This helps keep them calm, and eventually they learn to calm themselves when they experience minor distress. Researchers believe that if children are calmed gently and consistently when they are upset, this has a significant physiological effect by strengthening neural pathways. Children's experiences with parents during the preschool years continue to build on these positive early experiences. Children develop greater confidence as parents support their efforts to explore the world around them, and they develop greater self-control as they are gently guided by parents to deal with frustration and anger in socially acceptable ways. It is in daily contact and interaction with parents that children build their self- confidence, learn to control impulsive behaviours and learn to cope with stressful situations.
Parents are both their teachers and their primary role models.
The soothing experiences of infancy form the basis of a healthy stress response system. Scientists believe that when parents are sensitively attuned to their infants and meet their needs for soothing, this experience strengthens important neural connections. The brain patterns that are established in these early experiences form the basis of children's ability to calm themselves. These positive early experiences begin to establish children's expectations of the world, and influence their habitual response to new experiences. Repeated positive experiences reinforce their expectation that other experiences will have a positive outcome.