‘Putting oneself in someone else's shoes during childhood: How to learn it’ Training for preschool age children

Background. Perspective-taking, defined as the aptitude to understand the cognitive, affective and visual point of view of others, represents a social ability fundamental for the development of socio-cognitive and affective skills. Aims. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the possibility of promoting perspective-taking in typically developmental pre-schoolers using an evidence-based training procedure. Sample and Method. The research used a pre-test/post-test quasi-experimental design in which 206 typically developmental preschoolers (104 males and 102 females) were categorized into the experimental or the control group. In order to try to improve perspective-taking, we proposed an evidence-based ecological intervention inside the kindergarten in which children, in small groups, were involved in activities such as storytelling, discussion, drawing and dramatization. We measured the perspective-taking ability through several tests, and prosocial behavior through repeated ecological non-participant observations both before and after the training. The training, which lasted 15 days, was subdivided into nine different sessions, each lasting 45 minutes, and involved small groups of 6-7 children. Before and after the training, each child completed nine perspective-taking tasks (three tasks for each perspective-taking dimension) and was observed three times, each one for 45 minutes, on different days. Results. Results showed a significant increase in perspective-taking scores after training in the experimental condition relative to the control condition, supporting the possibility of promoting-perspective taking ability in preschoolers. An increase in prosocial behavior after training was also observed in the experimental group as compared with the control group. Conclusion. In conclusion, these results suggest it is possible to improve perspective-taking in pre-schoolers, also promoting prosocial abilities.