Positive interactions in a pre-kindergarten classroom may be equally or more important to the future academic development of 4-year-olds than learning letters and numbers, according to Dale Farran, senior associate director of the Peabody Research Institute and co-author of a new study.
It shows that young children improve self-regulation skills in classrooms where teachers exhibit approving behavior with a positive emotional tone. The article, “Preschool Classroom Processes as Predictors of Children’s Cognitive Self-Regulation Skills Development,” is in School Psychology Quarterly.
The research marks the first time empirical data have proved what many educators have believed to be true anecdotally: Children acquire better cognitive learning skills in a classroom infused with positive affective interactions.