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To cite this Article Rosenthal, Miriam K. and Gatt, Lihi(2010) ''Learning to Live Together': training early childhood
educators to promote socio-emotional competence of toddlers and pre-school children', European Early Childhood
Education Research Journal, 18: 3, 373 — 390
To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1080/1350293X.2010.500076
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1350293X.2010.500076
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European Early Childhood Education Research Journal
Vol. 18, No. 3, September 2010, 373–390
Kindes und (c) untersucht und klärt die offenen und verdeckten Haltungen und
Einstellungen der Fachkräfte in diesem Prozess. Das Trainingsprogramm wird
von einem Frühpädagogen geleitet und besteht aus 12 Workshops sowie
nachfolgenden Kleingruppen-Konsultationen, die videogestützte Beobachtungen
an kritischen Einzelfällen 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 lösen lernen.
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 children’s socio-emotional compe-
tence 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 children’s socio-emotional competence for early school success, early child-
hood professionals’ emphasis on cognitive achievement, literacy and numeracy
continues to overshadow the importance of children’s 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 achieve-
ment, 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
European Early Childhood Education Research Journal 375
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 care-
givers 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 children’s socio-emotional competence we need to look at a
variety of children’s social and emotional behaviors and not only at their peer interac-
tion (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 develop-
ment. Training programs and curricula for young children should address the specific
ways by which early childhood educators can support children’s developing socio-
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emotional 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 children’s 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, high-
lights 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).
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 chil-
dren’s 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 high-
lights 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.
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 negoti-
ation 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 offer-
ing his own bottle to a crying peer, his caregiver may ignore this pro-social act and
refer to it as intrusion (‘why don’t you leave him alone, can’t you see he doesn’t 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 acquisi-
tion. These skills play a very important role in a child’s 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 child-
care group. Group participation requires some communication skills (beyond the use
of ‘code-signal’ which are understood by the child’s parents only). Such communica-
tion skills enable children to share with others their wishes, intentions and thoughts.
European Early Childhood Education Research Journal 377
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 understand-
ing, 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.
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dren’s ‘zone of proximal development’. Her responses are also most effective when
they occur contingently on the children’s behavior. In addition, the LtLT program
highlights the fact that children learn through their intent observation of the caregiver’s
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 posi-
tive 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 chil-
dren 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 children’s social interaction.
Thus, for example, children in settings where caregivers often scolded, threatened or
punished children, as well as prevented or interrupted children’s social play, engaged
more frequently in aggressive behavior. The effect of an ‘emotional climate’ is prob-
ably mediated by both direct modeling on the behavior of adults and by its impact on
the children’s 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 child’s 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
European Early Childhood Education Research Journal 379
the interest and intentions of others in playing with him. Such coaching builds a child’s
‘joining’ or ‘entry’ skills and enables him to better participate in the group’s 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 chil-
dren’s emotional arousal, when they are impatient with an upset child or belittle and
ridicule a child’s emotions, as well as when they loose their temper, scold, or other-
wise 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.
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 inade-
quate 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’ atti-
tudes 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 children’s interactions also reflect their understanding of what behav-
ior a child should acquire to adapt well to his or her society. Whenever a social
conflict was perceived as contributing to a child’s adjustment to the group, caregivers
did not stop it. They intervened only when children’s behavior was judged by them as
not acceptable by their culture.
Furthermore, caregivers are likely to hold different attitudes and beliefs concern-
ing the extent of their own responsibility for children’s acquisition of social compe-
tence. 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
380 M.K. Rosenthal and L. Gatt
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 ambiva-
lence. 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 child’s 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.
analyzing of the tapes, with the guidance of the group facilitator. The video observa-
tions sensitize the caregivers to individual children, facilitating a process of deep view-
ing and tuning into the child’s daily group experience. A dynamic process of
observation occurs as the caregiver views the tapes again and again, thus gaining new
insights into the child’s 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 with-
drawn, 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.
or other objects). Caregivers are encouraged to highlight such behaviors and other pro-
social intentions, however inefficient or intruding they may be.
The discussions highlight the fact that the caregiver’s 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
peer’s 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 chil-
dren 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 social–interaction situations and emotional episodes, in order to
encourage emotional discourse and social and emotional understanding.
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
children’s social development.
The discussion of caregivers’ behavior (‘professional tool box’) focus on the role
of the educator in scaffolding children’s 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 children’s
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 children’s
play, a caregiver may help them regulate their excitement and at the same time rein-
force 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.
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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 shouldn’t hit’.
Caregivers
All 82 caregivers working in these 12 day care centers participated in the study: 44
worked with young toddlers (15–24 months), 38 worked with older toddlers (24–36
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 ‘inter-
vention 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:
European Early Childhood Education Research Journal 385
(a) Caregivers’ behavior was rated using two observation scales: (i) ‘Caregiver
Interaction Scale – CIS’, includes 26 items (Arnett 1989), and (ii) ‘Socio-
Emotional 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
(Cronbach’s Alpha = .90); (ii) non-supportive or hurting behavior towards
children during moments of emotional arousal (Cronbach’s Alpha = .82); (iii)
promoting social skills (Cronbach’s Alpha = .87); and (iv) special attention
and support offered to children experiencing social and emotional difficulties
in the group (Cronbach’s 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) Children’s behavior was assessed using: (i) ‘Minnesota Preschool Affect
Checklist – MPAC’ (Sroufe et al. 1984); (ii) Howes’ scale assessing a child’s
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
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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 group-
entry 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 (24–36 months) than among those working with younger toddlers
(15–24 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 children’s conflict resolution skills and group-entry
skills;
● during routine care they were more patient and expressed less hostility; and
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 chil-
dren. It may thus have an effect on the evolving social and emotional compe-
tence of young children.
(b) In poor quality centers, as caregivers need to operate in very stressful condi-
tions 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 children’s behav-
ior, 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.
(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 oppor-
tunities to affect children’s 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 through-
out the day to promote children’s 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 opportu-
nity for educators to examine their beliefs and attitudes concerning children’s
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
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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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