Emotion Regulation in Children and Adolescents: A Practitioner's Guide

Abstract

“Emotion Regulation in Children and Adolescents” is written as a “practitioner's guide” to facilitating emotion regulation in elementary school–age children to adolescents. The book, written and directed toward therapists, is divided into 2 sections; the first section provides an overview and theoretical background on emotions and emotion regulation, whereas the second part provides treatment strategies to develop skills in emotion awareness and emotion regulation. Although the book was not intended to serve as a stand-alone treatment program, it offers a set of modular treatment interventions to address emotion-related deficits in elementary school–age children and older. Although the modules are not designed to address specific DSM-5 diagnoses, the interventions may help mitigate the symptoms associated with DSM-5 conditions. Of note, the author states that the interventions discussed have been validated in the outpatient and school settings and may be generalizable to other settings. Although written and directed to therapists working with children, the content and strategies presented may be relevant for Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics (DBP) practitioners as well. The theoretical background presents an overview of “emotion science,” including information related to emotion, emotional competence, and related constructs including emotion awareness, emotion understanding, empathy, and emotion regulation, which form the foundation for the intervention modules presented later in the book. The author presents clear, simple, and understandable definitions of these concepts with concrete examples, which may be useful to present in a clinical encounter. For example, “emotion awareness” is defined as “knowing about one's own (or others') emotional experience,” with an example of how a child may feel multiple feelings simultaneously. The book also includes a chapter on “Emotion-Related Assessments” and presents several questionnaires, structured interviews, and observational protocols, which may be useful in clinical and research settings. The remaining chapters in the first section of the book present an overview of functional suggestions for implementing a treatment plan and strategies to foster parent involvement, engage challenging clients, and provide sensitive, culturally competent care. For practitioners who provide therapy to patients, the major use of this text is found in the second part of the book, which delineates 8 treatment modules to foster skills in emotion regulation (i.e., Emotion Awareness Skills, Emotion Understanding Skills, Empathy Skills, and 5 skills related to Emotion Regulation: Prevention, Mastery, Expression, Basic Cognitive, and Emotion-Specific Cognitive Skills). The ordering of the modules follows typical developmental progression, whereby earlier modules may be most applicable to younger children or those with less emotional maturity. The modules are designed to be stand-alone in nature, without dependence on preceding or subsequent modules; however, this leads to redundancy if the book is read continuously. Each of the modules provides information regarding intended use and objectives, as well as activities and games aimed at teaching and practicing the desired skill; there are often associated materials, such as handouts, provided. Overall strengths of the book include its organized and clearly delineated structure. In addition, the author draws on the evidence-based literature for the discussion of fundamental tenants. The book discusses pitfalls to be mindful of, as well as limitations of use. Additional limitations include the heavy reliance on the use of electronics during activities and redundancy related to duplicate information presented in the different treatment modules. The treatment modules also require significant preparation, making implementation within a DBP clinical setting more challenging. Although it might be difficult to enact all the activities as directed in the context of a busy DBP clinic, the treatment strategies could be implemented with families with the aid of a behavioral health specialist providing directed support and scaffolding. “Emotion Regulation in Children and Adolescents” is clearly written for the intended audience of psychology practitioners; however, the text may be of some use to medical DBP practitioners as well. The book provides useful language regarding how to describe and support the development of emotion recognition and regulation, which may be helpful for practitioners who are addressing emotion-related deficits in elementary school–age children and older.