"I go fast fast fast."

As David Kisor sings the lyrics, a keyboard balanced on his lap, 15 pre-schoolers run in place, feet pounding, arms churning, eyes sparkling in anticipation of the musical surprise.

"Then I stop."

Kiser changes tempo.

"Put it on hold."

The kids freeze and balance in place.

"I've got self control."

The children giggle as the song alternates between fast, fast, fast and s-l-o-w, s-l-o-w.

It's a musical game that has a serious goal of building self control - one of three factors that have been shown to give children resilience, the ability to bounce back, persevere and thrive in the face of adversity.

Kisor, a musician and composer from Covington, wrote "Self Control" and 26 other songs of resilience that could soon have children running in place and building unseen strengths in child care facilities across the country. The songs are part of a teaching tool for early childhood educators that was developed by Children Inc., a nationally recognized child care agency in Covington. It's called "Songs of Resilience," and includes four CDs of 27 songs, song sheets, and a teacher's manual for using the songs and understanding the psychological research behind them.

The package, released this summer, has caught the attention of Sesame Street producers, who are looking into creating programs around resilience, said Tom Lottman, deputy director of Children Inc and author of the teaching package. "We got an inquiry from the consulting research psychologist of Sesame Street," Lottman said. He sent them a package.

Lottman also is working with Dr. Barbara Burns, chairman of the department of psychological and brain sciences at the University of Louisville, to develop a project to determine the long-term effect of resilience songs on children.

Resilience is one of the latest watchwords in early childhood psychological research, said Lottman. He's a national trainer with the Devereux Foundation, which partners with Children Inc on child development programs, including the Songs of Resilience.

"The Devereux Foundation is the largest philanthropic provider of mental health services to children in the United States," said Lottman.

In the past decade, the foundation found itself seeing younger and younger children and started looking into the reasons children find themselves unable to cope with their world.

"They decided to develop the best prevention team in the country," said Lottman. Research showed that some children could bounce back from stress and trauma and others facing the same stresses were overwhelmed. The children who bounced back had developed three factors fortifying that resilience: initiative, emotional self control, and secure attachment to adults.

The Devereux Foundation developed an early childhood assessment program that helps pre-school teachers identify strengths and gaps in a child's resilience factors. The program coordinates home and school activities to build those protective factors, said Lottman.

Last year Children Inc. developed the first Devereux training and mentoring center, which will be a model for 10 training centers across the country, Lottman said.

With the child care programs' emphasis on resilience, that became a natural theme when Children Inc. hired Kisor as its music specialist last year.

"We looked at behaviors on the Devereux assessment and said 'Let's write songs about those key behaviors," Lottman said.

Kisor said Lottman can talk about the psychological nuances of key behaviors. "It's my job to make it fun," Kisor said.

His songs are interactive, with children providing sound effects with stamping feet, hugging arms, alert eyes.

The refrains already have become part of their inner support systems.

Lottman said he watched a child in one of the Children Inc. Montessori classrooms working on a challenging math puzzle. Barely audible, Lottman could hear the child singing to himself Kisor's "I can do it" song.

Another initiative-building song includes the lyric "I keep on working 'til I figure it out."

Other songs show children standing up for themselves and solving problems, working with others, taking turns, trusting family and friends and dealing with anger.

"The children think its just fun with Mr. David," Kisor said.

"They don't know they're learning things they'll use their entire life."