considering the uptick in emotional and behavioral dysregulation (which we will talk about in a minute) especially in classrooms since covid-19 and the instability created for everyone, it is important to note that this idea of implementing consistency, predictability, and routine during times of uncertainty or distress is not a new concept and certainly pre-dates covid-19. For example, think about times in your life where there has been a tragic loss, an abrupt unpleasant change, or anticipating an unfavorable outcome. In response to these stressors, we often find ourselves acting in ways we usually wouldn’t in an attempt to cope. This may be changing sleep routines, withdrawing socially, finding ourselves more irritable, engaging in substances, stopping exercise routines, etc., While common and maybe adaptive in the immediate moment, there are long-term impacts on our physical, social, and emotional wellbeing as well as promoting avoidance and potentially maladaptive behaviors. What often helps us get back to feeling like ourselves or even better again is returning to a routine, creating new health habits, and finally feeling secure or stable in the environment and or social group. While this episode focuses on classroom predictability and routine, it is my hope that we can all see how this plays out in our personal lives to then also understand things we can do to best create a stable and predictable environment for students who may not otherwise be experiencing such components to this degree.  

Topic one: behavioral and emotional dysregulation  

The American Psychological Association (APA) defines emotional dysregulation as: any excessive or otherwise poorly managed mechanism or response. For example, emotional dysregulation is an extreme or inappropriate emotional response to a situation (e.g., temper outbursts, deliberate self-harm); it may be associated with mood disorders, personality disorders such as borderline personality disorder, autism spectrum disorder, psychological trauma, or brain injury (though certainly not a comprehensive list). 

Behavioral dysregulation then refers to: behavioral strategies in response to dysregulated emotions that are harmful. This can include (but are not limited to): drinking alcohol or using substances to cope with problems, binge eating, extreme social reassurance seeking, stimulation seeking (e.g., provoking others for a behavioral or emotional response) and non-suicidal self-injuries (NSSI).  

Within the classroom you may see students who distract others, fail to follow directions, have emotional or behavioral outbursts, or the student who is constantly moving. These are all examples of emotional or behavioral dysregulation and often increase when stressors are increased without adequate resources. Often, the stressors are occurring outside of school and can be within the family system or a societal stressors. There are certainly times where the individual is unaware of the impact of a stressor or the correlation with emotions and behaviors to the stressor. Additionally, while we can conduct functional behavioral analyses which are very useful in further exploring the root of the behaviors, there are ways we can promote enriching and stable environments for students to assist with regulation as a whole classroom. This is especially important when we consider all of the Adverse Early Childhood Events (discussed in a separate podcast) and ongoing changes and impacts of Covid-19.  

Topic Two: How to create consistency, routine, and flexibility in the classroom:  

In discussing how to create an enriching environment for learners that promotes emotional and  behavioral regulation it is also important we understand and highlight that many components of the classroom are out of our control. For example, have you ever found yourself planning for hours only to have the school week shift because of weather, school meetings, homecoming, etc.,? This is where base consistent and predictable routines can be incredibly helpful while also allowing for and promoting flexibility with ever changing variables. By implementing the following, we are promoting safe and predictable environments for learners during ever changing times both within and outside of the school setting. There are several reasons this promotes an enriching environment including consistency and predictability clearly planned and executed models regulation, trust, and safety within the environment. This reduces the likelihood of dysregulated behaviors due to anxiety and uncertainty.  

Consistent and predictable routines and procedures help learners:  

• Know what to expect 
• Prepare for the day or particular class  
• Calm anxiety  
• Provide reminders 
• Promote transitions  

Consistency and predictability examples:  

• Daily or class specific schedules and agendas posted in the same place  
• Review of these schedules occurs daily  
• Clearly defined and posted behavior expectations  
• Preparations including countdowns and reminders for transitions or upcoming changes such as breaks  
• Clearly defined sequences of actions for transitions  
• PRAISE and reinforcement for desired behaviors and compliance  
• Different teachers and districts may choose to do this differently dependent on district expectations and preferences.  
• What we know is that reinforcement is often more beneficial and creates greater compliance as compared to punishment  
• This could be a public display of reinforcement:  
• E.g., reward charts, student of the day, notes sent home to parents, etc.,  
• This could be less tangible  
• Verbal: positive comments with specific behaviors called out (e.g., “Teagan I appreciate your eye contact and showing me you are ready for the next instruction.” 
• “Thank you to Sammy for raising your hand!”  
• “Great work everyone for getting started on this assignment, it makes me excited to see what you all come up with!”  
• Shout outs to particular students  
• Non-verbal: smiles, thumbs up, stamps or stickers on assignments  
• Additionally, Dr. Zander provides great resources for creating a trauma informed classroom that can be easily accessed  
• Another option is to plan time for mindfulness or relaxation strategies covered throughout this podcast such as deep breathing, visualization, and relaxation. Having this time be consistent and predictable gives each student a break while promoting parasympathetic nervous system activation to promote a safer and less arousing environment to assist with improving emotional and behavioral regulation.  

A reminder to promote by modeling:  

Our environments are much reflective of the energy and regulation of the leader in the environment. Think about these scenarios: you present to therapy with a psychologist who has paperwork all of their desk, is running 15 minutes late, and arrives out of breathing looking frazzled. What message does this send to the patient? How about a psychologist who sets an agenda with a harsh tone and consistently interrupts you without explanation. Lastly, a psychologist who arrives promptly on time with an organized office set with warm lighting and décor that is minimal yet inspiring. The psychologist does has no distractions, thanks you for your time, sets the agenda of what a typical session looks like, and then leans forward to invite you to share questions or concerns you may have. These instances all provoke and promote varying thoughts and behaviors from the patient yet the patient did not have much control on these components. The same is true for a learning environment. Which brings me back to a gentle reminder that taking care of yourself, completing check-ins with yourself, and engaging in opportunities for emotional and behavioral regulation (e.g., self-care, gratitude, relaxation strategies discussed throughout this podcast) and seeking support from others will help you naturally promote and encourage a trusting and safe environment.  

While there is no one size fits all approach to developing a consistent, predictable, and flexible learning environment, my hope is you walk away thinking about how you can both create this in your personal life and classroom to promote a safe, trusting, and enriching space for all.  

Thank you for all you do for our students and community at large. I cherish your work and I honor your time. See you in the next episode, Dr. Freeman.  

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On behalf of Allina Health and Change to Chill, we thank you for taking the time to listen to our podcast. We do hope you enjoyed this episode and we hope that you join us in other episodes covering even more interesting topics with mental health providers. As always, you can find the show notes and any accompanying research and tools at the change to chill website at www.changetochill.org. In health and wellness, take care and see you next time!