The main focus of this thesis is on creating a board game for encouraging emotional intelligence of children in early childhood. Game is based on the Four-Branch Model which was proposed by Mayer and Salovey (1997). Board game covers emotional skills, which include the abilities to perceive emotions in oneself and other, to use emotions, to understand emotions and to manage emotions. Game was tested in Kindergarten Ledina Ljubljana and Kindergarten Mavrica Brežice. 57 children, aged five and four years, took part in the research. The results show that tasks, chosen in this board game, were generally appropriate for each of the emotional skills, however few of them would need some improvement. Mainly due to difficulties children had with understanding the instructions some tasks would have to be changed before using this game again. Based on the response of the children during the game I conclude they had fun while playing. To sum up, results show the game is a suitable tool for encouraging emotional intelligence of children in early childhood.
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