Quick summary: A new University of Chile study found that preschool teachers outperform matched professionals on emotion recognition, active listening and empathy, with these skills growing stronger the longer teachers stay in the classroom. This suggests that early years teaching itself, not simply age or career length, builds a lasting capacity for calm, attuned caregiving that benefits children’s emotional development. For policymakers and early years services, the findings strengthen the case for valuing and retaining experienced educators, since their accumulated skills may directly support children’s social and emotional wellbeing.

New research suggests that preschool teachers develop stronger emotional awareness and listening skills the longer they stay in the profession, offering fresh insight into how everyday classroom experience shapes the mind. The findings point to a subtle but measurable link between years spent working with young children and the ability to read emotional cues accurately.

The study, published in the Journal of Intelligence, compared 30 professional preschool teachers with 30 non-teaching professionals matched for age, socioeconomic status and years of work experience. Researchers from the University of Chile set out to test whether the demands of early years education leave a lasting mark on socio affective and cognitive skills.

Daniela Molina-Mateo, PhD, the lead author of the study, explained the motivation behind the work. “Although the characteristics and competencies of early childhood educators are central to children’s early academic and personal development, studies examining these professionals from the perspective of cognitive neuroscience remain limited.”

Participants completed a series of tasks measuring emotion recognition, active listening, empathy and abstract reasoning. Preschool teachers scored significantly higher than the control group on every dimension of active empathic listening, covering sensing, processing and responding to others.

Teachers also reported feeling less personal distress when confronted with someone else’s difficulties, suggesting a more composed and outward facing style of empathy rather than one rooted in self focused discomfort. This pattern fits with the idea that calm, attuned adults are better placed to support children through emotional ups and downs. As Molina-Mateo put it, “teaching is a complex cognitive process, particularly in early childhood education, where pedagogical practice is extremely linked to caregiving. This unique integration requires educators to develop highly specialised cognitive and socio emotional competencies.”

Perhaps the most striking result concerned experience itself. Among preschool teachers, more years in the job were linked to better emotion recognition, stronger active listening scores and a more deliberate, unhurried approach to abstract reasoning tasks. No such pattern emerged among the control group, even though they had similar levels of professional seniority.

The researchers suggest this points to something specific about the demands of early years teaching rather than a general effect of ageing or career length. Constant exposure to children’s subtle emotional signals, and the need to manage classroom dynamics calmly, may gradually sharpen these skills over time.

Interestingly, the study also found that emotional self regulation, empathic listening and thoughtful reasoning were closely linked within the preschool teacher group, hinting at a kind of integrated mental toolkit built through practice. “Our findings indicate that teaching experience enhances socio emotional abilities and integrates them with higher order cognitive processes,” Molina-Mateo said. “This integration appears to be essential for responsive teaching, maintaining a positive classroom climate, and the promotion of children’s social and cognitive development.”

The authors note that an alternative explanation is also possible, namely that people who already have strong social and emotional skills are simply more likely to choose teaching as a career and remain in it. Only long term research following teachers from training into their careers could properly untangle cause from effect.

Looking ahead, Molina-Mateo said the team hopes to build on these behavioural findings. “We are now investigating how these behavioural and cognitive characteristics are reflected in early childhood educators’ neural dynamics.”

For parents and policymakers alike, the research offers a reminder that the people caring for young children during their formative years may themselves be quietly shaped by the work, becoming more attuned, patient and reflective as their careers progress.