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This article explores the development of a child in a heterogeneous social group. The communication process for preschoolers in a heterogeneous social environment contains potential risks for the origin and materialization of various communication difficulties that are related to negative affirmations, incomprehension, rejection, unwillingness to collaborate with partners that possess different characteristics (nationality, health, family setting, behaviour etc. ). Heterogeneity is contemplated not only as a risk factor but also as a resource for children’s socialization, development of toleration, social flexibility, mobility, and communication competencies. The findings of two series of studies are presented: The first series (n=120) highlighted communication difficulties and types of communication difficulties for preschoolers in a heterogeneous social environment in kindergarten; the second series created psychological and pedagogical conditions for the development of toleration as a basis of constructive interaction for children in a heterogeneous group. The following types of communication difficulties for children in a heterogeneous group were identified: hyperactive, shy, and hysterical. It is shown that every type has specific communication difficulties associated with a low level of toleranca development. The results of an educational experiment are presented. The experiment was aimed at supporting preschoolers in overcoming actual communication difficulties through the development of structural components of toleration. The psychological and pedagogical conditions of this process are well justified (to ensure the readiness of educators to train preschoolers to be tolerant and to involve preschoolers in creative activities to design and transform the educational circumstances which create a socially heterogeneous environment).

The present study illustrates that social support in ECEC settings can take place across several socio-economical and cultural borders. The presence of children as brokers of relations plays a fundamental role in the creation of social networks, in the processes of parenting support and community building. ‘Free confrontations’ between parents and children can foster daily learning processes, despite/thanks to the contradictions and tensions that occur. This suggests that a meeting place can be a space where the experiment of democracy sporadically can emerge. In this experiment, parents, children and professionals are actors in the construction processes of parenting and community building. In so doing, parenting and living together, the pedagogical and the social, coincide.