Megan M Mcclelland

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• PhD
• Professor (Full) at Oregon State University

Executive function refers to a set of cognitive processes essential for effectively managing complex tasks and enabling goal-directed behavior. Working memory (WM), one of the core executive functions, is the ability to temporarily hold and manipulate information. It plays an important role in various cognitive tasks and learning processes, with WM...

Executive functions (EF) lay the foundation for healthy development. However, few reliable and valid measures of EF have been developed among children in less developed countries such as Iran. The present study addressed this gap by examining the factor structure, score variation, and psychometric properties of a short EF task, the Head-Toes-Knees-...

Classmates’ academic and executive function (EF) skills are important predictors of individual EF and achievement. The present study investigated the effects of peer EF, using a battery of measures, on individual EF and academic achievement in preschool. Peer effects were assessed for 321 preschool-aged children from 48 classrooms. Using hierarchic...

In Norway, children aged one to five years can attend subsidized and publicly regulated Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) centers. These centers focus on holistic child development through play, care, and learning. Therefore, Norway should be capable of providing young children with the best possible ECEC environment, thereby laying a solid...

Self-regulation skill development in early childhood lays the foundation for academic success by enabling children to take advantage of learning opportunities. Early childhood educators must be prepared to target self-regulation skills using developmentally appropriate assessments, which limit the potential for bias which is common in observational...

Self-regulation skill development in early childhood lays the foundation for academic success during the school years by enabling children to engage and take advantage of learning opportunities. Early childhood educators must be prepared to target self-regulation skills, which involve controlling and planning adaptive actions within one’s environme...

Background Technology advances make it increasingly possible to adapt direct behavioral assessments for classroom use. This study examined children's scores on HTKS-Kids, a new, largely child-led version of the established individual research assessment of self-regulation, Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders-Revised task (HTKS-R). For the HTKS-Kids tablet-ba...

Objective The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between parent ratings of motor skills and executive function (EF) in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the United States and Taiwan. Materials and method One hundred and seventy-two parents/legal guardians of children (4–6 years and 11 months old) with ASD were recr...

Introduction American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) children possess numerous cultural assets, yet higher exposures to neighborhood risks (e.g., lack of housing, crime) may present barriers to healthy cognitive development, including executive function (EF). Cultural socialization may promote resilience and support children’s early cognition, bu...

Executive function (EF) is a foundational cognitive construct, which is linked to better cognitive and physical health throughout development. The present study examines the construct validity of an EF task, the Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders task (HTKS) that was initially developed for young children, in a sample of adolescents. We investigate the init...

The present study represents the first meta-analytic synthesis of the utility of a widely used early-childhood self-regulation measure, the Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders task, in predicting children's academic achievement. A systematic review of the literature yielded 69 studies accessed from peer reviewed journals representing 413 effect sizes and 19,...

Motor competence and self‐regulation develop rapidly in early childhood; emerging work suggests motor competence interventions as a promising way to promote self‐regulation (e.g., behavioral inhibition; cognitive flexibility) in young children. We tested the impact of a mastery‐focused motor competence intervention (Children's Health Activity Motor...

This study explores the impact of four-day school weeks on early elementary achievement. Using covariate adjusted regression analyses and data on all students who entered kindergarten in Oregon, USA between 2014 and 2016, we examine differences in 3rd grade math and English Language Arts test scores (i.e., achievement) for students enrolled in a fo...

Despite strong evidence self-regulation skills are critical for school readiness, there remains a dearth of longitudinal studies that describe developmental trajectories of self-regulation, particularly among low-resource and underrepresented populations such as Spanish-English dual-language learners. The present study examined individual differenc...

In the present study, we investigated the relative impact of age- versus schooling-related growth in school readiness skills using four modeling approaches that leverage natural variation in longitudinal data collected within the preschool year. Our goal was to demonstrate the applicability of different analytic techniques that do not rely on assum...

Parental education and child gender are related to learning and development during childhood and adolescence. The present study investigated the role of mother’s education level and child gender for children’s vocabulary and math skills in Norway. Children’s vocabulary and math skills were assessed in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) cente...

Although previous work has linked parent autonomy support to the development of children’s executive function (EF) skills, the role of specific autonomy-supportive behaviors has not been thoroughly investigated. We compiled data from four preschool-age samples in the Midwestern United States (N = 366; M age = 44.26 months; 72% non-Hispanic White, 1...

This article reviews research on children's self-regulation, including cognitive or behavioral aspects of regulation, which are important for a range of social and cognitive outcomes. Theoretical bases and definitions of self-regulation are reviewed along with links to important indicators of interest in childhood and early adulthood. Important ind...

