Chandra is an active preschooler who moves around the room without engaging in activities in a meaningful way. She is easily frustrated when things do not go her way, which prevents the other children from connecting with her. Yesterday as two children were stacking blocks into a tall tower, she began rearranging the roof without asking. When they resisted, she knocked down the tower and 45 minutes of their hard work came crashing down while she pouted. Her teacher is wondering what he can do to help Chandra develop self-regulation and control.

Self-regulation is the act of managing thoughts and feelings to enable goal-directed actions (Murray et al., 2019) by regulating reactions to strong emotions like frustration, excitement, anger, and embarrassment, calming down after something exciting or upsetting, focusing on a task, refocusing attention on a new task, and developing the ability to control impulses, and behave in ways that foster positive relationships. The development of self-regulation in early childhood is often considered an early life marker for later life successes (Casey et al., 2011). Self-regulation begins as infants, develops rapidly in the toddler and preschool years, and continues to grow right into adulthood. Effective self-regulation in the learning environment requires that the child seamlessly coordinate multiple aspects of executive function control such as attention, working memory, and inhibitory control, along with motor or verbal functions, to produce overt behaviors, such as remembering directions amidst distractions, delayed gratification, and turn-taking. Imagine little Chandra trying to coordinate all these skills at the same time. No wonder she is feeling frustrated and overwhelmed!