Abstract:

This article present a study revealing the level of developed social and emotional skills of preschool children according to their parents. Social and emotional skills are formed and developed in both the family and social environment. Successful interaction between educators, psychologists and parents in process of developing the social and emotional competence of preschool children lead to more optimal results. The aim of the study is: to examine the level of developed basic social and emotional skills in preschool children according to their parents and to highlight the possibilities for their improvement in the family environment. The author maintains the following hypothesis – if, on the basis of the conducted research, unsatisfactory levels of developed social and emotional skills are revealed in children of preschool age according to their parents, then this will make it possible to find ways to improve them in the conditions of the family environment.

To achieve the goal and to prove the hypothesis, the study sets the following tasks:
- To examine the level of development of the skills for orientation in one`s own emotional state and the children`s self-control skills;
- To examine the level of development of the skills for orientation in the emotional states of others and the children`s empathy skills;
- To examine the level of development of the skills to communicate with peers and the skills to solve problems;
- To study the possibilities for optimizing activities, forms of interaction and methods in the direction of developing social and emotional skills in preschool children in the family environment.

A system of criteria and indicators is used to obtain objective data and to derive some dependencies, which is described in detail in the article. Questionnaire survey method is used to achieve the set goals and objectives. In the survey participated parents of children of preschool age from different towns and villages in the Republic of Bulgaria. An analysis of the results of the survey and some main conclusions are presented.

The study identifies different levels of developed social and emotional skills in the children who participated in the study and points out some opportunities for developing and improving the skills of social and emotional competence in the family environment, namely:
- High level of developed skills for orientation in one`s own emotional state and low levels of developed skills of self-control stood out;
- A significant percentage of the children who participated in the study use negative models of behaviour in conflict situation with their peers;
- A greater percentage of the examined children show concern for the feelings of others, but find it difficult to understand that others may have a point of view that is different from theirs (they rarely put themselves in the shoe of others);
- High levels of developed communication skills and different levels of developed problem-solving skills stood out;
- The possibilities for interaction between parents, pedagogical specialists and psychologists regarding the level of developed social and emotional skills in children of preschool age;
- Opportunities to use specific methods of educations (personal example, conversations, etc.), forms of interaction such as thematic, interactive games and activities aimed at forming and developing skills of social and emotional competence in children.

Keywords:

Developing social skills in preschool age, developing emotional skills in preschool age, preschool educations, developing social and emotional skills in a family environment.