Self-RegulationHow children monitor their emotions and thoughts, and adapt their behaviour in different circumstances. and Executive FunctionCognitive skills that enable children to adapt their thinking and actions to achieve a goal. This might be a self-chosen goal (e.g. To build a tower) or set by an adult (e.g. to respond to a question about a story). (SREF) refer to a set of interrelated skills that enable young children to manage their emotions, thoughts, and behaviours. These include the ability to resist impulses, direct attention, hold information in mind, and monitor emotional responses. These foundational skills develop rapidly in the early years and are critical for later learning and development.
Why it matters to our mission
Children from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds often have greater needs in these areas, and effective support for SREF may be particularly beneficial for closing the disadvantage gap. However, it remains challenging to effectively target and improve SREF outcomes in early years settings.
For further information please see the EEF’s self-regulationHow children monitor their emotions and thoughts, and adapt their behaviour in different circumstances.-and-executive-function?x‑craft-live-preview=06199e572978594ac59a18f58491f3e2a6c22289f9eff8edf32b1352e30ea75fueglttxzna”>guidance on SREF in the Early Years Evidence Store and on self-regulationHow children monitor their emotions and thoughts, and adapt their behaviour in different circumstances.-strategies?x‑craft-live-preview=06199e572978594ac59a18f58491f3e2a6c22289f9eff8edf32b1352e30ea75fueglttxzna”>self-regulationHow children monitor their emotions and thoughts, and adapt their behaviour in different circumstances. strategies in the Early Years Toolkit.
The EEF has commissioned one funding round on the theme of SREF in the early years, in Spring 2025, and will commission another round in Autumn 2025.
The evidence base for specific SREF approaches to support children in the early years is limited and uneven. While some approaches — such as creating and supporting children through developmentally appropriate challenges and teaching self-monitoring — have a stronger evidence base, others, like co-regulation and creating a collaborative community of children, are under-researched despite being widely valued by practitioners.
A comprehensive review conducted for the Early Years Evidence Store included 17 reviews, 12 Toolkit studies, and over 100 primary studies. This review highlighted that:
- most studies focus on older children in the early years, with a significant gap for children aged 2 – 3‑years-old;
- there is a reliance on evidence from specific curricula (for example, Tools of the Mind) or practices like mindfulness and yoga;
- the Early Years Toolkit strand on self-regulationHow children monitor their emotions and thoughts, and adapt their behaviour in different circumstances.-strategies?x‑craft-live-preview=06199e572978594ac59a18f58491f3e2a6c22289f9eff8edf32b1352e30ea75fueglttxzna”>self-regulationHow children monitor their emotions and thoughts, and adapt their behaviour in different circumstances. strategies is rated as having limited evidence strength; and
the evidence base for some approaches such as co-regulation is particularly sparse, despite high demand from the sector.
The mapping of early years programmes in England found that only 5% of identified programmes had a clear focus on SREF, compared to 33% for communication and language. Cost, time, and accessibility remain key barriers to uptake, especially for smaller settings and childminders.
| EEF Toolkit | The Early Years Toolkit includes a strand on self-regulation strategies, rated with one padlock for evidence strength. It highlights the need for more rigorous evaluation in this area, particularly for younger children. |
| Evidence Store | The Early Years Evidence Store includes a dedicated SREF theme, published in April 2024. It presents a taxonomy of approaches and synthesised evidence across five key approaches: – Creating and navigating challenge – Teaching self-monitoring and self-awareness – Creating a community of collaborative learners – Promoting physical activity – Promoting talk about learning |
| Evidence Mobilisation | The SREF theme has been a focus of internal and external stakeholder engagement, including input from Stronger Practice Hubs, academics, and early years practitioners. This has informed the development of commissioning priorities and guidance for applicants. |
| Evidence into Action | While there are no current Evidence into Action partnerships specifically focused on SREF, several funded programmes align with the theme’s approaches and may inform future mobilisation efforts. |
The Spring 2025 funding round was the first dedicated to SREF, focusing on trials across the evidence pipeline. Three projects have been shortlisted for potential evaluation. These programmes target both self-regulationHow children monitor their emotions and thoughts, and adapt their behaviour in different circumstances. and executive functionCognitive skills that enable children to adapt their thinking and actions to achieve a goal. This might be a self-chosen goal (e.g. To build a tower) or set by an adult (e.g. to respond to a question about a story). across the early years and address priority areas including:
- Co-regulation
- Teaching self-monitoring and self-awareness
- Creating and navigating challenge
No projects were commissioned in the priority areas of promoting talk about learning and creating a community of collaborative learners.
Looking ahead, the Autumn 2025 funding round will support early-stage programme development, focusing on specific priority areas where new programmes are needed to strengthen the evidence pipeline.
