As indicated in the introductory article, this special issue has attempted to represent and illustrate developments in theoretical, methodological, and empirical work related to the role of primary classroom dialogue in supporting children's self-regulation. The articles included report studies carried out in the United Kingdom and Chile (two quite different cultural contexts) originally supported by a British Academy International Partnership and Mobility grant to the two editors. These articles extend the work originally reported in Whitebread, Mercer, Howe & Tolmie (2013), bringing together a number of research traditions to develop our understanding of the contribution of dialogic processes in primary classrooms to the development of children's self-regulation. This commentary is intended to locate the present studies within the pre-existing research literature, to indicate the significant contributions made, and to pose an agenda for future research in this area.