Alexandra Comărniceanu

Alexandra Comărniceanu has 18 years of experience in the field of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). She completed her Masters in ABA at Bangor University, UK and became a BCBA (Board Certified Behavior Analyst) in 2012.

She was a lecturer both at conferences in Romania and in Great Britain and supported trainings in various European countries. She monitors ABA programs at home, supervises centers that use ABA, deals with the integration of people with autism spectrum disorder and other deficiencies in schools and kindergartens and supervises people who want to obtain their accreditation in this field. Also, another field in which she is active is that of education, where she collaborates with schools and kindergartens that want to use ABA to make their activity more efficient.

Presentation: Self-regulation and co-regulation: what we are and how can we, the adults, to self-regulate in order to support afterwards the little ones in the development of these abilities  

Abstract: 

When we talk about self-regulation there is no simple definition, but we can refer to this term as a person's ability to control his impulses, emotions and actions. In other words, a person who possesses self-regulation skills can remain calm when experiencing extreme situations or challenges and can put into practice various strategies as effective as possible to successfully overcome these situations. This skill is extremely useful both for adults who regularly interact with people with ASD (for example, behavioral instructors or parents), and for people diagnosed with ASD.

Children lack the ability to self-regulate, this learning and developing as long as they have the model of healthy relationships from the people they interact with frequently and an environment conducive to a more harmonious emotional development. For children, the first step towards self-regulation is co-regulation, the process by which the adult provides the child with the necessary support and models, within the interaction, examples of appropriate behaviors and strategies that allow the little ones to calm down on their own. Thus, co-regulation of emotions is the precursor to healthy self-regulation of emotions. But in order for an adult to be able to support a child diagnosed with ASD in the co-regulation process, he himself must have a well-developed self-regulation capacity.

The role of this presentation is to share some specific methods and strategies for regulating emotions depending on the situation and the emotions involved, this leading to immense benefits both for children with ASD and for the adults who interact with them.