HOUSTON -- A group of educators and caregivers who spend hours a day with preschoolers attended a workshop at the Children's Museum of Houston to learn how their own biases could rub off on the very children they're hired to protect, KPRC Local 2 reported Thursday.

Pam Autio, Assistant Project Director for the Miller Early Childhood Initiative, said "Children start noticing differences as early as infancy."

Autio says the Word of Difference Institutes' workshops put on by her organization and the Anti-Defamation League are designed to make the adults in a child's life aware of how their words can sink into a young mind.

Autio said, "These messages that they receive about themselves and others are going to translate into being respectful to others and then hopefully preventing situations down the road where they might be very violent and do hurtful things to others or even themselves."

No one knows the collateral damage of bullying better than Valerie Brewer, of Deerfield Beach, Fla.

In an interview on "The Today Show," Brewer shared how her 15-year-old son Michael was petrified to face bullies at school who considered him a snitch for telling police one of the boys tried to steal his dad's bike.

Brewer said, "Michael was terrified and he didn't want to come to school that day."

Investigators say on Oct. 12, five classmates, one only 13 years old, doused Michael with rubbing alcohol and set him on fire.

As her son fights for his life with burns to over 80 percent of his body, Valerie fought back tears of frustration.

Brewer said, "This violence has got to stop, people around the world have got to do something. Violence, kids shooting each other, stabbing each other, what they did to my son -- we have to stop this."

Pam Autio said the best thing parents can do for their children is to really be aware of how their words could impact their child.

She said it's also important to expose kids to many people and situations so they can learn to appreciate differences.