Observations of soothing strategies that daycare teachers used with infants and toddlers in 10 centres, revealed that distress episodes lasted the longest for the youngest babies (0-12 months). The youngest babies received more positive caregiver responses when distressed compared with babies 13-24 months or toddlers 25-36 months old. The frequency of distress cues did not differ by child gender. Recorded levels of distress were significantly lower for babies cared for by teachers who had high school education or less, and those teachers responded more rapidly to infant/toddler distress signals than did teachers with college-level education. (author abstract)