The Kindergarten Readiness Research Program

Highlights

• Self-regulation measures may not capture variability in young children.
• The head-toes-knees-shoulders-revised adds a new section to reduce task demands.
• The revised task is reliable and valid in young children.
• The revised task is more related to other self-regulation measures than prior tasks.

Measures of self-regulation may not capture adequate variability in children with low levels of self-regulation. This can limit a measure's ability to accurately demonstrate relations with other variables. The present study addressed this issue with a revised version of the Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders task (HTKS-R), which includes a new downward extension with reduced task demands. Preschool children (N = 180; 53% Female) enrolled in Head Start programs were tested with the HTKS-R and other self-regulation tasks at 4 time points between fall of preschool and spring of kindergarten. Results demonstrated a substantial increase in variability in children's performance on the HTKS-R compared to prior versions of the task during the fall of preschool, and significant increases in the relation between the HTKS-R and other measures of self-regulation at all 4 time points. Additionally, item factor analyses revealed that the new downward extension captured the same underlying construct as the rest of the measure and that a 1 factor solution was optimal. Together, these findings illustrate that the HTKS-R improves upon prior versions of the task increasing its utility for researchers and practitioners.