This address presents a discussion of the rationale, procedures, reliability, and validity of the "Social and Nonsocial Executive Skills Profile." The skills profile was developed to identify and measure aspects of the preschool child's classroom behavior that are highly related to social and nonsocial competence. Executive competence is defined as the effectiveness of the child's skill in receiving, sorting, and processing information and in generating effective strategies for coping with a situation. The profile requires six periods of observation (three each for social and nonsocial situations), 10-15 minutes in length. The methods used to determine interobserver reliability and instrument validity are discussed. Tentative results obtained from limited use of the profile are presented. Approximately two-thirds of the document is appendixes which include the manuals for observation and scoring, the scoring booklet, and a competence rating scale designed to be completed by the child's teacher. (ED)