Noting that even one caring adult can help make a child more capable of handling later stressors, this paper lists some strategies for building a sense of specialness in young children in group care contexts. Also presented are ways to enhance optimism and combat attitudes of helplessness and pessimism among children. The paper outlines a pattern of effective adaptation in the environment that includes four points: cognitive and intellectual functioning, attachment relationships, self-efficacy, and self-regulation. The paper lists the best and worst caregiving modes for competence-building, and infancy/preschool developmental tasks associated with competence. The characteristics of resilient children are grouped by individual, family, and extrafamilial traits. Finally, the paper discusses the importance of establishing a good start in early development for competence-building. (Contains 16 references.) (JPB)