European Early Childhood Education Research Journal

ISSN: 1350-293X (Print) 1752-1807 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/recr20

Learning to Live Together: training early

childhood educators to promote socioemotional
competence of toddlers and preschool children
Miriam K. Rosenthal & Lihi Gatt
To cite this article: Miriam K. Rosenthal & Lihi Gatt (2010) Learning to Live Together:
training early childhood educators to promote socioemotional competence of toddlers and
preschool children, European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 18:3, 373-390,
DOI: 10.1080/1350293X.2010.500076
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1350293X.2010.500076

Published online: 29 Sep 2010.

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European Early Childhood Education Research Journal

Vol. 18, No. 3, September 2010, 373390

Learning to Live Together: training early childhood educators1 to

promote socio-emotional competence of toddlers and pre-school
children
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Miriam K. Rosenthal* and Lihi Gatt

The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel
European
10.1080/1350293X.2010.500076
RECR_A_500076.sgm
1350-293X
Original
Taylor
302010
18
mikiros@pluto.mscc.huji.ac.il
MiriamRosenthal
000002010
&
and
Article
Francis
Early
Francis
(print)/1752-1807
Childhood Education
(online)Research Journal

ABSTRACT: This paper describes a training program Learning to Live

Together for early childhood educators working with toddlers and preschoolers
in daycare or nursery schools. The training aims to provide educators with (a)
research-based knowledge on socio-emotional development, and on social
learning opportunities offered by daily social and emotional events in the group
setting; (b) specific intervention skills that support socio-emotional development;
(c) The program further explores and clarifies the overt and covert attitudes and
beliefs educators may hold concerning childrens socio-emotional development,
and concerning their own role in promoting this development. The training
program consists of 12 workshop meetings guided by an early childhood expert.
These are followed by four small-group consultation meetings that offer videoobservation of challenging children. The program is divided into four units: (1)
understanding young childrens group experience; (2) toddlers learn empathy; (3)
toddlers learn to play together; (4): toddlers learn to resolve conflicts.
RSUM: Cet article porte sur le programme de formation Apprendre vivre
ensemble destins aux ducateurs travaillant avec des jeunes enfants en crches
et jardins denfants. Le but de la formation est de mettre la disposition des
ducateurs : (a) une connaissance, fonde sur la recherche, du dveloppement
socio-motionnel et des occasions dapprentissage offertes par les vnements
sociaux et motionnels quotidiens ; (b) des capacits dintervention spcifiques
qui soutiennent le dveloppement socio-motionnel ; (c) en outre, le programme
explore et clarifie les attitudes et croyances, implicites et explicites, des
ducateurs sur le dveloppement socio-motionnel des enfants et sur leur rle dans
la promotion de ce dveloppement. Le programme de formation se compose de 12
rencontres en ateliers anims par un spcialiste de la petite enfance, suivies de 4
rencontres de consultation en petits groupes offrant des observations en vido
denfants problmatiques. Le programme est divis en quatre units: (1)
Comprendre lexprience des groupes de jeunes enfants. (2) Les jeunes enfants
apprennent lempathie. (3) Les jeunes enfants apprennent jouer ensemble. (4)
Les jeunes enfants apprennent rsoudre des conflits.
ZUSAMMENFASSUNG: Dieser Beitrag beschreibt das Trainingsprogramm
Lernen sich zu vertragen fr Fachkrfte, die Klein- und Vorschulkinder in
Kindergarten und Krippe betreuen. Das Programm informiert Fachkrfte (a) ber
forschungsbezogenes Wissen zur sozio-emotionale Entwicklung des Kindes
sowie ber die tglichen sozialen Lernmglichkeiten bei sozialen und
emotionalen Ereignissen im Gruppenkontext; es vermittelt (b) spezifische
Prventionsmanahmen zur Untersttzung der sozio-emotionale Entwicklung des
*Corresponding author. Email: Email: mikiros@pluto.mscc.huji.ac.il
ISSN 1350-293X print/ISSN 1752-1807 online
2010 EECERA
DOI: 10.1080/1350293X.2010.500076
http://www.informaworld.com

