Behavioral and Cognitive Self-regulation in 3- to 4-year-old Children: A Case Study from the UAE

Self-regulation is a crucial skill for understanding child development, as it contributes to children’s competence, approach, persistence, and overall learning and achievement. We conducted a case study of early self-regulation in seven 3- to 4-year-old children at a nursery in the United Arab Emirates. In an earlier study, this nursery room received high-quality ratings based on an objective and well-established environmental rating scale. In this follow-up study, a new observational measure was used to assess young children’s self-regulation during authentic playful activities – the Preschool Situational Self-Regulation Toolkit (PRSIST) assessment. This assessment measures children’s overall self-regulation, including its cognitive and behavioral components. Capturing these children’s self-regulation aimed to evaluate their ability to manage cognitive and behavioral responses in authentic play-based contexts and to explore how these skills manifest in a high-quality early childhood education setting. The findings highlighted average to high levels of self-regulation among the children studied who were enrolled in this high-quality nursery. This research study contributes evidence to existing data, emphasizing the importance of addressing self-regulation development in early childhood education curricula to potentially enhance the holistic development of young children.