Developmental differences in young children's self-regulation

This paper explores self-regulatory development in young children. Research suggests developmental differences in the acquisition of self-regulation, which could inform self-regulatory training at different ages. Most of this research focuses on very young children's (younger than 5) or older children's (aged 9 + ) self-regulation during academic tasks. This paper takes an innovative approach and investigates self-regulatory development in children aged 6 and 8 years old, in a developmentally appropriate and natural context: musical play. The findings indicate a quantitative increase in regulatory behaviours with age. A significantly higher increase is reported in monitoring, planning, and emotional/motivational monitoring compared to other regulatory behaviours. Socially-shared regulation shows steeper development than self-regulation and co-regulation. Regulatory abilities initially have a domain-specific element but gradually become fully general. These results have significant educational implications: instruction and training of self- and socially-shared regulation skills should start before the age of 8, and tackle a diversity of tasks.