Promoting social-emotional development of children at preschool

The social and emotional development starts to develop right after the birth and is one of the most important areas in the development of preschool child. Therefore, it is vital what encouragements and possibilities the professional workers offer at preschool through the planned activities and various spontaneous situations daily taking place. The early childhood education includes the evaluation of planned activities and spontaneous situations, which presents a base and the guidelines for further work. Because a focus on productivity and results social and emotional development has often been neglected. The theoretical part of the thesis therefore presents social-emotional development, including definitions and explanations of feelings, social development, emotional intelligence and the role of a professional worker and preschool itself. Furthermore, the role of preschool teachers has been analysed from the viewpoint of planned and spontaneous activities and their evaluation in the area of social and emotional development of preschool children. To research the problem, the descriptive research method has been used with the qualitative and quantitative approach. The sample included professional workers (teachers and teacher’s assistants) from the Polzela preschool. The data was collected through a survey, documentation and evaluation analysis and interviews with preschool teachers. Quantitative data was analysed through the level of descriptive statistics. The results have shown that professional workers at the preschool strongly believe in the significance of social and emotional development. However, it has been revealed that they plan activities from the area mostly only at the beginning of the school year. It has also shown that promotion of social and emotional development largely occur spontaneously, but this has not been recorded or evaluated by childcare workers. Due to the findings, connected with theoretical framework, the conclusion offers the starting point for consideration and guidelines for improvements when planning and evaluating activities of social and emotional development of children in preschool