One recent and surging theme in education today is social emotional learning (SEL). SEL focuses on teaching students about their emotions and how to regulate them in order to successfully create social relationships and make responsible decisions (National University, 2020). One aspect of SEL is self management or self regulation, which is what this study focuses on through a review of the literature and original research. Self regulation is defined as “attributes such as focusing and maintaining attention, regulating emotion and stress response physiology, reflecting on information and experience, and engaging in sustained positive social interactions with teachers and peers” (Blair & Raver, 2015). Overall, self regulation is the ability to control oneself, in order to focus on a task at hand and create positive social relationships. Students in today’s world are expected to be able to successfully self regulate at a young age, as they move into school. This study focuses on school readiness in young children and the factors that contribute to school readiness, specifically self regulation and preschool attendance.

The research question used for this study is how does self regulation and attending preschool affect school readiness in early childhood? The methodology selected for this study is phenomenology, in order to address the phenomenon of self regulation and how it relates to school readiness and preschool attendance. There are three groups of people who participated in this study. The groups are teachers, administrators, and parents of preschool-2nd grade students from different schools around New England. The groups were surveyed with similar questions, tailored to fit the experiences of each group. Participants were asked about their thoughts on self regulation, how it connects to school readiness, and how preschool attendance can affect self regulation growth and school readiness.

The overall findings of this study revealed that all participants recognized the importance of self regulation in young students. Through reports from families and educators alike, an emphasis was placed on self regulation and how it has changed over time, especially in the past year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Several participants also recognized that students who attended preschool learned self regulatory strategies and had more self regulation once they got to Kindergarten. This study exhibited how self regulation is important in education and specifically early childhood. It has also shown how self regulation needs to be taught explicitly throughout students’ education, from preschool to high school. This study has also emphasized the importance of preschool and how it can benefit students both academically and socially, as parents and educators have noted how their students have gained crucial social emotional skills along with academics from preschool.

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