This paper presents a review of what social-emotional competence, executive functioning, and patterning encompasses, and the relationships between these abilities during a preschool year. A study that examines the relationships between measures of inhibition, cognitive flexibility, and social-emotional competence during a year of preschool is then reported. There were fewer correlations in time two than in time one. Time-lagged analyses indicated that children's speed in inhibiting incorrect responses in time one predicted their ability to recognize emotions accurately in time two. Also, the preschooler's cognitive flexibility in time one predicted their ability to inhibit incorrect responses in time two.