The force of the final violent explosion took many years to develop. The message seems clear to me. Violence prevention begins during early childhood as we work to understand, satisfy, guide and model for our children. Recent scientific research teaches that the emotional experience of infants and very young children directs the wiring of nerves in the developing brain. Our ability to control our emotions, to regulate our physical response to stress, even our capacity to muster an effective immune response to infection was shaped by experiences during the first years of life.
Children begin to learn as soon as they are born.
Most of all, they learn how much others support, value, respect, enjoy and expect of them. Every infant has a unique way of communicating just as every adult has his or her own style of acting, thinking, and relating. In loving our children, we celebrate these individual characteristics and help them to build an expectation for success later in life. Unlike prior generations, today's parents are more likely to spend much of the day away from home. Most parents of preschool age children are employed and must rely on substitute caregivers to provide childcare in their absence.