The Regulation Rocket {Guest Blog}

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It is my pleasure to introduce fellow Sydney occupational therapist, Simone Ryan (Rocket OT) as my guest blogger today! Simone's area of interest (and passion) is self regulation.  Simone has created the "REGULATION ROCKET" to help us (parents, teachers, OTs) to understand the development of self regulation and what may be contributing to dysregulation in our children.  

Thank you Simone for introducing us to the Regulation Rocket!

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When working or living with children and young adults, one of the most common areas that needs to be addressed is self regulation and it's development. Self regulation contributes to a number of outcomes including success in the school and workplace, development and sustainability of quality relationships, and successful engagement in occupations. It's an area of development that has been explored from a number of professionals including occupational therapists, educators, psychologists, sociologists and neuropsycholgists. This array of perspectives and approaches to self regulation development can be both overwhelming and confusing.
 
After studying literature across a variety of areas, I realised the need to have something that "tied it all together". As a visual learner myself, I wanted to create a visual model that could be used to both increase and support understanding of self regulation development, and explore what areas may be contributing to dysregulation within a given occupation and environment. I gave myself the goal of developing something that:

• Clearly and succinctly summarised how regulation develops using areas agreed upon by the above areas and/or strongly supported by research.
• Demonstrated how regulation can change in response to the environment (including the presence and quality of caregiver support).
• Showed the goal of regulation as occupational engagement.
• Demonstrated how the personal factors needed for regulation depend on the occupation an individual is trying to engage in.

 
And so the Regulation Rocket was born!
 
The Regulation Rocket encourages parents, teachers, therapists or children/adolescents exploring their own regulation development to ask 3 questions:

• Where does the Rocket come from? (environment)
• Where is the Rocket going? (occupation)
• What does it need to get there? (personal factors)

 
OCCUPATION
I like to start with the first question, where is it going? Having a destination (or goal) helps plot the route, figure out what supplies are needed and what changes may need to be made to get there. The model shows three planets that represent the countless occupations that an individual may engage in. Some things we want to do (such as our hobbies), some things we need to do (such as look after ourselves) and some things we are expected to do (such as work or go to school). An individual may be having difficulty reaching a particular planet, but be able to reach other planets with ease. Recognising that there may be a fair few planets in between where an individual can go and is attempting to go, can help build the parts of the Rocket needed to get there by grading the occupational demands.
 
ENVIRONMENT
Once we know where a Rocket is headed, it's important to look at where it's coming from? An environment needs to be supportive both in the construction and launching of a Rocket. In other words, we need to ensure the physical, cultural, and most importantly, social environment helps develop and support regulation. Of the social environment, an individual's co-regulators play the largest role in supporting regulation development. Addressing co-regulation as a factor has been found to be more often than not missing from interventions focusing on self regulation development. This is a pretty worrying finding, when many studies identify co-regulation as a major predictor of successful regulation development. A statistic the Regulation Rocket model is aiming to change!

PERSONAL FACTORS 
Lastly, we look at the Rocket itself. We know where it's going, so we can figure out what it needs to get there. Sometimes an individual will be able to steer it themselves, other times they may need their co-pilot (or co-regulator) to help them. We may need to make changes to the environment in order to ensure certain parts of the Rocket are being built. Sometimes this means explicit teaching, but oftentimes it's about addressing the various personal factors throughout an individual's day or week in naturalistic settings. Factors will influence regulation differently depending on both the occupation and environmental demands. This is why some factors would be looked at more closely than others throughout an individual's development. The personal factors that contribute to regulation maintenance and development are:

• Basic Needs (e.g. sleep, health, nutrition)
• Motivation (includes values and beliefs)
• Habits and Past Experiences
• Self Awareness
• Biology
• Social Abilities (e.g. expressive and receptive communication, understanding social norms, Theory of Mind)
• Executive Functioning (e.g. attention, motor planning, decision making)
• Sensory Processing
• Emotional Understanding (e.g. recognising emotions in themselves or others, understanding link between thoughts and feelings, recovering from emotional distress).​  ​​

A question I often get asked about the Regulation Rocket is: "Can I use it with the programs I already do?". My answer is absolutely! However, I have often seen therapists using just one or two programs that they are familiar with/prefer when supporting self regulation development.

My aim with The Regulation Rocket is to support therapists, parents and educators to use critical thinking when choosing a program, and understand that self regulation development is complex and not "one size fits all". Whilst using pre-existing programs, it's crucial to keep in mind all the factors presented in the Regulation Rocket model, as regulation is fluid and an individual's needs may change. Neglecting factors that are influencing an individual at a given point in time may actually reduce the success of a self regulation program.
 
The Regulation Rocket can also be used to select a program, by highlighting what areas of the Rocket need the most support, depending on the environment and occupations attempting to be reached. A program can then be selected to address the areas identified as influencing an individual's regulation the most.
 
For more information on the Regulation Rocket, please visit RocketOT.com. You can also follow Rocket OT on Facebook or subscribe to the blog to keep up with the lastest updates.
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Simone Ryan is a paediatric occupational therapist based in Sydney, Australia. Since graduating from Curtin University in 2012, she has worked with children and their families in early intervention, early childhood education and an autism specific school.

Simone is determined to keep occupational therapy as a respected and valued profession, through the use of evidence based therapies and strength based practice. She is a big believer in acknowledging individual's and their families as experts by experience, and aims to work side by side with them, listening and respecting them every step of the way. She is extremely passionate, dedicated and enthusiastic about supporting individuals to engage in the occupations they want or need to. 

Simone blogs at ​RocketOT.com

Read more articles from Your Kids OT at https://www.yourkidsot.com/blog
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The information on this site is general in nature. The activities are safe for most children, however, you should consult an Occupational Therapist or health professional to address specific movement, sensory or other medical conditions.

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