Demands of the Environment = Skill Level = Self-Regulation

By Julia Grover-Barrey OTR/L
Founder of In-Tuned®

Have you ever had a job that didn’t match your skill level?

Experiencing boredom from not being challenged enough…or feeling ineffective and “over your head” with too many complex tasks…either way makes us feel off our game and sets us up for not being the best version of ourselves.

Children experience the very same thing, yet they haven’t quite mastered the masking of their emotions around the discrepancy quite as well as most adults.

All too often what happens is the environment finds fault with the child.

Sometimes the gap between environmental demand and skill level isn’t so wide. Skills can be learned, supported and some demands modified.

But sometimes the gap is wider.

The impact of a forced mismatch early on can be long-lasting and at odds with optimal functioning in the long run.

We are all spending more time with our children these days. Find ways of providing the right amount of challenge in our more flexible learning environment and use it to their advantage.

Julia