KATERINA DERMATA | Panteion University (original) (raw)

Papers by KATERINA DERMATA

12ο Πανελλήνιο Συνέδριο Παιδαγωγικής Εταιρείας Ελλάδος "Ελληνική παιδαγωγική και εκπαιδευτική έρευνα", 2024

Τα βιβλία χωρίς λόγια (wordless ή silent books) είναι πλούσια σε οπτικές αφηγήσεις και προσφέρουν... more Τα βιβλία χωρίς λόγια (wordless ή silent books) είναι πλούσια σε οπτικές αφηγήσεις και προσφέρουν μια σημαντική ευκαιρία στα παιδιά προσχολικής αγωγής, τα οποία δεν έχουν κατακτήσει ακόμη τον μηχανισμό ανάγνωσης, να αναπτύξουν βασικές δεξιότητες γραμματισμού, να προωθήσουν τη δημιουργικότητα (creativity), τη φαντασία (fantasy), την κριτική σκέψη (critical thinking) και το κίνητρο (motivation) προκειμένου να εξελιχθούν σε ικανούς αναγνώστες.
Η εισήγηση παρουσιάζει μια έρευνα που διεξήχθη, κατά το σχολικό έτος 2021-2022, με παιδιά προσχολικής ηλικίας (3-5 ετών), προκειμένου να διερευνηθούν οι εκπαιδευτικές δυνατότητες των βιβλίων χωρίς λόγια στην προσχολική εκπαίδευση. Στόχος της έρευνας ήταν να αξιολογήσει τη συμβολή των βιβλίων χωρίς λέξεις σε συγκεκριμένες πτυχές της ανάπτυξης του πρώιμου γραμματισμού: στην απόκτηση λεξιλογίου, στην κατανόηση ιστοριών, στις αφηγηματικές δεξιότητες και στην εκφραστική γλώσσα αλλά και στη φιλαναγνωσία γενικότερα.
Ο ερευνητικός σχεδιασμός ήταν πειραματικού τύπου με μια πειραματική ομάδα που ερχόταν σε επαφή με βιβλία χωρίς λέξεις και μια ομάδα ελέγχου που ακολουθούσε το κανονικό πρόγραμμα, χωρίς να έχει πρόσβαση σε αυτά. Η συλλογή δεδομένων πραγματοποιήθηκε μέσω του οδηγού ποιοτικής παρατήρησης, των συζητήσεων με τα παιδιά και των αφηγήσεών τους, ενώ η ανάλυση του σώματος των παρατηρήσεων και του απομαγνητοφωνημένου αφηγηματικού υλικού έγινε με βάση τους άξονες των ερευνητικών ερωτημάτων.
Οι συγκεκριμένες ποιοτικές μέθοδοι στοχεύουν στην καταγραφή της εμπλοκής των παιδιών, των συναισθηματικών αντιδράσεων και των αλληλεπιδράσεών τους με τα βιβλία χωρίς λέξεις. Τα ποιοτικά δεδομένα απομαγνητοφωνήθηκαν, κωδικοποιήθηκαν και αναλύθηκαν θεματικά, με βάση τους άξονες των ερευνητικών ερωτημάτων, προκειμένου να εντοπιστούν αναδυόμενα μοτίβα και θέματα που σχετίζονται με τη χρήση των βιβλίων γενικότερα, του λεξιλογίου, των αφηγηματικών τεχνικών αλλά και της δημιουργίας κινήτρων για τη δημιουργία ικανών αναγνωστών στο μέλλον.
Τα ευρήματα της έρευνας παρέχουν πολύτιμες πληροφορίες για την αποτελεσματικότητα των βιβλίων χωρίς λόγια, ως ένα ισχυρό εργαλείο για την ανάπτυξη της φιλαναγνωσίας και των δεξιοτήτων πρώιμου γραμματισμού από τα παιδιά που δεν έχουν ακόμη κατακτήσει τον μηχανισμό της ανάγνωσης.
Η παρούσα έρευνα φιλοδοξεί να εμπνεύσει εκπαιδευτικούς και ερευνητές να ενσωματώσουν τα βιβλία χωρίς λόγια στις καθημερινές αναγνωστικές εμπειρίες των παιδιών προσχολικής ηλικίας, καλλιεργώντας τελικά την αγάπη για την ανάγνωση και βελτιώνοντας τη συνολική μαθησιακή εμπειρία των μικρών παιδιών.

