Dr. Duane Alexander, director the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in Maryland, said the findings address longstanding concerns about whether preschool education programs should emphasize academic achievement or social and emotional development.

"Fostering academic achievement in preschoolers need not come at the expense of healthy emotional development," Alexander said. "This study shows that it's possible to do both at the same time."

Study leader Karen Bierman of Pennsylvania State University compared the progress of students who received a traditional Head Start curriculum with that of students in the new program -- Research-Based, Developmentally InformedHead Start program-- which emphasizes such pre-reading skills as learning the alphabet and learning to manipulate the sounds that letters represent. But the REDI program also allows time for reading sessions that focus on social problems and involve fictional characters who learn to master the emotional frustrations and conflicts common among preschoolers.

The study, published in the journal of Child Development, found when compared to children in the traditional Head Start program, children in the REDI program scored higher on several tests of emotional and social development.