Self-regulation in early childhood encompasses both "top down," volitional processes, as well as the "bottom up" activity of three neurophysiological systems: the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), the sympathetic nervous system (SNS), and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. In this paper we briefly review the structure, function, and early development of each of these systems and then explain why neurophysiological self-regulation is most accurately defined as a function of their joint activity. We note that while there are a number of predictive models that employ this definition, the field would benefit from a straightforward heuristic and aligned methods of visualization and analysis. We then present one such heuristic, which we call neurophysiological space, and outline how it may facilitate a new, collaborative approach to building a better understanding of self-regulation in early childhood. We conclude with a presentation of early education as one setting in which our heuristic and methods could be applied.
Keywords: HPA axis; early childhood; multi-systemic; parasympathetic nervous system; self-regulation; sympathetic nervous system.
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