In the article, the author reveals the concept of self-regulation by domestic and foreign authors, and also considers the relevance of the study of self-regulation and emotional background in preschool children with mental retardation, the article also mentions what the lack of self-regulation in preschool children with mental retardation can lead to and how important its role is in teaching children. Preschoolers from six to seven municipal preschool educational institutions of the city of Yaroslavl participated in this study. Methods are also given that diagnose the research indicators, on the basis of which the relationships between the three indicators obtained using mathematical statistics are analyzed, namely: a direct relationship between the indicators "self-regulation" and "anxiety"; a direct relationship between the indicators "anxiety" and "performance"; a direct relationship between the indicators "performance" and "self-regulation". Based on the results of the study, a lesson summary for specialists has been developed, which takes into account the characteristics of children with mental retardation with an insufficiently developed and sufficiently developed level of self-regulation. The lessons of these classes are aimed at the development of fine motor skills, self-regulation processes, improvement of concentration, efficiency, cognition of the surrounding world with the help of tactile sensations.