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Digital Scenarios for Enhancing Empathy in Preschool Children: A Design and Feasibility Study

  • Jul 7, 2026
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Abstract Book of the 11th International Conference on Research in Education, Teaching and Learning

Year: 2026

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Digital Scenarios for Enhancing Empathy in Preschool Children: A Design and Feasibility Study

Prof. Dimitrios Papakostas, Anneta Stogiou

ABSTRACT:

This study investigates the design, development, and pilot implementation of interactive digital scenarios aimed at enhancing empathy in preschool children aged 3 to 4 years. Situated within the Social and Emotional Learning framework, the research explores the techno-pedagogical use of Information and Communication Technologies and digital storytelling to address early childhood social conflicts. The study adopted a quasi-experimental quantitative design in an authentic public preschool setting, involving 75 children, with 50 assigned to the experimental group and 25 to the control group. The experimental group engaged individually with three interactive digital scenarios (focusing on sharing, waiting for a turn, and resolving disagreements) via an interactive whiteboard, supported by active pedagogical mediation. Data triangulation was achieved using structured observation of the children’s behavior, the recording of their digital choices at key social dilemmas, and teacher reports using the Observation Questionnaire of Empathic and Prosocial Behaviors and the SDQ-mini pre- and post-test. Findings indicate statistically significant positive changes in emotional response, cognitive empathy, and prosocial behavior indicators for the experimental group compared to the control group. Furthermore, observational data revealed that the majority of children demonstrated a clear understanding of the protagonists’ emotions and predominantly opted for prosocial solutions. The results suggest that interactive digital scenarios, when combined with active pedagogical mediation, can serve as effective and pedagogically meaningful tools for fostering early empathy in authentic educational environments.

Keywords: Empathy, Early childhood, Social emotional learning