The major thesis of this paper is that the stimulation of children's intellectual development may require greater intensity in the relationships between adults and children in preschool programs than is typically the case. The author separates two variables in adult-child relationships: warmth and intensity. Warmth is generally defined as positive, accepting, nurturing and giving friendly responses to children. Intensity is used to refer to the child's feeling that what he does or is really matters to the adults. The two variables are used in combination to yield a typology of preschool programs showing where each of four preschool program models falls. It is proposed that the optimum preschool environment is one in which the relationships between adults and children are characterized by high warmth and high intensity. Various factors impinging on teachers may make the optimum environment difficult to achieve. One of these factors is the adults' need to maintain an optimum emotional distance between themselves and the children. The risks of minimum distance are discussed as well as the difficult conditions under which preschool teachers and caregivers work, and the effects of these conditions on their ability to maintain optimum distance. Some recommendations for improving working conditions are outlined. (Author/BF)