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Because emotion knowledge and language skills each contribute to children’s success in school and life, the Feeling Thinking Talking (FTT) intervention combines the advancement of language skills and of emotion knowledge in teachers’ child-directed conversations. Teachers from centers of early childhood education in Germany were taught Language Support Strategies and how to apply them during emotion talk while reading picture books, while reminiscing about emotional events, and in everyday conversations with the children in their care. The evaluation of the FTT intervention entailed a comparison between the FTT group (N = 43) and a business-as-usual (BAU) control group (N = 67) with N = 110 children (Mage = 49.41 months, range = 33-66 months at T1) who were individually tested using objective tests on receptive vocabulary and emotion knowledge before (T1) and after the FTT intervention (T2), and in a follow-up three to six months later (T3). After a multiple imputation procedure, mixed multilevel models indicated that the children taught by the FTT group teachers made faster progress in their emotion knowledge than their agemates in the BAU condition, especially in their knowledge of mixed emotions, when numerous covariates were controlled. Results suggest that young children’s emotion knowledge can be promoted alongside with language skills by a teacher-led intervention supporting child-directed emotion talk in early childhood education. Discussion focuses on emotion talk as the mechanism for the transmission of emotion knowledge.Keywords: Early childhood education, teacher-led intervention, emotion knowledge, language support strategies, professional educationResearch Highlights:• The Feeling Thinking Talking (FTT) intervention integrates the advancement of language skills and emotion knowledge in a training of early childhood teachers’ child-directed conversations. • Emotion knowledge of children whose teachers had participated in the FTT training improved over time when compared to a control group and age, sex, vocabulary, and other covariates were controlled. Because emotion knowledge and language skills each contribute to children’s success in school and life, the Feeling Thinking Talking (FTT) intervention combines the advancement of language skills and of emotion knowledge in teachers’ child-directed conversations. Teachers from centers of early childhood education in Germany were taught Language Support Strategies and how to apply them during emotion talk while reading picture books, while reminiscing about emotional events, and in everyday conversations with the children in their care. The evaluation of the FTT intervention entailed a comparison between the FTT group (N = 43) and a business-as-usual (BAU) control group (N = 67) with N = 110 children (Mage = 49.41 months, range = 33-66 months at T1) who were individually tested using objective tests on receptive vocabulary and emotion knowledge before (T1) and after the FTT intervention (T2), and in a follow-up three to six months later (T3). After a multiple imputation procedure, mixed multilevel models indicated that the children taught by the FTT group teachers made faster progress in their emotion knowledge than their agemates in the BAU condition, especially in their knowledge of mixed emotions, when numerous covariates were controlled. Results suggest that young children’s emotion knowledge can be promoted alongside with language skills by a teacher-led intervention supporting child-directed emotion talk in early childhood education. Discussion focuses on emotion talk as the mechanism for the transmission of emotion knowledge.

Emotional kompetente Kinder und Jugendliche können Emotionen bei sich und anderen erkennen und mit Worten benennen, ihre Gefühle ausdrücken und wenn nötig auch regulieren. Dies ist sowohl in sozialen Beziehungen als auch für den Schulerfolg wichtig. Das Buch stellt vor, was emotionale Kompetenz ist und wie junge Menschen sie erwerben. Auf Kindesseite geht es dabei um Einflüsse von Geschlecht, Temperament, exekutiven Funktionen und Sprachentwicklung. Hinzu kommen die Erziehung durch Eltern sowie Einflüsse von Gleichaltrigen, Sozialschicht und Kultur. Es werden Förderprogramme emotionaler Kompetenz vorgestellt. Für die 2. Auflage wurde das Buch insgesamt überarbeitet und um ein Kapitel zur Diagnostik ergänzt.

Mindfulness is a mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s bodily sensations, sensory feedback, thoughts, and feelings. Mindfulness interventions can improve proprioception, direction of attention, and emotion regulation. An accepting attitude towards thoughts and feelings reduces the ex-perience of stress so that it is easier to cope with stressful situations. The regular practice of mindfulness exercises affects neurobiological mechanisms, which can lead to an improve-ment of executive functions as well as psychological health. Metaanalyses provide evidence of small effects of mindfulness interventions in schools, both in cognitive areas (executive func-tions, concentration, memory) and in emotional areas (anxiety, depressivity, wellbeing). The focus of this review article is on German and English-language mindfulness programmes for children and adolescents in schools, which have already been the subject of initial evaluation studies. This study presents the programmes Paws b, Mind Up, and Mehr Ruhe for children, and .b, Mind Up, AISCHU, and 8sam for adolescents, together with their evaluation results. The conclusion discusses open questions concerning conceptual and methodological issues. Achtsamkeit wird verstanden als eine auf Körpersignale, Sinneseindrücke, Gedanken und Gefühle gerichtete nicht bewertende Aufmerksamkeit im Moment, deren Training die Eigenwahrnehmung, die Aufmerksamkeitslenkung und die Emotionsregulation verbessert. Durch den akzeptierenden Umgang mit allen Empfindungen und Gedanken verringert sich das Stresserleben, sodass belastende Situationen einfacher bewältigt werden können. Regelmäßige Ausführungen der Achtsamkeitsübungen sprechen neurobiologische Mechanismen an, die insgesamt zu einer Verbesserung der exekutiven Funktionen wie auch der psychischen Gesundheit beitragen können. Metaanalysen weisen auf kleine Wirkungen von Achtsamkeitsinterventionen in der Schule sowohl für den kognitiven Bereich (exekutive Funktionen, Konzentration, Gedächtnis) als auch für den emotionalen Bereich (Angst, Depressivität, Wohlbefinden) hin. Im Mittelpunkt dieses Überblicks stehen daher deutsche und englischsprachige Achtsamkeitsprogramme für Kinder und Jugendliche in Schulen, zu denen bereits erste Evaluationsstudien durchgeführt wurden. Vorgestellt werden die Programme Paws b, Mind Up und Mehr Ruhe für Kinder, sowie .b, Mind Up, AISCHU und 8sam für Jugendliche samt ihren Evaluationsergebnissen. Abschließend werden offene Fragen konzeptueller und methodischer Art diskutiert.