The funding rounds have been informed by:
- a practice review: Mapping of professional development and support programmes in the early years;
- the evidence review underpinning the self-regulationHow children monitor their emotions and thoughts, and adapt their behaviour in different circumstances.-and-executive-function?x‑craft-live-preview=06199e572978594ac59a18f58491f3e2a6c22289f9eff8edf32b1352e30ea75fueglttxzna”>Early Years Evidence Store; and
- focus groups and individual discussions with early years educators
A number of projects with clear links to SREF in the early years have been funded by the EEF and are listed in the tables below.
Completed early-stage programme development projects with a clear link to SREF in the early years
| Priority area | Highest-level EEF project | Project | Delivery team | Age (yrs) | Level of intervention | Description | Headline results |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teaching self-monitoring and self-awareness | Development | Early Skills for Life PSED Programme | Partnership for Children | 3 – 5 | Whole class and Targeted | Early years practitioners are trained to deliver weekly circle time sessions introducing the theme for the week related to emotions and self-regulation. | Currently under discussions to set up as a pilot. |
| Teaching self-monitoring and self-awareness | Development | Early Emotions: the foundation of wellbeing | Charles Dickens Research School | 2 – 5 | Targeted | A continuing professional development programme that supports practitioners to provide children with skills to name, understand, and regulate their emotions through explicit emotional language development and regulation techniques. | Delivery completed, not carried forward to a pilot. |
| Teaching self-monitoring and self-awareness | Development | Calming Cat Coaches | Psychology4Learning | 3 – 5 | Targeted | A programme including continuing professional development and resources/activities that aim to support teaching children emotional regulation strategies to help them feel calm, ready to learn and help them connect socially. | Delivery completed, not carried forward to pilot. |
| Teaching self-monitoring and self-awareness | Development | Building the Foundations of Emotional Wellbeing – SCARF EYs | Coram Life Education | 3 – 4 | Whole class | Continuing professional development to support children with learning to understand their own feelings and those of others and begin to regulate their behaviour accordingly. | Delivery completed, not carried forward to pilot. |
Trials and pilot studies in progress with a clear link to SREF in the early years
Priority area | Highest-level EEF project | Project | Delivery team | Age (yrs) | Level of intervention | Description | Headline results |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teaching self-monitoring and self-awareness | Efficacy trial | Emotion Coaching | Norland College and Emotion Coaching UK | 3 – 4 | Whole class | A continuing professional development programme that fosters teachers’ and early years staff’s warm and responsive relationships with children through self-regulation and co-regulation of both children and adults. | The evaluation report will be published in Autumn 2026. |
Early-stage programme development projects in progress with a clear link to SREF in the early years
| Priority area | Highest-level EEF project | Project | Delivery team | Age (yrs) | Level of intervention | Description | Headline results |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Creating and navigating challenge | Development | START | University of Oxford | 2 – 3 | Targeted | A pre-pilot programme for childminders to support the early executive function development of toddlers in their care. | Delivery scheduled in Spring 2026. |
Projects that have other primary priorities but have links to priority areas in the SREF theme are shown below. Projects with stronger links to the SREF theme include trials and early-stage development projects funded through a round focused on Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED).
Completed trials and pilot studies that have other primary priorities but have links to the priority areas in the SREF theme
| Priority area | Highest-level EEF project | Project | Delivery team | Age (yrs) | Level of intervention | Description | Headline results | Beyond the headline |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Creating and navigating challenge (main focus: maths) | Efficacy | The ONE programme | University of Oxford | 3 – 4 | Whole Class | Continuing professional development for practitioners to run fun, short, play-based activities designed to support children’s early thinking and numeracy skills through gradually increasing executive function demands. | 0 months’ progress in maths | No impact was found on executive function outcomes, while tentatively positive findings were found in maths for pupils eligible for Early Years Pupil Premium. The training and support was well received and led to changes in practitioners’ understanding of the importance of executive function to mathematical attainment. |
| Creating a community of collaborative learners (main focus: communication and language) | Efficacy | Learning Language and Loving It™ | Communicate SLT CIC | 3 – 4 | Whole class | Continuing professional development programme designed to provide staff with practical strategies to enhance children’s communication and language skills through specialised ways of interacting and communicating with children during normal daily routines. | +1 month’s progress for language measure. | Practitioners showed improvements in their practice, including increased quantity and quality of interactions with children. This links closely to the priority area of creating a community of collaborative learners for the SREF theme. |
