Development of Early Childhood Emotional Intelligence through Physical Activities Coordinated with Guidance

Abstract

              This research was conducted with aims to 1) study the level of emotional intelligence of preschool children after implementing physical activities coordinated with guidance and 2) compare the emotional intelligence of preschool children before and after physical activities coordinated with guidance. The target sample included 11 early childhood children enrolled in kindergarten 3 at Ban Dong Yai School in the academic year 2020. This school is located in Wapi Pathum District, Maha Sarakham Province under
Maha Sarakham Primary Education Service Area Office 2. This sample was obtained through purposive sampling. The research instruments consisted of lesson plans of physical activities coordinated with guidance and an emotional intelligence assessment form for early childhood covering 3 aspects; 1) awareness of one’s own emotions and feelings, 2) awareness of others’ emotions and feelings, and 3) living with others. The research design was a pre-experimental design.  The statistics used to analyze the collected data were mean, standard deviation, and percentage.

              The findings revealed that 1) the preschool children gained a very good level ( = 40.09) of emotional intelligence after implementing the physical activities coordinated with guidance. Analyzing
the three aspects of emotional intelligence, it was found that all the aspects were at a very good level;  awareness of one’s own emotions and feelings ( = 12.90), awareness of others’ emotions and feelings
( = 13.36), and living with others ( = 13.81). In conclusion, preschool children’s emotional intelligence improved in all aspects after implementing the physical activities coordinated with guidance. The average percentage of progress was 53.53.