Initial adaptation to the preschool or day care program is essential to the child's ultimate ability to make maximum use of the learning experiences made available each day. A well-planned initial visit (in which interest in coming back to school and a beginning rapport is established) followed by a carefully timed and individualized adaptation period over the first week or two of school enables most children to adapt readily to this new experience. Helping parents be a part of this process, thus providing the child with some "known" elements in the new environment, is another important component in the child's learning to adjust to the school situation. Finally, making sure that the child comes to perceive the teacher as the source of many "good" things as well as a source of consistently held limits allows a child to develop a sense of trust and security in this very new environment, in which expectations are often quite different from those the child has encountered before. (MP)