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Kindes und (c) untersucht und klrt die offenen und verdeckten Haltungen und
Einstellungen der Fachkrfte in diesem Prozess. Das Trainingsprogramm wird
von einem Frhpdagogen geleitet und besteht aus 12 Workshops sowie
nachfolgenden Kleingruppen-Konsultationen, die videogesttzte Beobachtungen
an kritischen Einzelfllen einbeziehen. Das Programm besteht aus vier Einheiten:
(1) Gruppenerfahrungen des Kindes verstehen, (2) Wie Kleinkinder Empathie
entwickeln, (3) wie sie miteinander spielen und (4) wie sie Konflikte lsen lernen.
RESUMEN: Este estudio describe un programa de entrenamiento Aprendiendo
a vivir juntos destinado para educadores pre-escolares que trabajan con nios
pequeos, en guarderas infantiles, o con nios en edad preescolar en jardines de
infantes. El entrenamiento est destinado a proveer a los educadores con (a)
conocimiento basado en investigacin acerca del desarrollo socio-emocional y
acerca de las oportunidades sociales de aprender ofrecidas por eventos diarios,
sociales y emocionales, que se crean en los los grupos infantiles; (b) habilidades
de intervencin especficas que apoyan el desarrollo socio-emocional; (c) El
programa igualmente explora y clarifica las actitudes y creencias, abiertas y
cubiertas, que educadores puedan tener acerca del desarrollo socio-emocional de
los nios y acerca de su propio rol en la promocin de este desarrollo. El programa
de entrenamiento consiste de 12 encuentros de taller, guiados por un experto en
Educacin Preescolar. Estos encuentros son seguidos por 4 encuentros de
consultacin, en grupos pequeos, que ofrecen observacin por video de nios
problemticos y desafiantes. El programa est dividido en cuatro unidades: (1)
Entendimiento de experiencias grupales de nios pequeos; (2) Nios pequeos
aprenden empata; (3) Nios pequeos aprenden a jugar juntos; (4) Nios
pequeos aprender a resolver conflictos.
Keywords: socio-emotional competence; toddlers and preschoolers; intervention
programs in daycare and nursery schools; training early childhood educators;
educators attitudes and beliefs

Recent years have seen a growing attention to aggressive and violent interactions
among children in school settings. Attention has also been drawn to the younger ages,
with many incidents of aggression being reported in preschool and day care settings
as well (Denham 1998). At the same time, young childrens socio-emotional competence and adjustment has been shown to be one of the major predictors of school
achievement and academic success. Studies have shown that social and emotional
skills among low-income children may serve an important protective function,
whereby children who are able to effectively handle their emotions and behavior
despite exposure to multiple stressors are more likely to do better academically, than
their peers (Raver and Zigler 1997; Webster-Straton, Reid, and Stoolmiller 2008).
Even though research of the last two decades has been making the case for the role
of young childrens socio-emotional competence for early school success, early childhood professionals emphasis on cognitive achievement, literacy and numeracy
continues to overshadow the importance of childrens socio-emotional competence
for their well-being as well as their school readiness (Aber, Jones, and Cohen 2000;
McLelland, Morrison, and Holmes 2000). The same attitude is also prevalent in the
training of early childhood caregivers and teachers. In many countries, training
provides them with knowledge and skills to promote language and cognitive achievement, while the discussion of social and emotional development refers often to the
effects of the home environment. As a result most educators working with very young
children are poorly prepared for their role of supporting the development of early
socio-emotional competence. The general expectation from them is to sensitively

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respond to children as individuals, thus creating a secure base for every child in the
group.
Indeed, many studies found that more sensitive and responsive behavior by caregivers was associated with less negative, more positive play with other children, over
and above the influence of child and family characteristics (Howes 2000; NICHD
2001). Other studies, however, suggest that not all caregivers who promote positive,
secure relationships with the toddlers in their care do necessarily encourage or support
positive peer interaction (Howes, Hamilton, and Matheson 1994). The latter imply
that the caregivers, in whose care children have positive peer interaction, do other
things besides responding sensitively to children. Our research suggests that we need
to examine more specific behaviors of caregivers, especially, during episodes of
heightened emotionality in the group. Furthermore, to gain a better understanding of
how caregivers support childrens socio-emotional competence we need to look at a
variety of childrens social and emotional behaviors and not only at their peer interaction (Rosenthal 1994; Rosenthal and Zur 1993).
Our argument, therefore, is that the general instruction to caregivers to respond
sensitively to children is not enough to help them support socio-emotional development. Training programs and curricula for young children should address the specific
ways by which early childhood educators can support childrens developing socioemotional competence. Such training needs to offer the rich knowledge available
today on early social and emotional development and learning, as well as explore the
skills educators need to acquire to promote childrens socio-emotional competence.
Furthermore, our work and the work of others, on the importance of cultural attitudes
and beliefs in defining valued developmental goals and educational practice, highlights another important issue concerning training. This research suggests that training
has to address the attitudes and beliefs caregivers and teachers hold concerning the
ideal of a well-behaved sociable child, and different ideas as to the best way to
socialize children towards that goal (Rosenthal 2003).
Learning to Live Together: a training program
The Learning to Live Together (LtLT) program is designed to provide caregivers
with knowledge on socio-emotional development of young children, and on social
learning opportunities offered by daily social and emotional events in the group
setting. It allows caregivers to acquire professional skills and distinctive interventions
that support socio-emotional development. In addition, throughout the training the
participants are challenged to examine and discuss their own overt and covert attitudes
and beliefs concerning goals of socio-emotional development, and concerning the
unique, professional role of caregivers (other than parents) in promoting this development. The program was developed initially for caregivers working with 1- to 3-yearold toddlers. It is currently being adapted for teachers working with children aged 36.
The knowledge base of the Learning to Live Together training program derives
from theory and research concerning early child development and effective social and
emotional learning. The participants acquire a profound understanding of the budding
social and emotional competence of young children, and of the wide range of individual differences in this development during the early years. They learn about childrens
way of expressing emotions in group care, their understanding of emotions and their
growing capability to regulate emotions. Participants also learn to identify specific
daily events in the life of the group as moments of effective learning.

