Social skills development through play in kindergartens

Socialne veščine so znanja, ki nam omogočajo vzpostavljanje stika z drugimi, nam lajšajo vključevanje v družbeno okolje ter interakcijo z drugimi. So načini, ki posamezniku pomagajo, da uresničuje svoje namene in zadovoljuje lastne potrebe v socialnem prostoru. Socialne veščine niso prirojene, temveč naučene, zato je učenje socialnih veščin pomemben proces. Razvoj in učenje socialnih veščin v predšolskem obdobju je izrednega pomena, saj imajo otroci na tem področju pogosto težave. Proces učenja socialnih veščin vrtcu poteka med vrstniki, v interakciji z vzgojitelji ter skozi raznovrstno skrbno načrtovane dejavnosti ter igro. Slednja je naravna dejavnost, ki otroku prinaša predvsem veselje, sprostitev in je zmeraj notranje motivirana. Ker se otroci najlažje učijo skozi igro, smo v praktičnem delu izvedli dejavnosti za razvijanje socialnih veščin pri otrocih skozi igro. S pripravljenimi družabnimi igrami smo raziskovali ali se je po izvajanju iger, za katere predvidevamo, da spodbujajo razvoj socialnih veščin, dejansko to tudi zgodilo. Zasnovali smo igre, v katere smo vključili vprašanja, za katera predvidevamo, da vplivajo na razvoj otrokovih veščin na emocionalnem in socialnem področju. S pomočjo izvedbe dejavnosti z igrami v vrtcu smo potrdili naša predvidevanja in postavljene teze, saj smo z ocenjevanjem otrok s pomočjo ocenjevalne lestvice dokazali učinek iger na razvoj socialnih veščin pri otrocih. Socialno-emocionalne veščine so se po zaključku iger močneje izražale tako v otroški igri kot tudi pri ostalih vlogah in odnosih, ki jih je posamezni otrok bil deležen. Med začetnim in končnim opazovanjem otrok so bile statistično značilne razlike v usvojenih socialnih veščinah. Rezultati predstavljajo pomemben prispevek k raziskovanju didaktičnih iger in raziskovanju socialnih veščin pri otrocih v predšolskem obdobju.Social skills enable us making contacts with others, make easier for us to integrate into social environment as well as interaction with others. Social skills help an individual to fulfil his purposes and satisfy his own needs in the social environment. Social skills are not innate but they have to be learnt, this is why learning social skills presents an important process. Development and social skills learning in preschool age is of great importance since children often have problems related to social skills. The process of social skills learning in kindergartens takes part among peers, through interaction with kindergarten teachers and through diverse attentively planned activities as well as through play. Play is a natural activity which brings joy and relaxation to a child, and is always internally motivated. Considering the fact that children most easily learn through play, our theoretical part presents activities for developing social skills in children through play. We have prepared social games, using questions to find out whether after playing these games, for which we anticipated that would encourage social skills development, this process actually happened. We have designed games into which we included questions that, in our opinion, influence development of children’s skills on emotional and social areas. Carrying out activities including games in kindergarten, we confirmed our assumptions and hypotheses since we proved the effect of games on social skills development in children through assessing children using an assessment scale. After playing games, social-emotional skills more strongly exhibited in children’s play as well as in other roles and relationships between the children. We observed statistically significant differences in acquired social skills. The results present an important contribution to research of didactic games and social skills in children during preschool period