Children's ability to monitor subjective feelings of uncertainty (i.e., engage in uncertainty monitoring) is a central metacognitive skill. In the current study, we examined the development of uncertainty monitoring as well as its relations with vocabulary and executive function development in children (N = 137, 52% female) from predominately White...

Objectives The importance of breastfeeding exposure and children’s development of self-regulation, independently, are well established. Each of these domains also has been linked to better cognitive development and academic achievement in children. However, little is known about how breastfeeding affects development of early self-regulation skills...

Early childhood interventions can improve self-regulation, but there are few economic evaluations of such interventions. This study analyzed the cost-effectiveness of an early childhood self-regulation intervention (Red Light Purple Light!; RLPL), comparing three different models of implementation across stages of intervention development: (Model 1...

The measurement of self-regulation in young children has been a topic of great interest as researchers and practitioners work to help ensure that children have the skills they need to succeed as they start school. The present study examined how a revised version of a commonly used measure of behavioral self-regulation, the Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders...

• Iranian student’s math performance is consistently below the international average • Present study examined the effectiveness of the Basic Math Training (BMT) curriculum, which included measurement, early algebra, numbers, and operations for at-risk children • Results showed that children randomly assigned to the BMT curriculum made significant g...

Measures of self-regulation may not capture adequate variability in children with low levels of self-regulation. This can limit a measure's ability to accurately demonstrate relations with other variables. The present study addressed this issue with a revised version of the Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders task (HTKS-R), which includes a new downward exte...

The goal of this study was to examine reciprocal associations between cognitive flexibility and externalizing and internalizing behavior problems longitudinally using data on four occasions from kindergarten through first grade and test for potential gender differences in these associations. The Dimensional Change Card Sort task was used to assess...

The present study examines whether teacher-rated self-regulation skills exhibited within the classroom context and directly assessed individual executive function abilities at kindergarten entry uniquely contribute to kindergarten and third grade achievement gaps among children from economically disadvantaged families and Spanish-speaking English-L...

A large body of research has documented the role of self-regulation in academic skill development for young children. However, few studies have investigated longitudinal and indirect effects from kindergarten through later elementary school. In this longitudinal Norwegian study, we investigated pathways from children’s self-regulation in kindergart...

Self-regulation develops rapidly during the years before formal schooling, and it helps lay the foundation for children’s later social, academic, and educational outcomes. However, children’s self-regulation may be influenced by cultural contexts, sociodemographic factors, and characteristics of the child. The present study investigates whether chi...

Self-regulation is a critical component of school readiness and success. Practices for supporting self-regulation may be advanced by a better understanding of factors characterizing children at risk for challenges and contextual mechanisms associated with desirable developmental trajectories.The current study leverages a large national data set and...

The article can be downloaded for free until November 28 using this link https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1ZtIOh~JITJrV Please let me know if the link does not work for you. Thanks, Dieuwer

Considerable research has examined interventions that facilitate school readiness skills in young children. One intervention, Red Light, Purple Light Circle Time Games (RLPL; Tominey and McClelland, 2011; Schmitt et al., 2015), includes music and movement games that aim to foster self-regulation skills. The present study (N = 157) focused on childr...

This study tests an intervention that introduces a structured curriculum for five-year olds into the universal preschool context of Norway. We conduct a field experiment with 691 five-year-olds in 71 preschools and measure treatment impacts on children's development in mathematics, language and executive functioning. Compared to business as usual,...

This study of children from two U. S. states examined associations among four cognitive and academic skills: executive function (EF), visuo-motor integration, mathematics assessed with applied problems, and letter-word knowledge. Before (T1) and after (T2) kindergarten, children (N = 555) were assessed using the Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders (HTKS) EF...

The present chapter focuses on low-income Latino families and their children within the context of the schools they attend in the USA. Latino children enter kindergarten with a range of academic and self-regulation skills, but parents and children can face multiple challenges navigating the educational context. The chapter explores risk factors (i....

Autonomy-supportive parenting appears to play an important role in children's executive function (EF) development. However, few studies have accounted for parents’ EF skills when examining the link between parenting and child EF in families from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. In the current study, parents and their 3- to 5-year-old children (N...

Research Findings: The present study examines connections among participation in open- and closed-skilled sports; the metabolic intensity of each sport; and executive function (EF), literacy, and math achievement in a sample of 3rd-grade children. Utilizing data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child...

A considerable body of research indicates that children's executive function (EF) skills and related school readiness constructs are important for early learning and long-term academic success. This review focuses on EF and a related construct, motor skills with a focus on visuomotor integration, as being foundational for learning, and describes ho...

Background and objectives: Executive function (EF) abilities are recognized as components of cognition most likely to show age-related declines. Measurement of EF in older adults is often computer-based, takes place in a laboratory setting, and thus lacks ecological validity. We sought to investigate a new way of measuring EF in older adults by ad...

