EXECUTIVE FUNCTION, SCHOOL READINESS, AND SCHOOL ACHIEVEMENT

SELF-REGULATION HAS BEEN CONSIDERED a “central and significant developmental hallmark of the early childhood period” (Bronson, 2000, p. 32), and it has emerged as the single most important predictor of resilience in at-risk children even after controlling for a variety of other variables (Buckner, Mezzacappa, and Beardslee, 2003). Recently, it has been suggested that self-regulatory skills are a key predictor of school readiness and school achievement (Blair, 2002; Bodrova and Leung, 2006; Boekaerts and Corno, 2005). Self-regulation refers to internal or transactional processes “that enable an individual to guide his/ her goal-directed activities over time and across changing circumstances (contexts)" (Karoly, 1993, p. 25). Self-regulation is a concept that crosses multiple domains as it includes processes that are involved in the regulation of emotions, motivation, cognition (e.g., attention), social interactions, and physical behavior (Karoly, 1993). According to Bodrova and Leung (2006, p. 205), self-regulation affects children’s adjustment to and functioning in school settings in two ways: “first, social-emotional self-regulation makes it possible for children to conform to classroom rules and to benefit in various social contexts (e.g., in large and small groups, in cooperative dyads, individually) and second, cognitive self-regulation allows children to use and further cognitive processes necessary for academic learning and problem solving” (emphases in original).