Research indicates the significant role of executive functions (EFs) and social-emotional skills, along with the quality of teacher-child relationships, in promoting young children’s optimal development including higher levels of social functioning and academic achievement.  These skills are interdependent such that impairments in one domain may result in difficulties in others, and consequently increase the risk of children’s school failure.  As such, the value of establishing preschool curricula that support the development of these skills has gained increased attention.  There are two educational approaches from Europe that are popular in Canada: Montessori and Reggio Emilia schools.  Although many schools continue to implement these specific curricula, there are few empirical studies examining the effects of these programmes and differentiating them.  Therefore, the primary purpose of the current study was to determine the benefits of these programmes on children’s developmental outcomes.  This study addressed two research questions: 1) Is enrolment at different preschool programmes associated with greater changes in executive functions, social-emotional skills, and academic achievement during one school year; and 2) Do children in different preschool programmes differ in their executive functions, social-emotional skills, and academic achievement at the end of school year?

The Contextual Systems Model (CSM; Pianta & Walsh, 1996) was employed to examine whether a particular school programme and relational capacity within classrooms affect the development of children’s self-regulation and social-emotional skills.  The CSM posits that the developmental process occurs over time within the family and school environments and that the quality of relational dynamics plays a central role in assisting this process. 

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