Self-regulation and academic skills in kindergarten are strong predictors of later achievement. However, many children enter kindergarten without adequate levels of these skills, often because of limited participation in early childhood education. The current study examined a kindergarten readiness summer program (Bridge to Kindergarten; B2K) that...

Self-regulation has been shown to have important implications for individual trajectories of health and well-being across the life course. The present chapter examines the development of self-regulation from a life course health development (LCHD) perspective. Using the seven principles of LCHD and the relational developmental systems (RDS) framewo...

Mind in the Making and Vroom are partner initiatives that exemplify a unique "civic science" approach to "bringing developmental science into the world." Mind in the Making offers families and professionals working with children 0-8 access to developmental research, by engaging them in an active process of professional development and community out...

The present study explored the bidirectional and longitudinal associations between executive function (EF) and early academic skills (math and literacy) across 4 waves of measurement during the transition from preschool to kindergarten using 2 complementary analytical approaches: cross-lagged panel modeling and latent growth curve modeling (LCGM)....

Background Children are exposed to flame retardants from the built environment. Brominated diphenyl ethers (BDE) and organophosphate-based flame retardants (OPFRs) are associated with poorer neurocognitive functioning in children. Less is known, however, about the association between these classes of compounds and children’s emotional and social be...

Children's executive function (EF) and behavioral regulation skills are robust predictors of academic success. The current study examines differential associations between measures of EF, classroom behavioral regulation, and academic achievement by children's family income in a sample of 100 prekindergarten children. In correlational analyses, EF a...

Parental practices and beliefs have been recognized as having an important influence on the development of children's self-regulation. Using a mixed methods approach, the present study explored how parental practices and beliefs influence low-income Mexican American children's (N = 44) self-regulation during the fall of preschool. Quantitative resu...

Young children who enter school without sufficient social and emotional learning (SEL) skills may have a hard time learning. Yet early childhood educators say they don’t get enough training to effectively help children develop such skills. In this article, Megan McClelland, Shauna Tominey, Sara Schmitt, and Robert Duncan examine the theory and scie...

This article reviews recent research on self-regulation, including emotional and cognitive or behavioral aspects of regulation. Theoretical bases and definitions of self-regulation are reviewed along with links to important outcomes of interest in childhood and early adulthood. Important individual and contextual factors influencing the development...

Purpose: The purpose of this article was to examine specific linkages between early visual-motor integration skills and executive function, as well as between early object manipulation skills and social behaviors in the classroom during the preschool year. Method: Ninety-two children aged 3 to 5 years old (Mage = 4.31 years) were recruited to pa...

The frequency of using cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression strategies to regulate emotions has been associated with social-emotional adjustment. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the Parent-Rating Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (P-ERQ), a parent-rating version of the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) in children aged...

The development of early childhood self-regulation is often considered an early life marker for later life successes. Yet little longitudinal research has evaluated whether there are different trajectories of self-regulation development across children. This study investigates the development of behavioral self-regulation between the ages of 3 and...

Silicone wristbands can be used as passive sampling tools for measuring personal environmental exposure to organic compounds. Due to the lightweight and simple design, the wristband may be a useful technique for measuring children's exposure. In this study, we tested the stability of flame retardant compounds in silicone wristbands and developed an...

Research Findings: The current study examined how children’s parent-reported compliance at age 3 (36 months) moderated the effects of 2 dimensions of directly observed early care and education (ECE) process quality (positivity/responsivity and cognitive stimulation) during the prekindergarten year (54 months) on teacher reports of children’s classr...

If you had just one wish for the study of human development, what would it be? How would it advance the field? And what would it take for your vision to be realized? This was the charge given to 28 scholars who come from different disciplines and fields, and who study different periods of the life course. In this article, Richard A. Settersten, Jr....

Stop, Think, Act: Integrating Self-regulation in the Early Childhood Classroom offers early childhood teachers the latest research and a wide variety of hands-on activities to help children learn and practice self-regulation techniques. Self-regulation in early childhood leads to strong academic performance, helps students form healthy friendships,...

Classroom learning environments are an important source of influence on children's development, particularly with regard to literacy achievement and behavioral regulation, both of which require the coordination of task inhibition, attention, and working memory. Classroom observations were conducted in 18 schools and 51 first grade classrooms for 50...

Research Findings: The present study evaluated the impact of a working memory (WM) stimulation program on the development of WM and early literacy skills (ELS) in preschoolers from socioeconomically deprived rural and urban schools in Chile. The sample consisted of 268 children, 144 in the intervention group and 124 in the comparison group. The com...

The concept of self‐regulation has received heightened attention as a key mechanism that predicts a variety of developmental outcomes throughout the life span. Although researchers have focused on self‐regulation from a diverse set of perspectives, it is clear that self‐regulation has important implications for individual health and well‐being star...

