Being able to understand and engage social interactions and emotions with self-regulation are learned skills. These authors focus on developing these skills with preschool children as a means for helping them to better succeed in academics and relationships. Topics include separation anxiety, attention-seeking, clingingness, advice to parents for how children are affected by 'screen time' and how to manage it, fun ways to say "Good-bye", attention concerns and daily functioning guidelines.

Too often, such skills are engaged only when children display inappropriate or challenging behavior. It is important to differentiate between children misbehaving and children making a mistake. Use this book to help children make friends and form relationships with others; to know, recognize and develop social and emotional skills for various ages; to spot red flags seen as more challenging behavior needing special help. Roberts and Hoover also encourage the need for school staff and parents to forge a partnership to help students with more challenging behaviors learn effective ways of dealing with their emotions on a day to day basis. Many examples are given with suggested dialog speaking directly to parents' and caregivers' questions and concerns.