The aim of this research is to investigate the aggression types observed in class environment in preschool and primary schools and the strategies that teachers use in order to prevent aggressive behaviors in classes by variables like gender, seniority and socioeconomic level. 118 preschool teachers and 176 primary school teachers, a total of 294…

Providing young children with appropriate language models is crucial when developing a high quality learning environment. This article shares findings from an observational study designed to gain insight into how teachers and paraprofessionals modeled language in federally funded prekindergarten classrooms and how the four-year-old students…

This paper describes the development, implementation and preliminary evaluation of the Reaching Educators and Children (REACH) program, a training and coaching intervention designed to increase the capacity of early childhood teachers to support children's social and emotional development. We evaluated REACH with 139 teachers of toddler and…

Bullying is an increasing problem within childcare facilities, preschool programs, and public schools. As a result, many districts are instituting anti-bullying intervention programs. This article defines bullying and explains the direct and indirect forms it can take. First, it examines research on bullying during the beginning years of school.…

The aim of the present study is to assess the role of educators' interventions and communications in peer conflicts between preschoolers. Ninety-nine children (47 females and 52 males) aged from zero to three years were observed in seven Italian nurseries during free-play, mealtime and structured activity. Their interactions (verbal and non-verbal…

Despite the growing body of evidence that the origins of bullying lie in early childhood, very little is known about the nature of the phenomenon in preschool groups. The current understanding among studies conducted in the school environment is that bullying prevention can only be effective if training with individual children takes place…

Early positive relationships between children and adults are critical in the acquisition of children's problem-solving skills. The early teacher-child relationship has an important role in how a child negotiates the conflicts and manages relationships with peers. Our purpose was to evaluate the effect of the teacher-child relationship at…

Three aspects of young children's social cognition--accurate encoding of social cues, hostile attributions and response access/generation--were assessed among 128 children (64 girls) attending three-, four-, and five-year-old classrooms (ages ranged from 36 to 73 months). Hostile attributions and the quality of strategy generation were both…

Objective: This study examined conflict behavior in naturalistic preschool settings to better understand the role of non-affiliative behavior and language in conflict management. Method: Free-play at preschool was filmed among 20 boys with typically developing language (TL) and among 11 boys with Language Impairment (LI); the boys 4-7 years old.…

The purpose of this study was to examine whether the peer conflict strategies of preschool children are situated and therefore vary across different conflict situations. Hypothetical conflict interviews were administered through a series of puppet shows. Participants were 178 preschool children. Results indicate that preschool children's conflict…

Using a puppet procedure depicting hypothetical conflict involving the participant and a peer, 96 preschoolers' (48 boys and 48 girls; M = 5.14 years, SD = 0.78 years) expectations about peer conflict were assessed as a function of their role in the conflict (i.e., initiator of or responder to initial provocation) and the intensity level of the…

How do we educate for peace in a context of pervasive social violence? This paper explores this question as it presents the development and evaluation of a South African peace education programme at pre-school level. The programme comprised a pre-school curriculum and a teacher development course and was developed in conjunction with a team of…

Recently, policy makers have begun to insist on evidence showing whether public investment in programs for children has achieved its desired results. No longer will it be sufficient to show that programs are meeting established standards for practice or that families are satisfied with services. Data are needed to show that services are effective.…