Research Findings: This study examined concurrent associations between family sociodemographic risk, self-regulation, and early literacy and mathematics in young children from Azores, Portugal (N = 186). Family sociodemographic risk was indexed by low maternal education, low family income, and low occupational status. Behavioral aspects of self-reg...

The present study explored direct and interactive effects between behavioral self-regulation (SR) and two measures of executive function (EF, inhibitory control and working memory), with a fine motor measure tapping visuomotor skills (VMS) in a sample of 127 prekindergarten and kindergarten children. It also examined the relative contribution of be...

Research Findings: The present study investigated the direct effects of residential mobility on children's inhibitory control and academic achievement during the preschool year. It also explored fall inhibitory control and academic skills as mediators linking residential mobility and spring achievement. Participants included 359 preschool children...

The present study examined the efficacy of a self-regulation intervention for children experiencing demographic risk. Utilizing a randomized controlled design, analyses examined if children (N = 276 children in 14 Head Start classrooms; M age = 51.69, SD = 6.55) who participated in an 8-week self-regulation intervention demonstrated greater gains i...

Research Findings: Self-regulation in young children predicts later social adjustment and academic success across cultural contexts. Therefore, it is crucial to identify factors that promote or inhibit behavioral self-regulation skills. In this study, we focus on gender and socioeconomic status (SES; parental education and income) as possible predi...

Self-regulation is an important aspect of school readiness. In their theory of self-regulation, Blair and Ursache (2011) assume that executive function serve a critical role in regulating behavior. The present study explores the validity of different self-regulation measures before school entry and their relationship to school relevant precursor sk...

Children's behavioral self-regulation and executive function (EF; including attentional or cognitive flexibility, working memory, and inhibitory control) are strong predictors of academic achievement. The present study examined the psychometric properties of a measure of behavioral self-regulation called the Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders (HTKS) by asse...

Children’s self-regulation (including cognitive processes of attentional flexibility, working memory, and inhibitory control) is a strong predictor of school readiness and academic achievement throughout childhood and adulthood. In spite of this, many young children enter kindergarten without strong levels of self-regulation and there is limited re...

Research suggests that behavioral self-regulation skills are critical for early school success, but few studies have explored such links among young children in Europe. This study examined the contribution of early self-regulation to academic achievement gains among children in France, Germany, and Iceland. Gender differences in behavioral self-reg...

The current study investigated the predictive utility among teacher-rated, observed, and directly assessed behavioral self-regulation skills to academic achievement in preschoolers. Specifically, this study compared how a teacher report, the Child Behavior Rating Scale, an observer report, the Observed Child Engagement Scale, and a direct assessmen...

Research Findings: The present study investigated whether active play during recess was associated with self-regulation and academic achievement in a prekindergarten sample. A total of 51 children in classes containing approximately half Head Start children were assessed on self-regulation, active play, and early academic achievement. Path analyses...

Well-being in childhood can have lasting effects on individual children, and on entire cohorts of children, as they grow older. Two paradigmatic approaches to the life course provide unique and complementary lenses for understanding child well-being. The personological paradigm raises sensitivity to dynamics of child well-being over time. This incl...

The present study examined quantitative and qualitative factors related to the effectiveness of a behavioral regulation intervention using classroom games with 65 prekindergarteners. Previous research indicated that participation in an intervention was related to behavioral regulation gains for children who started the year with low levels of these...

This study examined children's self-regulation, demographic risks (English Language Learner (ELL) status, being from a low-income family), and academic achievement longitudinally across four time points (fall and spring of the prekindergarten and kindergarten years). Findings suggested that assets such as high self-regulation in the fall of prekind...

Self-regulation is a key construct in children's healthy and adaptive development. In this chapter, the authors situate self-regulation in a theoretical context that describes its underlying components that are most important for early school success: flexible attention, working memory, and inhibitory control. The authors review evidence that suppo...

Abstract— Children’s ability to direct their attention and behavior to learning tasks provides a foundation for healthy social and academic development in early schooling. Although an explosion of research on this topic has occurred in recent years, the field has been hindered by a lack of conceptual clarity, as well as debate over underlying compo...

Research Findings: The present study examined the efficacy of a self-regulation intervention with 65 preschool children. Using circle time games, the study examined whether participating in a treatment group significantly improved behavioral self-regulation and early academic outcomes. Half of the children were randomly assigned to participate in 1...

Research Findings: The present study examined the role of demographic risk factors in the development of children's behavioral regulation. We investigated whether being from a low-income family and being an English language learner (ELL) predicted behavioral regulation between prekindergarten and kindergarten. Results indicated that children from l...