Many devastating problems face South Africa’s young children that can hamper their emotional and social development. The Emotional Literacy and Persona Doll programme (Buchanan, 2007) attempts to intervene in the young child’s emotional development. Persona Dolls are used to encourage emotional expression and management in young children. Previous research has indicated the positive effects of the Persona Dolls and Emotional Literacy programmes with children. However, the development in the trainees and practitioners who use these dolls has yet to be researched. This research study assessed the development of empathy, and the personal experiences of trainees who underwent the emotional literacy and Persona Doll training programme in South Africa. Participants included social workers, psychologists, and preschool and foundation phase teachers. Participants’ empathy was assessed before the first training session, and at the end of the training through Davis Interpersonal Reactivity Index (1980). Participants also documented their feelings, experiences, and thoughts while undergoing the training, in a journal. Process notes of persona doll sessions and evaluation forms were also used in the study. Although the quantitative results did not show any significant results in terms of an improvement in empathy for the trainees, 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. This is a crucial aspect of emotional literacy, where one is able to identify and think about one’s own emotions. Furthermore, the group of participants learnt important reflection and containment skills, which they believe they can and are using in their work with others, and with their families. While there is no statistically grounded argument for the improvement of empathy, and in extension emotional literacy, the participants in the training seemed to have developed their own emotional literacy skills, and found that they are better able to work with children and adults in the realm of emotional work. Implications and suggestions for further research are discussed.

This thesis analyses how an increase in bullying awareness can be produced in children aged 9-12 years old playing an iPad serious game called Attitude Game. The project is conducted in collaboration with the company IUS Innovation, where two prototypes were developed by the author of the study, one with mechanics empowering not to bully and the other with mirror mechanics empowering to bully other children. The experiment was conducted with 29 children from a sports club in Göteborg.  A pre-measurement of empathy and a pre-test-post-test measurement of attitude towards bullied children were used to gather data, together with a post-interview during the experiment. Students were assigned to 3 groups, based on a random selection and previous knowledge about the game. The result of the experiment displayed that there was no statistical difference between the change in attitude towards bullied children regarding the empathy level and the prototype tested. The post-interviews displayed that all the participants understood the serious purpose of the game / <p>In case of further contact, you can also write to the private email of the author: carlosglesdiaz@gmail.com</p>

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