By Charnicia E. Huggins

NEW YORK, Mar 20 (Reuters Health) - Preschoolers who are "in touch with their feelings" may be less likely to have serious learning or behavior problems in later years, results of a study suggest.

"Our study shows that preschool children's abilities to recognize and interpret emotion cues in facial expressions have long-term effects on social behavior and academic competence," according to lead study author Dr. Carroll E. Izard of the University of Delaware and his colleagues.

In a study of 72 children from low-income families, Izard and colleagues found that the ability to read others' emotions at age 5 predicted the youngsters' social behavior and learning skills 4 years later. The association remained after the researchers took into consideration the child's verbal ability, temperament and personality, the authors reported in a recent issue of Psychological Science.

"This finding suggests that prevention programs that increase children's emotion knowledge and, thereby, their ability to regulate emotions, should improve their chances of achieving social competence and avoiding serious behavior problems," Izard told Reuters Health.

The inability to perceive emotional cues from others may interfere with teacher-child rapport and the teacher's expectations of the child, the investigators found. Also, children who cannot grasp others' feelings may have poorer relationships with their peers, which may also affect their academic performance.

"Detecting how the other child is feeling will make a big difference in how (the preschooler) interacts with that child," Izard said.

To encourage "emotion knowledge" among children, Izard advised that adults "allow children to talk about their feelings (and) help them to identify them and name them."

Most important, he said, children should learn that what are usually called "negative emotions"--anger, sadness, fear--also have a "useful aspect."

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