Emotions are the affective response to an event.

The Development of Emotions and Feelings

• Young infants have emotional responses that are not very refined; stirred-up states begin to differentiate themselves in a few months into the emotions of pleasure, fear, and anger.
  
  
• Toddlers express pride, embarrassment, shame, and empathy; adults need to support toddlers' efforts to learn to use coping techniques to deal with everyday frustrations.
  

Temperament and Resiliency

• Temperament, or an individual's behavioral style, can be discussed in terms of traits, and understanding these traits can help caregivers respond to children in caring, supportive ways.
  
  
• Resiliency, or the ability to overcome adversity, is viewed as a dynamic process; research related to it indicates that there are caregiving strategies to promote its development and to foster lifelong coping skills.
  

Helping Infants and Toddlers Cope with Fear

• A common fear in the first year is stranger anxiety. Fears become more complex in toddlerhood and can be related to imaginary creatures, animals, the dark, and threat of harm.
  
  
• It is important to accept fears as valid and to give young children time to adjust to new experiences.
  

Helping Infants and Toddlers Cope with Anger

• Respectful caregivers accept and reflect a young child's anger; they do not contradict what the child is feeling while they protect the child (and others) as she learns to develop coping skills.
  
  
• Anger can mobilize extra energy to solve problems or release frustration. It is important to remember that some cultures have different ideas about expressing anger.
  

Self-Calming Techniques

• Learning to settle personal emotional upsets is an important skill. Some of these self-calming behaviors may be innate (for example, thumb sucking) and others can be learned (for example, sharing feelings).
  
  
• The growth of self-calming behaviors is influenced by the development of trust and supported by caring, social relationships.
  

Developing Self Direction

• Implications from the work of Abraham Maslow and others indicate how important it is for caregivers to meet the primary needs of very young children in respectful ways if higher level needs are to be fulfilled.
  
  
• A child's sense of self direction is nourished by respectful adult–child relationships.
  

The Emotional Brain

• Early emotional exchanges (before language) between infants and their caregivers foster brain growth. Respectful relationships strengthen brain pathways and are the prerequisites for healthy emotional growth.
  
  
• Frequent and intense early stress experiences can cause an infant's brain to reorganize itself. Stress hormones are released causing a reduction of the number of synapses in certain areas of the brain.
  

Children with Special Needs: Emotional Disorders

• It is important to clarify and describe the abilities and limitations a child may have as quickly as possible. Identifying and determining the cause of any emotional disorder may be particularly challenging.
  
  
• The development of attachment and the impact of stress on a young child are of specific importance when considering emotional disorders in early childhood.