Aggressive toddlers or preschoolers can benefit from support and encouragement for replacing aggressive behaviors with more socially productive alternatives. Important techniques include helping young children label and verbalize their feelings and those of others, develop problem-solving approaches to conflicts, seek and obtain assistance when in difficulty, and notice the consequences of their aggressive actions for their victims. Age-appropriate anger management techniques, and discussion of the causes and consequences of interpersonal conflicts, can help both young children and their caregivers deal with emerging aggressive behaviors. Adult guidance that is consistent, supportive, nonpunitive, and includes the child in understanding the reactions of all participants and the reasons for limits, will help even very young children cope with aggressive behaviors. They can acknowledge children's efforts to initiate social interactions in appropriate ways, affirm helping behaviors, use positive discipline techniques and communicate their power, communicate positive regard and high expectations for all young children, and support each child's struggle to resolve interpersonal conflicts.
Many children begin to show interest in peers as early as eighteen months.
Early childhood educators can support the emergence of trusting and positive interpersonal strategies by encouraging the formation of play groups and regular social interactions that are supervised in a supportive manner. Children benefit from consistent and sustained relationships in which they can build trust, understand and predict the responses of their peers, and gain confidence in their ability to cope with conflictual interactions. Continuity of relationships can be nurtured. The grouping of friends and acquaintances across the years of program service enables children to develop and build on successful relationships. Early childhood programs can help parents understand and deal with the full range of young children's emerging social repertoires.