Λέξεις-κλειδιά: βιβλία χωρίς λόγια, προσχολική εκπαίδευση, πρώιμος γραμματισμός, φιλαναγνωσία, κίνητρο.

Visual Literacy in The Virtual Realm: The Book of Selected Readings 2021, 2021

Using a digital camera to achieve a successful result requires from the user, first and foremost,... more Using a digital camera to achieve a successful result requires from the user, first and foremost, to be familiar with the proper use of the medium and to have obtained basic knowledge of the principles of the art of photography. What is the result in those cases where the photographer either does not know the basic principles of photography or cannot apply them effectively in practice? Is the product considered a “failure” thus leaving photos with no clear and recognizable objects? This paper focuses on designing and implementing an applied educational intervention, themed on ”shaken” photos taken by preschoolers and using this material to create digital narratives. This case study examines "shaken" photos as an opportunity to develop imagination and creativity through photography.

Journal of Research in Innovative Teaching & Learning, 2019

Purpose The contribution of children’s literature to the social-emotional development of children... more Purpose The contribution of children’s literature to the social-emotional development of children has been recognized across disciplines. Especially picture books, as multimodal texts which communicate with young readers with two codes simultaneously, can be a potential means of fostering empathy in young children (Nikolajeva, 2013). The purpose of this paper is to introduce the program “My BEST friends, the books,” an empirical project (in progress) based on a Book-Based Emotional Social Thinking approach. Design/methodology/approach This approach is inspired by the Critical Thinking and Book Time approach (Roche, 2010, 2015). The program, based on the scales and competences of the Βar-On (2006) model of social-emotional intelligence, explores the way young readers interpret social-emotional skills when discussing about literary characters in children’s picture books. This paper examines the philosophy, the main characteristics and structure of the program, and presents the first r...

“The Photographer of the Day”: Using a Digital Camera in Preschool Classroom, 2023

Children use digital cameras from very early age as the progress of technology provides accessibl... more Children use digital cameras from very early age as the progress of technology provides accessible tools such as smartphones and tablets in everyday life. Children use the photographic medium to create their own photos, take photos to represent and explore their environment, to communicate with others, etc. By designing and implementing a visual literacy program focused on the impact of using the photographic medium from preschoolers, the researcher examines how children behave when they use the camera or are photographed in the class environment. The dimensions examined are the role of the child as a photographer and the role as the subject of the photograph and how the medium affects children's behavior. The results highlight the impact of the medium in preschoolers' behaviors when using a digital camera, and the importance of the observation in children's' reactions for the adults.

‘Love Cannot be Framed.’ A Visual Art Project during the Pandemic, 2023

Distance and communication during the Covid-19 pandemic have been one of the challenges of the la... more Distance and communication during the Covid-19 pandemic have been one of the challenges of the last two years worldwide. While traveling was difficult, new technologies and visual stimuli provided opportunities to overcome those obstacles. This paper describes the art project titled Love cannot be framed implemented by Wally De Doncker and Katerina Dermata. While "trapped" in their own countries, the two authors creatively challenged each other during the pandemic. Every week they proposed a theme to each other and took photos from their own living environment in Belgium and Greece. The authors created a synthesis by combining those photos, one Greek and one Belgian for each theme. As a writer, Wally De Doncker interpreted each synthesis with a literary and philosophical methodology and created an artistic album. This art project indicated that distance is only sometimes a barrier to creativity. It is an example of how love bridges a global epidemic.

The research on short stories for children has focused in Greece mostly on their literary, pedago... more The research on short stories for children has focused in Greece mostly on their literary, pedagogical, linguistic and educational aspects. This paper attempts to approach Short Form Stories for children under the light of social semiotics, the main elements being the author’s choices in sign-creation process and its interpretation by the reader. In the case of short stories, the recipient is the child, who for the first time tries to decode without help the verbal text and to enter - symbolically but also in reality – to the literate society. This moment of the reader's first encounter with a multimodal text is crucial to her/his future reading behaviour. The paper examines the concept of the ‘Horis sosivio’ (without lifejacket) series, as evidenced at the level of visual design and the combination of text and image for the construction of meaning, as well as the interpretation of the visual text by preschool children as participants in meaning production.

