Learning-Related Cognitive Self-Regulation Measures for Prekindergarten Children with Predictive Validity for Academic Achievement. Working Paper

Identifying and understanding the foundational skills children need to participate effectively in formal schooling is an important objective for research in early childhood education. One component of school readiness is cognitive self-regulation (CSR). The question this study addresses is how to assess CSR with prekindergarten-aged children in a way that taps into the learning-related cognitive engagement behaviors teachers observe in the classroom that are predictive of later academic achievement. A number of candidate measures applicable to prekindergarten age children have been generated for research on attention, effortful control, executive function, and related constructs. A diverse set of twelve candidate measures that can be easily administered in school settings was selected from these domains and applied to a sample of prekindergarten children. These measures were then examined for construct validity, developmental change, convergent validity with teacher ratings of CSR, and predictive validity for subsequent academic achievement and achievement gain. Six measures performed well by these criteria: Peg Tapping, Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders (HTKS), the Kansas Reflection-Impulsivity Scale for Preschoolers (KRISP), Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS), Copy Design, and Backwards Digit Span. Cross-validation with a new sample of children confirmed the validity of these measures, estimated their test-retest reliability, identified the best performing individual measures, and demonstrated that a composite score combining results from all these measures performed better than any single measure. The Scoring Scheme for the Child Measures of LRCSR is appended.