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Based on this knowledge the program explores with the participants a range of
effective behaviors, or interventions, that utilize the social learning opportunities
offered by the group context. These include specific behaviors that facilitate childrens social and emotional learning, and promote a positive emotional climate in the
class as well as pro-social interactions among children. Thus the LtLT program highlights some important aspects of caregivers behavior during: (a) crying and the
expression of other distress signals of children; (b) conflicts and acts of aggression;
(c) unsuccessful attempts to join-in, as well as moments when children show interest
in each other and try to approach a peer; and (d) during pro-social and caring behavior
among peers.
Learning about young childrens budding socio-emotional competence
Research of early social and emotional competence has shown that young children
demonstrate a wide range of budding social and emotional skills (Brownell and Kopp
2007). Already as infants, they are fascinated by other children and their behavior.
They have some ability to communicate their feelings, wishes and intentions as well
as understand the feelings and intentions communicated by others (Dunn, Bretherton,
and Munn 1987; Dunn 2000). They can join and maintain a play interaction with
another child (Howes and Lee 2006). As their social and emotional competence
develops they are better at regulating their emotions with the help of a responsive
and supportive adult as well as sometimes on their own (Eisenberg, Champion, and
Ma 2004; Fox and Calkins 2003). They can use social referencing to appreciate and
understand various aspects of emotion evoking situations (Camras and Sachs 1991;
Mumme and Fernald 2003). They begin to understand the intentions of others
(Tomasello and Rakoczy 2003) and the causes for their feelings, as well as what may
help others when they are distressed (Zahn-Waxler et al. 1992). They may offer help
and comfort to a distressed friend and share their possessions with others (Farver and
Branstetter 1994; Hay et al. 1999); They can engage in disputes, quarrels and negotiation when their wishes or intentions conflict with those of others (Alink et al. 2006);
When in a group setting they develop strategies of joining others in play as well as
the skills of defending the boundaries of their play group (Putallaz and Wasserman
1990; Corsaro 1994, 2003; Rubin, Bukowski, and Parker 2006).
Many of these budding skills can be observed already among infants and toddlers,
although they are not always perceived by caregivers as social skills that are crucial
for development. For instance, when a child imitates a peer in a rough play he may be
perceived by his caregiver as wild and aggressive (rather than a child showing social
interest and able to synchronize with a peer). Likewise, when a child insists on offering his own bottle to a crying peer, his caregiver may ignore this pro-social act and
refer to it as intrusion (why dont you leave him alone, cant you see he doesnt want
your bottle?).
Therefore, the LtLT program argues that caregivers must become aware of the
importance of such skills and competencies in order to assist children in their acquisition. These skills play a very important role in a childs ability to engage successfully
in social interaction with peers (Denham et al. 2003; Howes and Matheson 1992;
Singer and De Haan 2007). They are especially important for children entering a childcare group. Group participation requires some communication skills (beyond the use
of code-signal which are understood by the childs parents only). Such communication skills enable children to share with others their wishes, intentions and thoughts.

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As these skills are rather limited among toddlers, they must sharpen their social and
emotional understanding skills so that they can decipher the wishes, intentions and
thoughts of other children in the group. Without a minimal level of mutual understanding, peer interaction is rather limited if not doomed for failure (Rose-Krasnor 1997).
Difficulties in communicating with peers or understanding their intention may be a
source of distress to many infants and toddlers in child-care. Yet, some infants and
toddlers derive much joy and pleasure from interacting with peers, and they clearly
initiate such interaction and succeed in maintaining it. Some very young children even
form deep bonds and friendship with their peers (Howes 1983; Rizzo and Corsaro
1995; Corsaro 2003).
However, these abilities mature only gradually, and at a very different pace in
different children. This generates a unique challenge to an infant or a toddler entering
child-care, as well as to the caregiver working with groups of infants and toddlers. In
the context of group care, very young children must learn to find their way in a
complex environment with same-age peers who are all short of socio-emotional
competencies. This may cause excessive stress on some children (Watamura et al.
2003), as well as on their caregivers.
Moments of effective socio-emotional learning in a group setting
Recurrent daily events in the child-care setting provide ample opportunities for social
and emotional learning. It is essential that caregivers identify such moments and make
the most of them. Much of this learning takes place while children interact with each
other (Corsaro 1994; Hay 2006; Howes and Wishard 2004), or observe each other
intently and imitate their peers (Hanna and Meltzoff 1993). In addition, the LtLT
program emphasizes the fact that effective learning takes place in the group regardless
of whether the child is an active participant in the event or mainly an observer of the
emotions and social interaction of others.
Indeed, during most hours of the day every child in the group is both an observer
of social and emotional events, as well as a participant in them. Children witness
throughout the day their peers in various emotional situations, and watch attentively
how the caregiver reacts in such incidents. Whatever a caregiver does vis--vis a
social or an emotional event has an effect not only on the specific child but also on all
the other children present.
Some have referred to the role of the teacher as a stage-manager in preschoolers
pretend play (Jones and Reynolds 1992). The LtLT program stresses that in social and
emotional events in the group, the teacher is at times the key actor, a director and also
the playwright and stage manager. The program alerts the caregivers to the importance
of their role in childrens social and emotional learning, by demonstrating the abundance of unique learning opportunities offered by the group care context, when an
audience of children is highly attentive to the caregivers behavior.
Several daily events in particular provide caregivers with rich opportunities for
sustaining the audience attention and supporting childrens socio-emotional competence. These include episodes of general heightened emotionality in the group.
Heightened emotionality can involve positive as well as negative emotions: episodes
of heightened jubilant emotions (as, for example, during wild imitative play),
episodes of children crying or otherwise expressing distress, and episodes of charged
social interaction between children, as well as between adults and children and adults
among themselves. These episodes of heightened emotionality offer what has been

