Children’s self-regulation skills in the Finnish day care environment

Authors

• Jouni Veijalainen University of Helsinki, Finland
• Jyrki Reunamo University of Helsinki, Finland
• Alisa Alijoki University of Helsinki, Finland

Keywords:

self-regulation, early childhood education, child, skills, emotions

Abstract

The topic of how children’s self-regulation (SR) skills occur and develop has attracted researchers for decades. In this article, we focus on the content of children’s SR skills and their relation to children’s learning, social skills and special needs in the context of Finnish early childhood education (ECE). The SR skills of 2476 children, aged 13–89 months, were evaluated in day care centres between January and May 2015. Teachers completed questionnaires assessing children’s SR, social, motor, language and metacognitive skills, as well as the children’s adaptivity in peer relations and their attachment to ECE personnel. The results relate to previous studies showing how SR skills are highly related to children’s ability to cope in social interaction and in terms of gender. The boys’ SR skills were statistically significantly much weaker than girls’. Good SR skills also correlated positively with children’s performance in metacognitive and motor skills. Weak SR skills had a strong connection to the child’s qualification as having special needs. Children’s SR skills may have an important role in helping children to regulate their development appropriately and to participate in creating a socially shared learning environment.