Development of Social and Emotional Intelligence of preschool-age children through methods of drama education

Development of social and emotional intelligence of preschool-age children through methods of drama education Abstract This thesis presents the concept of emotional intelligence, the level of which is based on self- awareness, self-regulation, self-motivation, empathy and social skills. Emotional intelligence is herein placed in the context of evolutionary development and anatomy of emotions, focusing on the possibilities of its development through pedagogical work. The main goal of the project was to evaluate whether preschool children can be developed in this direction through regular drama education lessons. The evaluation was based on an experimental method relying on a comparison between the results of the experimental and control groups. After 5 months of regular dramatic work, the children from the experimental group manifested a more significant improvement in their emotional and social skills when compared to the children from the control group. The presented project thus provides an unconventional source of inspiration for systematic work with children's emotions within the typical day-to-day schedule at kindergartens. Keywords: emotional intelligence, emotional and social skills, drama education, preschool ag