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described as moments of hot cognition, or teachable moments (Denham et al.

2003; Hoffman 1984), meaning that whatever is learned during moments of heightened emotions is retained well in ones memory.
Caregivers behavior and interventions during daily events in the group
What caregivers do, or fail to do, during social events and heightened emotionality in
the group effects childrens immediate emotions and social behavior. For instance, if
the caregiver ignores a crying child, the children in the group may learn not to expect
any help from her when they are in distress, or may even think: we are also expected
to ignore distress signals of others. It has an effect on childrens ability to regulate
their emotions and whether they respond to their peers in an aggressive way or
empathically and in a pro-social manner. The learning that occurs during such
moments has a cumulative, long-term effect on their socio-emotional competence.
The LtLT program draws on Vygotskys theory (1978) as well as on many empirical findings concerning effective social and emotional learning, generally conceived
under social learning theory (Denham 1998; Grusec, Davidov, and Landell 2002).
The program assumes that learning that occurs when a caregiver is coaching and scaffolding childrens behavior is most effective when caregivers behavior refers to childrens zone of proximal development. Her responses are also most effective when
they occur contingently on the childrens behavior. In addition, the LtLT program
highlights the fact that children learn through their intent observation of the caregivers
behavior (modeling; social referencing) as well as the behavior of other children.
Research suggests that children in groups where caregivers tend to sooth and
comfort a child when frightened, sad or angry, will be better able to regulate negative
emotions, and express empathy to someone else in distress or engage in pro-social
behavior, than children in groups where caregivers tend to ignore them, or get angry
at them when they are distressed (Eisenberg, Fabes, and Murphy 1996; Rosenthal and
Zur 1993). Research also suggests that maternal soothing and comforting of children
in moments of distress is more effective in promoting their emotion regulation and
empathic response to others, than mothers general expressions of warmth and positive feelings towards them (Davidov and Grusec 2006).
Accordingly, the LtLT program emphasizes that the soothing and comforting
behavior of the teacher is effective for the particular child as well as for the other children in the group, because it is specific and contingent on their vicarious expression
of distress. In addition, soothing and comforting behavior influences the general
emotional climate in the group, which in turn effects childrens social interaction.
Thus, for example, children in settings where caregivers often scolded, threatened or
punished children, as well as prevented or interrupted childrens social play, engaged
more frequently in aggressive behavior. The effect of an emotional climate is probably mediated by both direct modeling on the behavior of adults and by its impact on
the childrens ability to regulate their emotions (Burton and Denham 1998; Rosenthal
and Zur 1993).
Caregivers who engage children in discourse about the feelings and intentions of
others, and about the effect a childs behavior has on a peer, help children express their
own feelings as well as understand the emotions, intentions and social behavior of
others (Denham et al. 1994; Dunn 2000; Taumoepeau and Ruffman 2006). The LtLT
program encourages caregivers to coach a shy or withdrawn child to communicate
more clearly his interest in playing with other children, as well as help him understand

