Iulia Dobronoiu

Iulia Dobronoiu has 13 years of experience in the field of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) with children with autism and other disorders and developmental delays, both in Romania and in Great Britain. She completed her Masters in ABA at Bangor University, UK and obtained her BCBA (Board Certified Behavior Analyst) accreditation in 2019.

The basic activity consists of: monitoring ABA programs at home, supervising centers that use ABA, integrating people with autism spectrum disorders and other deficiencies in schools and kindergartens, supervising people who want to obtain BCBA, BCaBA certification and supporting training in the ABA field.

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.