The Kindergarten Readiness Research Program

Like Ethan, we are making great progress in understanding early self-regulation in children, but some of the critical components are yet to be fully understood. Research in the past decade has ignited great interest in the construct of self-regulation, especially as it relates to the education of young children. In particular, with the increased academic focus of many early school environments, self-regulation has been highlighted as a critical component of school readiness and success. Although most children move from preschool to a more structured kindergarten classroom with relative ease, a large number of children without adequate self-regulation experience difficulty once they get to kindergarten (McClelland, Morrison, & Holmes, 2000). This is especially important because recent research has highlighted self-regulation as an important predictor of school readiness and academic achievement (Blair & Razza, 2007; McClelland et al., 2007; Valiente, Lemery-Chalfant, & Castro, 2007)