Promoting toddlers’ social cognition and prosocial behavior: a training study at nursery

In the last decades, researchers have been interested in studying early prosocial behaviors and the factors that may impact on their development. Recent longitudinal and training studies suggest that socio-cognitive skills, such as empathy, theory of mind and emotion understanding are related to indi- vidual di erences in children’s prosocial behavior. The aim of the study is to verify the e ects of an empathy training - carried out by teachers at nursery school - to improve social understanding and prosocial skills in toddlers. A total of sixty-four 22- to 36-month-olds (36 F; Mage=29,78; SD=3,97) took part to a pre-test/post-test quasi-experimental design. They were administered the Prosocial Tasks (PT) for assessing prosocial behavior and the A ect Knowledge Test (AKT) for emotion knowledge. Furthermore, parents completed the Child Prosocial Behavior Questionnaire (CPBQ) and the EmQue-I13, concerning toddlers’ empathy and prosociality. All toddlers participated in an 8-weeks intervention in which teachers read emotion-based stories to small groups of children and then either involved them in conversations about emotions (Emo- Conv Group), in conversations about physic states (PhysConv Group) or in play activities (Play Group). Preliminary results showed a signi cant increase in prosocial abilities in the EmoConv Group, both in PT (F(2,61)=8.664, p<.05, ηp2 =.136) and in CPBQ (F(2,61)=5.098, p=.009, ηp2 =.143). Furthermore, the intervention fostered gains of cognitive empathy, such as AKT’s score (F(2,61)=14.521, p<.001, ηp2=.323) and EmQue-I13’s score (F(2,61)=2.957, p=.05, ηp2=.088). In conclusion, preliminary results of this study con rm the e cacy of conversational intervention in promoting toddlers’ cognitive empathy and prosocial abilities.