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Within the article ‘The concept of self-regulation and preschoolers’ social-emotional
development: a systematic review,’ multiple studies were identified to gather data on how self-
regulation has an effect on social emotional and behavioral development. It is noted that “some
researchers describe self-regulation as a multidimensional construct, including emotional and
non-emotional self-regulation skills” (Rademacher & Koglin, 2018). These self-regulation skills
were distinguished as either hot or cold; hot self-regulation being related to emotional content
and cold self-regulation being related to non-emotional or neutral content. The studies used were
published in peer-reviewed journals from January 2011 to December 2017 with a sample size of
N>30 and were either longitudinal or cross-sectional. Assessing the self-regulation of
preschoolers varied as well, with the most common measure used as hot and cold self-regulation
tasks while some applied the Preschool Self-Regulation Assessment (Rademacher & Koglin,
2018).
Two central constructs related to self-regulation that were measured due to overlaps in
definition were executive functions and effortful control (Rademacher & Koglin, 2018). After
analyzing the different studies, all but one of the longitudinal studies determined preschoolers
social-emotional and behavioral development was predicted from their self-regulation. There
were significant correlations between preschoolers’ emotional competence and high executive
function skills, while there were inconsistent results between preschoolers’ problem behavior and
self-regulation (Rademacher & Koglin, 2018). Ultimately through these studies, it is discovered
that there is no official agreement in academic literature regarding self-regulation. “Consistently,
self-regulation encompasses the regulation of emotions, behaviors and attention, but it still
remains unclear which specific regulatory processes are involved, and how self-regulatory
processes are hierarchically structured” (Rademacher & Koglin, 2018).
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There are many different implications within my preschool classroom that support and
promote the self-regulation and emotional development of the children. We have puppets and
dolls that the children are able to play with throughout the day. While having this free play time,
the children are able to “try-on” different emotions with their dolls and puppets.
During afternoon circle time, my co-teacher and I do delay of gratification opportunities
with the children. We tell them that they can have a sticker for sitting on the carpet and getting
ready to hear the story, or they can wait until after the story and get the “special tattoo”
(temporary tattoo applied with water). Most of the children choose to wait until the story is over
to get the “special tattoo” while just keeping their eyes locked into the story, then are thrilled
when the story is over.
‘Hands to ourselves and call for help’ is a coping strategy we try to teach the children in
my preschool classroom. The children will wrap their arms around themselves (like a hug) then
say ‘1,2,3, please come see me!’ This is how we as teachers know they are upset and need
assistance with their friends. A lot of the children in my care hit or push their friends when they
do not agree on something or have tantrums. This coping strategy has helped some of the
children be better about their emotional outbursts because they are able to talk about their
emotions with their friends rather than getting physical, thus getting them back to playing
regularly and not fighting with each other.
Within my classroom there is a cozy area filled with pillows, stuffed animals, and
pictures posted of different emotions. When children feel overwhelmed with any emotion, they
are able to go to the cozy area until they can better regulate how they are feeling. After they have
calmed down, I go over to the cozy area with them and we talk about the emotions that they were
feeling and how we can continue to regulate these feelings. We discuss emotions a few times
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during the week during circle time as well so that the children can have a better understanding of
what emotions they may be feeling when they get to being overwhelmed.
While self-regulation is something that is internal for children, I try to help support and
promote the growth of this emotional development in my classroom. The children in my care are
able to express themselves and their emotions freely, while knowing that myself and my co-
teacher are there to help if needed.
