In my research about brain development, violence and early learning, I happened upon a wonderfully well written scholarly article published in Childhood Education, Fall 2004, by Swick and Freeman, Nurturing Peaceful Children To Create a Caring World: The Role of Families and Communities.  What I found to be particularly  interesting is the information pertaining to the role Early Childhood Professionals play in supporting families and assuring healthy attachments between the children and their caregivers.

All information below is derived from the publication above, link to follow post.

The early years of life are the most responsive time in which to nurture a caring and loving approach to life (Swick, 2001). And the most powerful message that children receive about caring is how they are cared for themselves during the earliest years of life (Kitzrow, 1998).

…

Parents and other significant family members are the architects of much of children's early learning, especially in relation to their emotional and social growth (Goleman, 1995). It is through these continuing, intimate relationships (which may be with their biological parents, foster parents, an older sibling, or other significant persons who constitute a "family") that children acquire their initial schema on how the world works (Brazelton & Greenspan, 2000). When children have ongoing, loving relations with family members and other primary caregivers, they are likely to see the world as a good and nurturing place. As Swick (2001) notes, "The acquisition of caring and serving attributes is a constructivist process where children's involvement with parents and other significant adults is critical to their continued growth in becoming decent persons" (p. 132).

Adult role models provide children with visible schemas on how to love (Swick, 2001). Across cultures, children mimic what their parents and other significant adults do in their daily lives (Goleman, 1995). If adults are kind to each other, then their children will imitate this way of relating to others. Oliner and Oliner (1995) suggest four elements in children's early relations that enhance their growth toward becoming caring persons:

* Bonding: forming positive connections and a sense of communion with others

* Empathizing: understanding others' feelings and emotions, sometimes even feeling what they feel

* Learning caring norms: acquiring rules and values, learning to recognize caring for what it is and to respond to care with care

* Practicing care and assuming personal responsibility: participating in activities and developing a sense of personal obligation for doing so.

Bonding engages children in healthy connections to their parents and family in ways that help them visualize the world around them as a positive and good place (Eisenberg, 1992). Positive bonding is known to enhance children's problem-solving skills (Goldstein, 1998).

…

The primary goal of the brain is to enable the organism to survive. The key to survival and to human dominance on the planet is our ability to adapt to the kind of environment in which we find ourselves. Live video photographs can now show us that both the organic matter and the chemistry of the human brain change in response to our environments to allow us to cope with variables in our worlds. (p. 25)

Interestingly, the changes in brain structure that lead to violence and aggression seem to begin even before birth. We now know, for example, that some children come into the world with genetic dispositions toward violence that are caused by their mother's exposure to high levels of stress, cigarette smoke, or alcohol and other drugs during their prenatal period. Other babies' experiences in infancy create imbalances in brain chemicals. We have physical evidence demonstrating how prenatal and early experiences make some individuals' brains prone to violence and aggression (Lally, 1997).

…

Child Care: An Integral Part of Many Young Children's Community

By some accounts, between 44 and 57 percent of children in the United States (and an even larger proportion when considering only 3- and 4-year-olds) spend at least part of each day in non-familial care (Tout, Zaslow, Papillo, & Vandivere, 2001). Thus, it is essential that child care centers contribute to efforts that support children's developing abilities to care for and about others. This is more likely to occur in quality child care settings where children have the opportunity to develop strong emotional attachments to their regular caregivers. These intimate relationships with their caregivers, along with the close bonds those children are developing with their families, make critical contributions to the children's social and emotional learning (National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, 2000).

Quality child care that nurtures the creation of healthy attachments between children and caregivers is characterized by appropriate ratios and group size, low staff turnover and, most critically, staffing patterns that facilitate primary caregiving and continuity of care. Primary caregiving creates a circle of intimacy linking children, their caregivers, and their parents. It creates a framework for consistency because, under ordinary circumstances, the same caregiver greets each child and his/her parent upon their arrival, tends to the child's needs throughout the day, and is there upon the parent's return to personally share the day's happenings. One strategy to ensure continuity of care is looping, a staffing pattern that keeps children and caregivers together over long periods of time (preferably for several years), which supports and enhances intimate caring relationships. These characteristics of quality give caregivers opportunities to nurture and support the children in their care (Lally, n.d.).

Nurturance is giving. It is critically important throughout the early years, although it takes different forms as the child grows. The immediate nurturing response appropriate when caring for a very young infant (one cannot "spoil" a baby in the first year) should be replaced by the message "I'm here if you want me" as the child grows into a toddler (Lally, n.d.). Nurturing takes yet another form when toddlers become preschoolers. Three- to 5-year-olds need more independence as they build a sense of self-efficacy. Nurturing them means giving them a safe space to grow and being available as needed for encouragement and support. Primary age children benefit from opportunities to exert their growing independence and initiative in an encouraging and supportive emotional climate. In short, all children benefit from home/school relationships that are characterized by mutual trust and positive regard.

Supporting young children means giving them opportunities to achieve to the fullest of their potential. Infants need freedom to explore their surroundings in ways that help them achieve the developmental milestones that mark the shifts from early infancy, through the mobile period, into toddlerhood. They need to mouth, touch, bang, and sometimes throw objects to learn about themselves and the outside world. Caregivers provide this support by "acknowledging children's powerful feelings, encouraging curiosity and independence, and at the same time, teaching and enforcing the rules that allow children and adults to live in harmony" (Lally, n.d.). When teachers and programs support preschoolers, they encourage their emerging initiative. Children's interests shape the curriculum and they contribute to the creation of a classroom environment that reflects the group's shared history. School-age children's needs are met in similar ways, through the implementation of a meaningful curriculum and the creation of classrooms that reflect their interests, accomplishments, and activities. These learning environments contribute to the creation of a community of learners in which caring for one's self, for others, and for the environment are woven into the fabric of their lives together (Noddings, 1992).

…

Let us never forget that early childhood presents once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to prepare young children's brains for a lifetime of either harmony and peace or struggle and conflict. Let us seize these opportunities to enhance young children's chances for joyful lives and provide the children in our care the kinds of homes and communities that will help them actualize their potential to the fullest.

…

How Caring Families Can Make a Difference

Parents and families play a formative role and exert a profound influence on children's growth and learning. This is especially so when teaching children to be caring, peaceful, and decent persons (Swick, 2001). The early foundation provided for emotional health and a positive social pattern of living is indeed powerful. Karr-Morse and Wiley (1997) note that emotionally healthy relationships early in life act as a buffer to violent behavior.

What is it about early parental and family attachments that help shape the child's schema of how the social and emotional world works? The interactive and modeling processes that happen in loving and caring parent-child relations are key. Karr-Morse and Wiley (1997) describe it this way:

The foundation for empathy is laid from the beginning. When the early months of an infant's experience include consistent, sensitive interactions in which the caregiver accurately assesses the child's needs and responds quickly in a soothing manner, and when a child's sadness or joy is mirrored in the face of the parent, the child experiences comfort and trust with the caregiver. (p. 189)

The full article is available at the link below:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3614/is_200410/ai_n9456081/