Learning-Related Cognitive Self-Regulation School Readiness Measures for Preschool Children: Optimizing Predictive Validity for Achievement

The purpose of this study is to construct and cross-validate a teacher rating measure and a parallel direct child assessment measure of learning-related cognitive self-regulation (LRCSR) for preschool children. LRCSR skills are conceptualized as cognitive skills that fall into five major categories: (1) attention focus and concentration (e.g, being able to pay attention to a teacher's instruction and focus on an in-class assignment); (2) inhibitory control (e.g., being able to suppress inappropriate off-task responses to distractions in the classroom setting); (3) patience (e.g., being able to wait when you are asked to do so and not respond impulsively or prematurely); (4) attention shifting (e.g, being able to shift your focus within a given classroom assignment and from one task to another as needed); and (5) organizing skills (e.g., being able to follow directions, engage in planning activities, and organize sequences of behavior to move from one activity to another). Such skills have emerged as an important facet of school readiness for preschool children. Valid measures are needed to support descriptive research on the status of preschool children on this aspect of school readiness and, most critically, intervention research on ways to enhance it. None of the measures of LRCSR currently available cover all constituent skills and none have been developed to optimize predictive validity. The first objective of this research is to construct and validate a teacher rating measure of LRCSR that has these critical characteristics. The second objective of this research study is to construct and validate a parallel child assessment measure of LRCSR that has convergent validity with the teacher rating measure.