Children's literature in the development of socio-emotional skills in primary education children

Abstract

Primary school students have been identified as exhibiting difficulties in emotional expression, social interaction, and conflict resolution, which negatively impacts both their academic performance and interpersonal relationships. The overall objective of this study is to promote the development of socio-emotional skills in primary school children through digital children's literature. The research employed a mixed-methods approach and a quasi-experimental design with two pre-existing fifth-grade groups: an experimental group and a control group. The sampling for the qualitative component was purposive, consisting of four teachers, including the teachers of the participating groups. A pedagogical intervention was implemented using a virtual library. After four months of the experiment, significant progress was observed in the children's perception and control of their emotions, along with a significant improvement in recognizing the emotional states of others and a positive impact on group cohesion. The effectiveness of the virtual library as a mediating resource was demonstrated. Digital literature proved attractive not only because of its format, but also because it democratized access to specialized content that supports the work of teachers who, lacking prior training, find in the digital resource a structured guide for mediation.