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the interest and intentions of others in playing with him. Such coaching builds a childs
joining or entry skills and enables him to better participate in the groups social
activity. Caregivers can also use various playful interventions to coach a child with
difficulties in self-regulation in how he might better control those unruly little hand.
Furthermore, by attributing to children positive abilities (I know you can say it in
words, or Could you please help me sooth little Johnny), is yet another form of
coaching that contributes to children social and emotional competence (Grusec and
Redler 1980; Grusec and Goodnow 1994).
The LtLT program also discusses the negative impact of behaviors that caregivers
are likely to engage in when overly stressed: when they are detached or ignore childrens emotional arousal, when they are impatient with an upset child or belittle and
ridicule a childs emotions, as well as when they loose their temper, scold, or otherwise hurt the child. This is done in a non-judgmental manner, and participants are
encouraged to recognize their difficulties in regulating their own emotions when their
work environment becomes too stressful.
Attitudes and beliefs of early childhood educators
The educational practice of caregivers and teachers and their daily interactions with
children are highly influenced by their cultural values and beliefs. These values are
likely to affect the meaning they attribute to social and emotional competence. A
child who is socially competent in one culture may be considered completely inadequate in other cultures. Cultures also differ in what they consider appropriate
emotional expression, and in their childrearing beliefs (Harkness and Super 1996;
Huijbregts, Leseman, and Travecchio 2008; Tobin, Wu, and Davidson 1989;
Rosenthal 2003; Rosenthal and Roer-Strier 2006). The clarification of caregivers attitudes and beliefs is of special importance in the training of educators, especially in
multi-cultural societies.
Kontos and her colleagues concluded that educators interventions in conflicts are
based on their cultural understanding of the meaning of justice, and their attitudes
regarding the use of physical power in resolving conflicts (Kontos et al. 2002). Their
interventions in childrens interactions also reflect their understanding of what behavior a child should acquire to adapt well to his or her society. Whenever a social
conflict was perceived as contributing to a childs adjustment to the group, caregivers
did not stop it. They intervened only when childrens behavior was judged by them as
not acceptable by their culture.
Furthermore, caregivers are likely to hold different attitudes and beliefs concerning the extent of their own responsibility for childrens acquisition of social competence. Some caregivers believe that supporting the development of socio-emotional
competence is the responsibility of parents, rather than of teachers or caregivers (Zur
2002). A number of studies suggest that many educators hold the belief that adults
should not intervene in the naturally occurring interactions between children, unless
the interaction becomes too aggressive or otherwise dangerous. Consequently, only
very few of teachers activities with children occur during social interactions among
peers. They rarely encourage communication among children, or teach alternative
ways of solving disputes (Kemple, David, and Hysmith 1997; Kontos et al. 2002).
The LtLT training program gives ample room for discussion of the participants
attitudes and beliefs. The discussions highlight both overt and covert attitudes and
beliefs, and the way they influence caregivers interactions with children. Caregivers

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explore the meaning they attribute to socio-emotional competence and discuss their
views as to the best ways of helping children achieve such competence. In particular,
participants are challenged to articulate some of their conflicting values and ambivalence. This enables them to understand the double messages they sometimes convey
to children. For example, is a child who hits another child when fighting over a toy,
being aggressive or is he assertively defending his individual rights? Is being
empathetic and considerate towards other children a sign of social competence, or of
a weakness that endangers the childs social position in the group? Is frequent
empathic responsiveness of a caregiver to a child in distress likely to make him
securely attached or manipulative? Other conflicting values that commonly emerge
in the discussions concern the appropriateness of emotional discourse with young
children, and the nature of acceptable emotional expression in public.
The structure of training in the LtLT program
The training program has two parts: the first consists of 12 bi-weekly group meetings
in the format of workshops, guided by an early childhood expert. The second part
takes the format of 4 bi-weekly consultation meetings in small groups, analyzing
video-observation of challenging children together with the same group facilitator
who conducted the workshops.
Part 1, The workshops are conducted as discussion groups, and make use of
group exercises and video-vignettes to trigger-off the discussion. The empiricallybased knowledge of childrens development and daily learning opportunities is introduced throughout these discussions in an experiential, non-academic manner. The
group facilitator uses a guidebook (Gatt 2004) and a series of three short training films
(Gatt 1999) developed exclusively for this program. Furthermore, events occurring
here and now during the workshops are utilized to highlight the emotional and social
skills required (by adults, as well as by children) to participate and enjoy a group experience. The participants are encouraged to try-out different interventions in their daily
work with children and report back to the group about their impact on childrens
emotional and social interactions. The group discussions provide ample opportunities
to examine different attitudes and beliefs, and allow the participants to share their
personal life experiences (memories of childhood, raising ones children, some group
experiences as adults) as well as draw on their experience of working with young children in groups.
Part 2. The consultation meetings typically include the staff working in one class
in the child-care center, where all the participants are familiar with the children in the
group. These meetings allow the caregivers to focus on children with challenging
social and emotional behavior (i.e., those having trouble to adjust to group care, exhibiting internalizing and externalizing behavior, and demonstrating low social competence). Similar to the first part, this second part of the training program is also held
away from the classroom, after working hours, when the caregivers are free to
contemplate and reflect on their work.
These meetings are based on the video-aided supervision training model developed at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem (Gatt 2005, 2008). Using a small
camcorder, a target-child is filmed by the caregiver during daily activity at day care.
The camera focuses for approximately 10 minutes on the childs behavior, thus
recording his interactions (or lack of interaction), his communication signals and
emotional expressions. The consultation sessions are based on joint-viewing and

