Author: Child Development Matters

If I could measure one thing about a four-year-old and use it to predict how they would be doing at eight, at thirteen, at thirty, it would not be IQ. Not how many words they know, not how fast they count, not whether they can read their own name. It would be self-regulation. Researchers pooled 150 studies covering more than 215,000 children and asked a simple question: does self-regulation at four tell you anything about what comes later? It does. The children who could steer their attention, wait a turn, and ride out frustration at four were doing better at…