The effect of an emotional intelligence-based play program on children's emotional intelligence, cognitive flexibility, and critical thinking skills

Purpose: The aim of this study is to investigate and elucidate the effects of an emotional‑intelligence‑based play program on children's emotional intelligence, cognitive flexibility, and critical thinking skills. Materials and Methods: An experimental design, one of the quantitative research methods, was employed in this study. Purposeful sampling was used to form the experimental and control groups. The study group consisted of children aged 4–6 years who were enrolled in a kindergarten class of a primary school affiliated with the Ministry of National Education. Data were collected using a Personal Information Form, the Sullivan Emotional Intelligence Scale for Children, the Flexible Item Selection Task (FIST), and the Children's Philosophical Thinking Scale. Results: The findings revealed that, compared with the control group, children in the experimental group showed statistically significant post‑intervention gains on the Flexible Item Selection Task subscales of Abstraction and Cognitive Flexibility, as well as on the Children's Philosophical Thinking Scale subscales of Philosophical Inquiry, Language and Cognitive Skills, and Question Generation. For the Sullivan Emotional Intelligence Scale for Children, significant pre‑ to post‑test improvements were observed in the subscales of Emotion Understanding, Emotion Expression, Emotion Regulation, and Empathy; however, a slight decline was noted at the follow‑up (retention) assessment. In contrast, the Abstraction and Cognitive Flexibility subscales maintained significant gains from pre‑test to post‑test and from post‑test to retention. Although the Philosophical Inquiry, Language and Cognitive Skills, and Question Generation subscales displayed significant pre‑ to post‑test differences, a modest decrease was also detected at the retention stage Conclusion: The study demonstrated that the emotional‑intelligence‑based play program elevated children's overall emotional intelligence and produced significant positive effects on the Abstraction and Cognitive Flexibility subscales of the Flexible Item Selection Task, as well as on the Philosophical Inquiry, Language and Cognitive Skills, and Question Generation subscales of the Children's Philosophical Thinking Scale. Thus, the program can be said to support children's cognitive flexibility while concurrently fostering their critical‑thinking abilities. Keywords: Emotional ıntelligence, Cognitive flexibility, Critical thinking, Early childhood