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analyzing of the tapes, with the guidance of the group facilitator. The video observations sensitize the caregivers to individual children, facilitating a process of deep viewing and tuning into the childs daily group experience. A dynamic process of
observation occurs as the caregiver views the tapes again and again, thus gaining new
insights into the childs overt behavior and covert intentions, identifying his subtle
gestures and acknowledging his unique communicative pattern.
This second part of the program enables the participants to focus on individual
differences between children, and the different ways by which each child can be
helped to acquire better social and emotional competence. Caregivers typically choose
to film children that present some social or emotional problem such as socially withdrawn, isolated or aggressive children. Yet these consultation meetings deepen the
participants understanding of children in general, and reinforce the use of specific
intervention skills acquired during the workshops. The consultation meetings also add
more subtle intervention skills to the professional tool-box of the educator.
The content of the LtLT training program
The program consists of four units focusing on four main topics: (1) young childrens
experiences in group care; (2) toddlers learn empathy; (3) toddlers learn to play
together, and (4) toddlers learn to resolve conflicts.
Unit 1: Understanding young childrens group experience
The discussions focus on daily challenges faced by a young child in a peer group. The
main message is that although groups of young children have their own unique characteristics, adults can identify with the difficulties and challenges that children
encounter during long hours in a group situation. The participants can draw on their
own immediate experience in the workshop in order to explore similarities and differences with the group-experience of very young children. The discussions allow the
participants to explore individual differences between children and their effect on
participation in the group life (e.g., temperament, emotion regulation, communication
skills, social and emotional understanding).
One of the goals of this first unit is to raise the participants curiosity and challenge
them to reflect on socio-emotional issues from their personal, first-hand experiences.
The discussions of this topic, therefore, raise many questions which are deliberately
left open, allowing for the participants attitudes and beliefs to surface.
One example is: Should someone who often prefers to get away from the group
activity be considered anti-social? Other questions include: What are the skills that
enable a person to adapt well to a group?, When does being in a group become stressful?, How can we help young children who are stressed by the group situation?
Unit 2: Toddlers learn empathy
This unit focuses on childrens expression of distress, highlighting the fact that during
moments of such emotional expression most children in the group turn into an observinglistening audience. The participants realize, through guided observations, the
extent to which children are attentive to each others emotions and experiences in
group care. Moreover, they identify expressions of concern and empathy of children
as well as their pro-social attempts to help or sooth the upset child.

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The discussions of this topic focus on (a) young childrens understanding of

emotion, and the teachers role in toddlers social referencing; (b) the effectiveness
of learning that takes place during moments of heightened emotionality (hot cognition); (c) the relationship between emotion regulation and toddlers ability to engage
in empathic behavior; as well as (d) childrens competent empathic behavior and their
leadership and popularity in the group.
As the participants discuss examples of childrens expressions of empathy, the
group-facilitator highlights various attitudes and beliefs underlying the discussion:
For example, is it fair to expect a young child to comfort a crying friend or is it the
role of the teacher? Is the child who shares his toys, or frequently offers help to others,
at risk of being taken advantage of by others?
The discussion of caregivers behavior (professional tool box) and the learning
experiences she can offer during episodes of crying and distress in the group, focuses
on her attentive, empathic and contingent comforting behavior towards the upset
child, as well as on her coaching children in the audience how to relate to a friend in
distress. Caregivers are encouraged to explain the reasons for the childs distress,
verbalize how the other children might feel, as well as how they can offer immediate
help to their peer. Other specific interventions call for reinforcing budding empathetic
reactions of young children (such as approaching a crying friend and offering him toys
or other objects). Caregivers are encouraged to highlight such behaviors and other prosocial intentions, however inefficient or intruding they may be.
The discussions highlight the fact that the caregivers behaviors serve multiple
functions: (a) they comfort the upset child, helping him to regulate his emotions; (b)
they help children in the audience regulate their emotions, and understand their
peers emotions, thus enabling them to attend to the needs of their peer; and also (c)
while engaging in these behaviors the caregiver serves as an empathic model to her
audience of children. Altogether, through her behavior the teacher generates the
needed supportive emotional climate that encourages pro-social behavior among children in the group.
Throughout this unit, and the following units as well, caregivers are encouraged to
generate social learning through planned activities such as storytelling or a puppet
show, which feature socialinteraction situations and emotional episodes, in order to
encourage emotional discourse and social and emotional understanding.
Unit 3: Toddlers learn to play together
This unit includes discussions of toddlers developing skills of perspective taking,
social understanding, as well as of their budding communication competence, and the
importance of these skills for a childs participation in group life. The discussions
sensitize the participants to subtle cues and signals of toddlers expressing interest in
each others play, and their rather limited skills of initiating interaction with others in
the group. They further draw attention to toddlers effortful attempts to understand the
intent of a peer who expresses interest in what they do or in their play object.
Many caregivers and teachers believe it is inappropriate to intervene or interfere in childrens play. The workshops allow for discussions of these beliefs. Through
these discussions the LtLT participants learn to appreciate the need to guide young
children in their social interactions, and the significant difference between guiding
and interfering. Furthermore, the participants learn to appreciate that their interventions are especially important for shy, inhibited or withdrawn children, or for children

