KEY POINTS:
When baby Hiram Lopati first started to roll over, he had a roomful of schoolchildren cheering him on.
Hiram, now 9 months, was one of 10 babies who made regular visits to Auckland classrooms this year as part of a three-year, Government funded pilot of the Roots of Empathy programme.
The Peace Foundation programme aims to reduce violence and build empathy and will be rolled out to 100 schools.
Mother-of-four Kirri Lopati said her youngest son Hiram didn't once burst into tears during the monthly visits to a class at Glendene School in Waitakere City.
"A couple of times he showed the big heavy bottom lip, [but] no, but he was really good."
Among the highlights were instances when the social youngster reached developmental milestones - including rolling over.
"The class had seen him from the beginning and just the time he was able to move and actually do something - that was awesome to be able to share that with the kids," said Mrs Lopati."They were like 'oh, wow, Hiram you're neat' and everything like that."
She saw a huge change in the attitudes of the children.
"I know of a couple of children that were very stand-offish, sort of quite shy, in fact that would probably be most of the children when we first started.
"By the end of the programme they wanted to hold him, they just couldn't keep their hands off him and they were great with him. You could really see the change."
