The effect of early childhood self-regulation program onchildren's self-regulation, problem behavior and social skills

The aim of this research is to develop the "Self-regulation Program" to support the self-regulation of children and investigate the effects of the program on the selfregulation, problem behaviors and social skills. Embedded Design was used; the quantitative side of the research was quasi-experimental design with pre-test posttest control group, the qualitative side was basic qualitative research. The study group consisted of 52 children, 26 in experimental group, 26 in control group and two experimental groups' teachers. Quantitative data were analyzed with MANOVA and dependent samples t-test and qualitative data were analyzed with the deduction method. The program contained of 21 sessions and administered to the children in experimental group. According to results, there was a significant difference in the self-regulation scores of the children in the experimental and control groups. There was a significant difference between the post-test scores of the self-regulation in the groups, in favor of the experimental group. Qualitative findings revealed the program was effective on children's attention, emotion and behavior regulation. There was a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test problem behavior scores of the experimental group. A significant difference was found between the post-test scores of problem behaviors in favor of the experimental group. Qualitative findings showed the problem behaviors decreased. Significant difference was found between the pre-test and post-test scores of social skills in groups. There was a significant difference in post-test scores of social skills in favor of the experimental group. It was concluded that the program improved children's social skills.