791 969 626Moving Stories about Emotions
Programme Supporting the Emotional and Social Development of Preschool Children
Every day, children experience a wide range of emotions – joy, anger, sadness, fear, jealousy and disappointment. However, they do not always know how to recognise, name and express these emotions in ways that help them build positive relationships with others. This is why supporting emotional competence from an early age is so important.
Moving Stories about Emotions is the first Polish prevention programme for preschool children to receive a recommendation within the national System of Evidence-Based Prevention and Mental Health Promotion Programmes. The programme holds an official recommendation granted under the auspices of the Polish Ministry of Health and the Polish Ministry of National Education. The recommendation system is coordinated and monitored by the National Centre for Counteracting Addictions (KCPU), the governmental agency responsible for promoting and supervising evidence-based prevention initiatives in Poland.
Moving Stories about Emotions is an evidence-based prevention programme designed for preschool children, their parents and teachers. Its aim is to develop children’s ability to recognise emotions, express feelings, cope with challenging situations and build healthy relationships with their peers. The programme was created to strengthen children’s mental well-being and foster competencies that will support them throughout their lives.
The programme is grounded in the Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) framework and promotes the development of self-awareness, emotional regulation, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision-making.
More on the website TALES ABOUT EMOTIONS
Throughout the programme, children explore emotions such as:
- Frustration
- Anger
- Disappointment and gratefulness
- Fear
- Sadness
- Shame
- Feeling Proud of Yourself
- Jealousy
- Happiness and joy
The programme uses applied drama techniques to immerse children in engaging stories. Children become the heroes of the tales, take on different roles, solve problems together, and develop their understanding of emotions through active participation and shared experiences.
The programme is based on storytelling, drama techniques, role-play, movement activities, music, intuitive musical instruments and creative experiences. Rather than simply listening to stories, children actively participate in them, allowing emotional and social skills to be practised through direct experience.
Children not only discover the emotions experienced by the characters in the stories, but also learn to understand their own feelings, appreciate other people’s perspectives and develop constructive ways of coping with emotional challenges.
The aim of the Moving Stories about Emotions programme is to promote the mental health of children aged four and above through participation in a series of ten workshops. These sessions expand children’s understanding of emotions, help them learn effective ways of managing them and provide opportunities to practise these skills in a safe and supportive environment. The programme is delivered using a mentalization-based approach, encouraging children to reflect on their own thoughts, feelings, wishes, and intentions, as well as those of others.
The specific objectives of each workshop are to:
- recognise and name emotions;
- normalise emotional experiences;
- understand the difference between emotions and behaviour;
- strengthen emotional regulation skills;
- develop empathy and perspective-taking;
- enhance constructive social problem-solving skills;
- build confidence in expressing emotions appropriately.
A child’s emotional development is most effective when all significant adults are involved in providing support. For this reason, the programme also includes workshops for parents and teachers, during which participants gain practical knowledge about emotions, communication and supporting children in everyday educational and parenting situations.
In addition, parents and teachers receive educational materials that help them continue the work initiated during the sessions and reinforce newly acquired skills both at home and in the preschool setting.
The programme promotes emotionally responsive communication and equips adults with practical strategies for supporting children’s emotional regulation, resilience and social development in everyday situations.
About
Program implemented throughout Poland
Since its introduction, the programme has been implemented in municipalities throughout Poland and has reached tens of thousands of children, parents and teachers.
According to nationwide official data, the programme was implemented in 154 municipalities ??? czy województwa across Poland in 2024, reaching almost 64,000 children.
This makes Moving Stories about Emotions one of the most widely implemented evidence-based prevention programmes for preschool children in Poland.
Effectiveness Confirmed by Research
The study involved 722 preschool children and included three measurement points: before the intervention, immediately after programme completion and a follow-up assessment several weeks later.
Children in the control group participated in an environmental education programme with an identical organisational structure, allowing researchers to reliably assess the programme's actual impact on children's development rather than the effects of general participation in organised activities.
The findings demonstrated that participation in the programme significantly improved children's social and emotional competencies, particularly their ability to recognise emotions, regulate emotional states and apply constructive social strategies.
Importantly, the programme produced significantly greater improvements than the active control intervention, demonstrating that the observed effects were specifically related to the emotional learning content of the programme.
The positive outcomes were not merely short-term. The gains were maintained at follow-up assessment, indicating that the programme produces lasting improvements in children's emotional and social functioning rather than temporary effects.
Researchers also confirmed that the experimental and control groups were comparable in terms of demographic characteristics, developmental difficulties and parental social capital, further strengthening the credibility of the findings.
The study was commissioned by the National Centre for Prevention of Addictions (KCPU) as part of the National Health Programme and was conducted under the methodological supervision of researchers from SWPS University.