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whose communication skills are still very limited. Also, many caregivers and teachers
express a negative attitude towards exuberant imitative-joint-play. They describe this
form of play as wild, unaware of its importance for the evolving peer culture and
childrens social development.
The discussion of caregivers behavior (professional tool box) focus on the role
of the educator in scaffolding childrens emerging social skills, through helping them
acquire communication skills to indicate to others their wish to play together, as well
as through teaching children how they can find out what are the intentions and wishes
of others. It suggests ways by which a caregiver can join the theme of the childrens
game while, at the same time, regulating their behavior. For example, as a group of
children gallops around the room in great excitement while disturbing other childrens
play, a caregiver may help them regulate their excitement and at the same time reinforce their sociability by suggesting that along the wall there is a very nice racing
track for galloping horses who are having fun galloping together Another specific
intervention is igniting peer interaction, i.e., to incite children to approach each other
when they are positively aroused during their play. For example, when a toddler
approaches the caregiver excited at his success with a painting he drew, she can share
his excitement and at the same time coach him how to approach a peer and show him
the painting.
Unit 4: Toddlers learn to resolve conflicts
This unit includes discussions of the way young children handle their disagreements.
The participants learn to distinguish between conflicts and aggression, to identify
typical conflicts among toddlers and understand their developmental roots, to appreciate the different characteristics of toddlers strategies of coping with anger and
frustration in group context. Furthermore, they learn to identify individual differences in childrens budding skills of emotion regulation and inhibitory control
and the importance of these skills to childrens ability to resolve conflicts in a prosocial way.
When children are engaged in conflict caregivers typically assume an attitude of a
judge, trying to find out who is right and who is wrong, who is the initiator and
who is the victim in the fight. They tend to overlook the fact that very young children
wish to play together, and need the caregiver to assume the role of a mediator rather
than a judge. Others believe that unless there is a danger of physical harm, children
should be left to resolve their conflicts on their own, either because they believe a
child needs to learn how to defend his rights, or because they believe children should
not inform (tell-tales) on their friends.
The discussion of caregivers behavior (professional tool box) focus on the role
of the caregiver in helping young children acquire better self-regulation abilities and
specific pro-social conflict resolution skills. For example, during conflicts involving
physical aggression the caregiver offers equal protection to both parties in conflict,
the aggressor and the victim I do not allow you to hurt David, and Ill protect
you if David tries to hurt you. She sets clear limits concerning hurting another child,
repeating behavior norms and rules of emotional expression. She has to do it
while being physically close to the children, using gentle but firm holding when
children have great difficulties controlling their unacceptable behavior. She also
addresses the intentions, wishes and needs of both children engaged in conflict. She
may coach children to use short but assertive verbal communication (Stop it!, It

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annoys me!, Not now!), while discouraging them from arguing with their fists.
Another specific intervention is to attribute innate regulatory abilities to a child, as
well as positive intentions, even when he has acted in an anti-social way towards his
peer (Oops, I think you forgot to guard your hands today. I know you can!). This
may be done by introducing a code-word to the group, which is used to remind the
children to regain their inhibitory control. For instance, in one of the video-vignettes
of the LtLT program, a caregiver tells a child who has hit his friend: Have you
spoken to your hands today? I suggest you talk to your hands, remind them, please,
they shouldnt hit.
Evaluation of the program
The LtLT program has frequently received very positive informal appraisals by
those who participated in it and by organizations in whose day care settings it was
offered. Early childhood teachers reported that the program has changed their understanding and attitude towards their role vis--vis social and emotional development
of children and their group experience. During the school year of 20052006 its
effectiveness was systematically assessed using a classical before-and-after design
(Beer 2007).
Method: sample, design and measures
Daycare centers
Twelve day care centers participated in the study. All had the same structural characteristics of large group-size, poor adult:child ratio and very low caregivers education
and training level.
Caregivers
All 82 caregivers working in these 12 day care centers participated in the study: 44
worked with young toddlers (1524 months), 38 worked with older toddlers (2436
months). The sample was divided into two groups an intervention group that
participated in the LtLT training (40 caregivers in six day care centers), and a
comparison group that received other training offered by the child care organization,
i.e., training that focuses mainly on curriculum and daily activities with children (42
caregivers in six other day care centers).
Children
Seventy-eight children (39 boys and 39 girls) participated in the study, 38 in the intervention group and 40 in the comparison group. Two children were randomly
selected from the group of children cared for by each caregiver.
Measures
These were taken twice in each center before the commencement of training (shortly
after the beginning of the school year), and immediately at the end of training, just
before the school year ended. Measures included:

