| The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of children's picture books and activities on the emotional understanding and emotion regulation of 5- and 6-year-old Taiwanese students. A quasi-experimental design was employed to examine the effectiveness of different treatments on children's emotional understanding and emotion regulation between treatment groups. The treatment groups were composed of three kindergarten classrooms in one school situated in the south of Kaohsiung City, Taiwan. Three treatments were randomly assigned to each treatment group: Experimental Group One was given children's picture books related to emotions and extra activities related to the English alphabet; Experimental Group Two was given children's picture books and extra activities related to emotions; and the control group was given children's picture books related to animals and extra activities related to the English alphabet. The investigator was the instructor of the three treatment groups. Each group received treatments, twice per week, 40 minutes per session, for eight weeks.;Instruction assessments used in this study included the Emotion Recognition Questionnaire (ERQ), which measures children's emotional understanding by the research assistant; the Emotion Regulation Checklist (ERC) of school teachers, which assesses children's emotion regulation; and the Head Start Competence Scale-Parents Version (HSCS-P), which examines children's emotional understanding and emotion regulation by parents. These assessments were distributed before treatments began and again after two weeks of treatment. The research assistant, teachers, and parents were in charge of measuring children's emotional understanding and emotion regulation.;Analyzing data via One-Way ANOVA, the results of the ERQ as evaluated by the research assistant showed that there are differences between treatment groups. The mean difference (posttest minus pretest) for Experimental Group Two was significantly higher than that for the control group. Teachers used the ERC to evaluate children's emotion regulation; results showed that a statistically significant difference arose among the three treatment groups. The mean difference (posttest minus pretest) for Experimental Groups One and Two was significantly higher than that for the control group. The results of the HSCS-P, which were evaluated by parents, showed that there are no significant differences in children's emotional understanding and emotion regulation among the three treatment groups.;Study findings showed that in the opinion of school teachers, children's emotion regulation were influenced after treatments related to emotion. From the ERQ as evaluated by the research assistant, children's emotional understanding was also improved by books and extra activities related to emotion. The study results could provide researchers, counselors, and early childhood practitioners with guidelines and resources for future emotional learning possibilities using children's picture books and related activities. |
