How does a child master/regulate himself?


The individual, subjecting the process of his own responses to his will, thus
enters into a principally new relation with the environment, arrives at a new functional
use of environmental elements as stimuli signs, by means of which relying on external
means, he guides and regulates his own behaviour externally masters himself externally
forcing the stimuli signs to influence him and to provoke and stimulate the desired
responses. Inner regulation of purposeful activity originates an external regulation.
Responsive action provoked and organized by man himself ceases to be responsive and
becomes purposeful.

While I was reading the conclusion of the chapter, I smelled a strong sense of regulation from the environment, the symbol and the tools in the development of man. Human invented tools to conquered nature, but the tool human invented also regulated our thought, word and actions. The development of human, was not based on free wills, but rather occurred during the process of the dialog with the environment. The action and words may disappear when the adaptation to the regulation ceased. The ability to perform a behavior is the ability of how he can master himself in the adaptation to the environment.

So how and when can a child change his behavior? If the child does not behave well, how can we direct them to the behavior we want them to perform? It's common to see children taking toys from others, screaming and yelling, not following instructions, or they are just acting on their own will. Sometimes, teaching them to behave well seems futile. Some kids can learn to master himself as time goes by, while some just ignore the regulations, acting like apes, repeating the same actions again and again. The questions remained will be what types of regulations might be beneficial in changing behaviors in the early stage of childhood development. To what extent does the regulation influence their behavioral change?


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