Let's Hear Children's Emotions: The Play-Based Psychoeducation Program for the Socio-Emotional Development of Primary School Children

The acquisition of empathy, emotional literacy and prosocial skills is important for children's social, emotional and moral development. If these skills are supported through play in children, their acquisition will be faster and easier. Therefore, in this study, the Play-Based Socio-Emotional Psychoeducation Program including empathy, emotional literacy and prosocial skills was prepared and its effect on children was examined. The present research was the pretest-posttest quasi-experimental study. The sample of the study consisted of primary school students between the ages of 7-10. 23 children were included in the experimental group and 23 children were included in the control group. An average of 45 minutes of practice was applied to the experimental group for 10 weeks. The findings of the study showed that there was an increase in empathy, emotional literacy, and prosocial skills of the children in the experimental group after the application, but there was no change in their behaviors. These results provided evidence that the program was effective on these skills. It can be said that the current study will shed light on field workers and the play-based psychoeducation program will be an effective program that they can integrate into their practices.