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Abstract

South Africa's young children face many devastating problems that can hamper their emotional and social development. As a result, the Emotional Literacy and Persona Doll programme is an attempt to intervene in the emotional development of young children. The Persona Dolls are used as an educational and therapeutic tool to encourage and develop emotional expression, management and emotional literacy in young children. Previous studies have shown positive effects of the programme with children. However, the development of the trainees and practitioners who use these dolls has yet to be researched. Therefore, this research study is an assessment of the development of empathy, and the personal experiences of trainees who underwent the emotional literacy and Persona Doll training programme in South Africa. This was done through the Interpersonal Reactivity Index and a thematic content analysis of the participants' feelings, experiences, and thoughts in a journal, process notes, and an evaluation form. There was a total of 14 participants, including newly trained psychologists, social workers and teachers. Although the quantitative results did not show any significance in terms of an improvement in empathy, the qualitative results demonstrated that the participants found that they were more able to think and talk about their own emotions, and the emotions of others. Furthermore, the group of participants learned important skills of reflection and containment, which they believe they can now use and which they are using in their work with others, and their families.

Keywords

emotional intelligence emotional literacy empathy Interpersonal Reactivity Index Persona Dolls preventative mental health programme

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Empathy and Personal Experiences of Trainees in an Emotional Literacy and Persona Doll Programme in South Africa

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