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(a) Caregivers behavior was rated using two observation scales: (i) Caregiver
Interaction Scale CIS, includes 26 items (Arnett 1989), and (ii) SocioEmotional Interaction Scale SEIS developed for this study. The scale
includes 25 items that assess the quality of interaction between caregiver and
children during moments of heightened emotional arousal and during episodes
of peer-interaction. The items of the scale generate four measures: (i) offering
emotional and verbal support during moments of emotional arousal
(Cronbachs Alpha = .90); (ii) non-supportive or hurting behavior towards
children during moments of emotional arousal (Cronbachs Alpha = .82); (iii)
promoting social skills (Cronbachs Alpha = .87); and (iv) special attention
and support offered to children experiencing social and emotional difficulties
in the group (Cronbachs Alpha = .74).
(b) The overall quality of the day care center was evaluated using the Infant/
Toddler Environmental Rating Scale ITERS-R (Harms, Cryer, and Clifford
2003).
(c) Childrens behavior was assessed using: (i) Minnesota Preschool Affect
Checklist MPAC (Sroufe et al. 1984); (ii) Howes scale assessing a childs
level of social play (Howes 1980); and (iii) ratings of the child by the caregiver
on the Social Competence and Behavior Evaluation SCBE-30 (LaFreniere
and Dumas 1996).
Summary of results
(a) Caregivers behavior
(1) Following the intervention, caregivers who participated in the LtLT training
were significantly more likely, than caregivers who did not participate:
to offer verbal and emotional support to children during moments of
emotional arousal, such as moments of crying or conflicts; and
to engage in behaviors that promoted conflict resolution skills and groupentry skills.
(2) The age of children in the group interacts with the effectiveness of the training:
the differences between the intervention and the comparison groups were
much more pronounced among caregivers working in groups with older
toddlers (2436 months) than among those working with younger toddlers
(1524 months). At the end of the year, caregivers of older toddlers who
participated in the LtLT training behaved significantly different from those in
the comparison group on many of the behavioral measures:
expressed greater warmth towards the children in their care, listened to them
more attentively, and enjoyed them more;
offered more support to childrens conflict resolution skills and group-entry
skills;
during routine care they were more patient and expressed less hostility; and
during childrens emotional arousal they offered greater support.
By way of contrast, caregivers of older toddlers in the comparison group engaged at
the end of year significantly more frequently in offensive and punitive interactions
with the children, offered less frequent positive interactions and less support during
emotional arousal and promoted less frequently childrens social skills.

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(b) Quality of care

The overall quality of care, as rated by the ITERS-R, declined during the year in all
day care centers. The finding, we assume, reflects the effect of the poor standards of
care and poor work conditions in these centers, and the resulting staff burn-out effects
over the year. It is interesting to note that while the decline in quality of care in the
comparison group was associated with an increase in offensive and punitive behavior towards children, this was not the case in the intervention group. It seems that the
LTLT training served as a protective measure against the burn-out effect of a yearlong work in poor quality centers.

(c) Childrens behavior

Children in day care centers that received the LtLT training, tended to show greater
social competence, less frequent aggressive behavior, and less social withdrawal, than
children in the day care centers that did not participate in the LtLT training. However,
as the case is in many other studies evaluating the effectiveness of intervention with
very young children, these differences are not statistically significant (Sandy and
Boardman 2000; Schonert-Reichl et al. 2003).

Discussion
Lessons learned from evaluation
The findings of the evaluation study (Beer 2007) as well as informal interviews with
participants in the program, lead us to several conclusions:
(a) Training educators to intervene in specific ways during social and emotional
events at day care can be effective in changing their interactions with children. It may thus have an effect on the evolving social and emotional competence of young children.
(b) In poor quality centers, as caregivers need to operate in very stressful conditions leading to burn-out effects, the training may serve as a buffer against
offensive and punitive behaviors towards children.
(c) For the program to show a statistically significant effect on childrens behavior, we need to assess their behavior some while after a change has occurred
in the caregivers behavior, rather than right away at the end of training. That
is, children need to have accumulated sufficient positive experiences of the
changes in caregivers behavior for some time, before this change can have a
significant effect on their behavior.
(d) Our interviews with participants suggest that caregivers need to receive
continuous support following the one-year training in order to sustain its
effectiveness.

The uniqueness of Learning to Live Together program

The Learning to Live Together training differs in several ways from other intervention programs that were developed in recent years (see Sandy and Boardman 2000;
Webster-Stratton, Reid, and Stoolmiller 2008; Kusche and Greenberg 1995):

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(a) While most programs focus on school age and preschool children LtLT is
unique in its focus on 2- to 3-years-old children (although its content and
method are relevant for older children as well). The social skills of children at
this age are relatively immature and educators have therefore a vital role in
supporting their budding socio-emotional competence.
(b) While most programs offer curricular activities to children to support their
social and emotional learning, LtLT targets educators rather than children. The
teacher is perceived as an important socialization-agent who has ample opportunities to affect childrens social and emotional experiences in the group.
(c) LtLT has no standard structured curriculum for children. Rather, it provides
the educators with a professional tool-box which they adapt to the unique
needs of their group. They are trained to identify teachable moments throughout the day to promote childrens competence. Interventions during daily
events are perceived as more effective than planned lessons about emotions.
(d) Unlike most other intervention programs, LtLT offers an important opportunity for educators to examine their beliefs and attitudes concerning childrens
socio-emotional competence.
(e) The program is also unique in its experiential, rather than academic training
method, allowing the educators to experience being in a group. Experiential
training is also enriched by the use of video-aided observations of childrens
social interactions.
(f) While most other programs focus on aggression and externalizing, anti-social
behaviors, LtLT highlights also the group experience of shy, withdrawn
children.

Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank the Bernard Van Leer Foundation in the Haag for their support to
the LTLT program and its dissemination.

Notes
1. The term early childhood educator is used in the paper to refer to the person in charge of

educating as well as caring for young children. These are college-trained professional
preschool teachers as well as caregivers with minimal training.

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