Building self-identity and skills for social interaction are two major tasks in early childhood. Gradually,young children begin to figure out how they are the same and different from other people, and how theyfeel about the differences. What children learn in the preschool years greatly influences whether they willgrow up to value, accept, and comfortably interact with diverse people or whether they will succumb tothe biases that result in, or help to justify, unfair treatment of an individual because of her or his identity. Reasearch tells us that between ages 2 and 5, children become aware of gender, race, ethnicity, anddisabilities. They also become sensitive to both the positive attitudes and negative biases attached to thesefour key aspects of identity by their family and by society in general. Young children develop “pre-prejudice”: misconceptions, discomfort, fear, and rejection of differences that may develop into realprejudice if parents and teachers do not intervene.