Research in educational and developmental psychology offers evidence that children are developing basic capacities (i.e., executive functions) for self-regulating long before they receive formal instruction in school. Importantly, the evidence indicates self-regulation is a strong predictor of outcomes in early childhood and across the lifespan. This comment considers contributions from four studies published in the special issue of Metacognition and Learning, titled “Self-Regulation and Co-Regulation in Early Childhood: Development, Assessment and Supporting Factors.” The studies reveal 2–3-year-old children’s spontaneous use of strategies to support success on delay tasks and individual differences in 5–7-year-old children’s ability beliefs and goal orientations. They also signal important differences in parents’ scaffolding/co-regulation of children’s self-regulation. All studies point to the particular importance of attending to developmental trajectories of children judged “at risk” in their development of self-regulation and supporting parents to develop strategies for co-regulating children in the context of challenging tasks. Considerations for future research are raised.

中文翻译：

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认识到幼儿期是发展和支持自我调节的关键时刻

对教育和发展心理学的研究提供了证据，证明儿童早在接受正规教育之前就已经发展出自我调节的基本能力（即执行功能）。重要的是，有证据表明自我调节是幼儿期和整个生命周期结局的有力预测指标。该评论考虑了在《元认知与学习》特刊上发表的四项研究的贡献，标题为“幼儿的自我监管和共同监管：发展，评估和支持因素”。研究表明，2-3岁儿童自发使用策略来支持成功完成延迟任务和5-7岁儿童的能力信念和目标取向方面的个体差异。它们也标志着父母对儿童自我调节的脚手架/共同调节的重要差异。所有研究都指出，关注在自我调节发展中处于“危险”状态的儿童的发展轨迹，并支持父母制定有挑战性的任务中共同调节儿童的策略尤为重要。提出了未来研究的考虑。