Emotional Understanding: A Training Study with Preschoolers

Abstract

The present study was conducted to translate, adapt and investigate the efficacy of a conversational training program, whether it enhances emotional understanding of preschool children. For this purpose, Thirty-nine 5 to 6 year-old preschool children (Mean age at pre-test= 61.08 months, SD = 4.858) from two schools of Islamabad were randomly assigned to experimental/training and control group. These children were screened for emotional and behavioral problems using Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (normal or average range i.e. total difficulties score ≤ 13). Their non-verbal cognitive abilities like executive function and working memory were also assessed using PEBL tasks like Tower of London and Match to Sample. Pre and post assessment of Emotional Understanding was also conducted using Test of Emotional Comprehension. Over an 8- week intervention (conducted over 2 and half months, biweekly sessions) children from both the group, were read stories rich in emotional lexicon and mental state terms, in groups of 5 or 6. Children from experimental/training group were then facilitated to have conversations about emotional and mental states of the story characters and themselves using semi structured conversational procedure. The children from control group were engaged in board games mediated by an adult to distract from having any conversation about the story or emotional states. Preliminary Findings show that Children in Experimental/training group outperformed those in control group on Emotional Understanding and its three components i.e. external, mental and reflective, even after statistically controlling for executive functions and working memory. No gender differences were found when it comes to change in the level of emotional understanding post training. The study has educational and clinical implications.