ABSTRACT
The current educational climate, focusing as it does upon children’s cognitive development, promotes early literacy and numeracy. Although these preacademic skills are immensely important, Petey, Sean, and Jeremy are not alone in needing us to focus on other domains of development. Their experiences illustrate that, in order for all young children to learn, and for their development as “whole” persons, emotional development requires equally careful nurturing. It is more important than ever to refl ect upon what we know about children’s emotional competence, how they deal with the ever-present emotions in their lives. Young children must learn to send and receive emotional messages, using their knowledge about emotions and their abilities to regulate emotions, so that they may successfully negotiate interpersonal exchanges, form relationships, and maintain curiosity and enthusiasm (Halberstadt, Denham, & Dunsmore, 2001; Saarni, 1999). Internal, intrapersonal processes, such as the child’s temperament and language abilities, contribute to these components. Importantly, these aspects of emotional competence are also impacted by others’ modeling of emo-
tional expressiveness, reacting to children’s emotions, and discussing and teaching about emotions.
