Connection between preschool teacher's empathy and imagination and certain characteristics of preschool child's behavior and play

Abstract

The paper analyzes the results of a part of an empirical research related to the influence of interaction between a child and puppet on children's behavior and play. Particular emphasis is on the part of the research related to correlation between preschool educator's emotional empathy and imagination, and prosocial and aggressive behavior of children, as well as with children's spontaneous play in kindergarten. It was established that there educator's empathy and imagination were connected with prosocial and aggressive behavior of children, and with certain aspects of children's spontaneous game. Children from groups led by more emphatic and more imaginative teachers (experimental group) were more prosocial, while the children from groups led by less emphatic and less imaginative educators were found to be more aggressive. The results of observing the children's spontaneous game indicate that the children led by more emphatic and imaginative teachers (experimental group of educators) used more imaginative games, particularly the symbolic puppet play, and did practical activities in small groups or pairs. The children led by control group of teachers played significantly more social and didactic games with rules, and sports games.