Mentoring at-risk preschoolers: lessons from the A.R.Y.A. Project

The A.R.Y.A. ("Advancement of Resilience at a Young Age") Project addresses at-risk 4-year-old kindergarten children in a trial to promote their resilience. The project is implemented by mentors, who strove to establish in the children an internal assumption that it is worthwhile to pursue a way to change unpleasant events, even if previous efforts were fruitless. Following a short description of the A.R.Y.A. project, several lessons on mentoring preschoolers are delineated and discussed.