Assessing Early Self‐Regulation in Classroom Contexts

Difficulties in self‐regulation (SR) often become visible before atypical cognitive development is formally identified and may limit children's participation in everyday classroom activities. This study introduces a brief, group‐based observational screening tool for assessing cognitive, behavioral, and emotional SR in preschool classroom contexts. Across two studies involving children aged 3–7 years with typical development and developmental risk, we examined inter‐rater reliability, differences across group and individual administration formats, convergent validity with the Head‐Toes‐Knees‐Shoulders task, and screening sensitivity. The battery showed high inter‐rater reliability and comparable performance across administration formats. Convergent validity followed domain‐ and task‐specific patterns, with stronger alignment for cognitive and behavioral tasks. Screening analyses indicated that selected tasks differentiated children at developmental risk from typically developing peers, with fair classification accuracy. Overall, the findings partially support group‐based observational assessment as an ecologically valid approach to early screening of SR difficulties.

Cognition · Cognitive development · Convergent validity · Observational methods in psychology · Observational study · Psychometrics · Test validity · Early Childhood Education and Development · Educational and Psychological Assessments · Innovative Teaching and Learning Methods

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