| Broader approaches to support self-regulation (main focus: communication and language) | Efficacy | URLEY (Using Research Tools to Improve Language in the Early Years) | University of Oxford, UCL, and A+ Education | 3 – 5 | Whole class | Professional development programme in to improve how educators support early language development. Includes tools to monitor setting quality, shared thinking, and emotional wellbeing. | −1 month’s progress for language measure. | The programme improved the quality of adult – child interactions, and it may be that more time was needed to find an impact on language. |
| Broader approaches to support self-regulation (main focus: communication and language/parental engagement) | Efficacy | EasyPeasy | EasyPeasy | 3 – 4 | Whole class | EasyPeasy sent game ideas to parents of pre-school children to encourage play-based learning at home (including PSED-related games). | 0 months’ progress for language measure | There were tentatively positive results in PSED measured one year after the intervention. There were challenges with securing ongoing engagement from parents during the trial, which could have impacted results. |
| Broader approaches to support self-regulation (main focus: communication and language) | Efficacy | PEEP Learning Together Programme | Peeple | 3 – 4 | Whole class | 20-week course focused on communication and language, sessions include those related to SREF | 0 months’ progress for language measure. | While the programme contains sessions related to SREF, no SREF-associated measures were included in the evaluation. |
| Broader approaches to support SREF (main focus: numeracy, literacy, others) | Pilot | Early Years Toolbox | Action for Children | 3 – 4 | Whole class | Suite of iPad-based assessments to measure abilities that research has shown to be the most predictive of later academic, social, emotional, cognitive and life outcomes including the Child Self-Regulation & Behaviour Questionnaire. | Pilot completed, not carried forward to efficacy trial | The Early Years Toolbox was deemed to be feasible to implement but there were possible improvements that could make it more suitable to be taken forward to an efficacy trial. |
Completed early-stage programme development projects that have other primary priorities but have links to the priority areas in the SREF theme
| Priority area | Highest-level EEF project | Project | Delivery team | Age (yrs) | Level of intervention | Description | Headline results |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Broader approaches to support executive function development (main focus: outdoor learning) | Development | Natural Thinkers | NCB LEAP | 2 – 5 | Whole class | Outdoor learning programme in which activities to support children’s self-control, working memory, and mental flexibility are targeted through working as a team. | Delivery completed, not carried forward to pilot. |
| Teaching self-monitoring and self-awareness (main focus: wellbeing, PSED) | Development | Trauma Informed Practice in EYs (TIPEY) | Plymouth Nursery | 2 – 5 | Whole class | Continuing professional development to equip practitioners with a toolkit of strategies to support children suffering from trauma, in a whole class supportive and therapeutic way. | Delivery completed, not carried forward to pilot. |
| Broader approaches to support self-regulation (main focus PSED) | Development | Highfield Resilience Tracker | Highfield Nursery | 2 – 4 | Whole class | Aims to measure the resilience of young children and their family network, so that a holistic approach can be adopted to best support change. The resilience tracker uses a RAG rating system to identify 3 strands of resilience. | Delivery completed, not carried forward to pilot |
| Broader approaches to support self-regulation approaches (main focus: PSED) | Development | The Big 3 and Me | Human Values Foundation | 3 – 5 | Whole class | A programme of 24 lessons to support self-regulation, self-care and to build respectful relationships. | Delivery completed, not carried forward to pilot |
| Broader approaches to support self-regulation approaches (main focus: PSED) | Development | Creating Rich Experiences Outdoors | Outdoor Thinking | 2 – 5 | Whole class | Creating outdoor learning experiences to support wellbeing and PSED. | Delivery completed, not carried forward to pilot |
| Teaching self-monitoring and self-awareness (main focus: PSED) | Development | Teaching Young Children to SMILE | Fullbrook Nursery | 2 – 4 | Whole class, targeted | A professional development programme that uses key approaches each week to support PSED including social communication, self-regulation and independence skills. | Delivery completed, not carried forward to pilot. |
Trials and pilot studies in progress that have other primary priorities but have links to the priority areas in the SREF theme
| Priority area | Highest-level EEF project | Project | Delivery team | Age (yrs) | Level of intervention | Description | Headline results |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Creating a community of collaborative learners (main focus communication and language) | Efficacy | Early Years Conversation Project | East London Research School | 2 – 3 | Whole class | Professional development to use a set of specific evidence-informed strategies (ShREC: Share attention, Respond, Expand and Conversation, and interactive book reading) to promote high-quality, as well as multi-turn conversations with all children. | Carried forward from a pilot to an efficacy trial. The evaluation report will be published in Spring 2026. |
| Broader approaches to support self-regulation (main focus: maths) | Efficacy | TEEM UP | University of Oxford | 4 – 6 | Whole class | Continuing professional development to help improve Reception and Year 1 teachers’ understanding of mathematical development and self-regulation. | The evaluation report will be published in Autumn 2025. |
| Broader approaches to support self-regulation (main focus maths) | Pilot | Plan, Do, Review | Wingate Community Nursery | 3 – 4 | Targeted | Professional development for an approach that supports children to listen, speak, and understand based on sustained shared thinking and group conversation. | Carried forward from an early-stage development programme to a pilot. The evaluation report will be published in Autumn 2026. |