This technical assistance paper focuses on enhancing teachers' ability to match their expectations with children's existing or emerging capabilities and to facilitate children's development of inner control. Encouraging teachers to adopt a humanistic approach, which promotes opportunities for children to learn and become self-directed, is suggested. Developing self-control and self-esteem are two facets of self-direction that are discussed in detail. Investigating the different elements in the preschool program, such as the physical classroom arrangement, classroom practices, and the teacher's behavior, is considered an important part of the guidance function. Acknowledging the fact that there are no foolproof formulas for guiding child behavior, several ideas for nurturing and maintaining a healthy emotional climate in the classroom are recommended, especially avoiding punitive behavior management techniques. Some specific suggestions are made for guiding children with special needs. Several of the issues discussed in the paper are presented in figures detailing: (1) techniques that a teacher can adopt to enhance a child's self-esteem; (2) possible challenges in the classroom and their solutions; (3) teacher behaviors that should be either encouraged or discouraged; (4) ways of developing positive teacher talk; and (5) ways of handling specific incidents that may happen in the classroom. Contains 6 additional resources and 12 references. (BAC)