Journal of Visual Literacy

The research on short stories for children has focused in Greece mostly on their literary, pedago... more The research on short stories for children has focused in Greece mostly on their literary, pedagogical, linguistic and educational aspects. This paper attempts to approach Short Form Stories for children under the light of social semiotics, the main elements being the author’s choices in sign-creation process and its interpretation by the reader. In the case of short stories, the recipient is the child, who for the first time tries to decode without help the verbal text and to enter - symbolically but also in reality – to the literate society. This moment of the reader's first encounter with a multimodal text is crucial to her/his future reading behaviour. The paper examines the concept of the ‘Horis sosivio’ (without lifejacket) series, as evidenced at the level of visual design and the combination of text and image for the construction of meaning, as well as the interpretation of the visual text by preschool children as participants in meaning production.

Journal of Visual Literacy

The research on short stories for children has focused in Greece mostly on their literary, pedago... more The research on short stories for children has focused in Greece mostly on their literary, pedagogical, linguistic and educational aspects. This paper attempts to approach Short Form Stories for children under the light of social semiotics, the main elements being the author’s choices in sign-creation process and its interpretation by the reader. In the case of short stories, the recipient is the child, who for the first time tries to decode without help the verbal text and to enter - symbolically but also in reality – to the literate society. This moment of the reader's first encounter with a multimodal text is crucial to her/his future reading behaviour. The paper examines the concept of the ‘Horis sosivio’ (without lifejacket) series, as evidenced at the level of visual design and the combination of text and image for the construction of meaning, as well as the interpretation of the visual text by preschool children as participants in meaning production.

The chapter explores how illustration offers young readers a range of visual challenges in interp... more The chapter explores how illustration offers young readers a range of visual challenges in interpreting the emotions and the social-emotional skills demonstrated by literary characters when reading picture books. Literature studies focus either in the texts or in the response of the readers; our research attempts to combine two aspects: the creation and the interpretation. The author studies the choices of the creatorsemphasizing on the illustration, and how those choices affect children's interpretation. To achieve this, the author applies a dual research design called the Social-Emotional Profile (SEP) and Book-based Social Emotional Thinking (BEST). The first approach focuses on visual elements that sketch the social-emotional skills of the literary characters. The second approach is an empirical program of reading with preschoolers to explore the way young readers interpret social-emotional skills based on the visual elements. This work involves an experimental process which combines theory from the fields of children's literature and cognitive literary approach, visual studies, social-emotional intelligence and applied educational research. The corpus of the study consists of five Greek awarded children's books published from 2014 to 2017. The initial findings indicate that discussing with preschoolers about the socialemotional profile of the literary characters is a challenging procedure, due to the complex nature of picture books and the special characteristics of preschoolers as readers. Insights gained from the implementing the procedure identify visual elements and choices made by the creators as playing key roles to the interpretation of the SEP of the literary characters.

Using a digital camera to achieve a successful result requires from the user, first and foremost,... more Using a digital camera to achieve a successful result requires from the user, first and foremost, to be familiar with the proper use of the medium and to have obtained basic knowledge of the principles of the art of photography. What is the result in those cases where the photographer either does not know the basic principles of photography or cannot apply them effectively in practice? Is the product considered a "failure" thus leaving photos with no clear and recognizable objects? This paper focuses on designing and implementing an applied educational intervention, themed on "shaken" photos taken by preschoolers and using this material to create digital narratives. This case study examines "shaken" photos as an opportunity to develop imagination and creativity through photography.

Purpose-The contribution of children's literature to the social-emotional development of children... more Purpose-The contribution of children's literature to the social-emotional development of children has been recognized across disciplines. Especially picture books, as multimodal texts which communicate with young readers with two codes simultaneously, can be a potential means of fostering empathy in young children (Nikolajeva, 2013). The purpose of this paper is to introduce the program "My BEST friends, the books," an empirical project (in progress) based on a Book-Based Emotional Social Thinking approach. Design/methodology/approach-This approach is inspired by the Critical Thinking and Book Time approach (Roche, 2010, 2015). The program, based on the scales and competences of the Βar-On (2006) model of social-emotional intelligence, explores the way young readers interpret social-emotional skills when discussing about literary characters in children's picture books. This paper examines the philosophy, the main characteristics and structure of the program, and presents the first results of the pilot phase. Findings-The initial findings indicate that the design and implementation of such a program is a complex procedure that requires from the researcher to take into consideration various aspects that concern both the material and the participants, but also to step back and let children express their thoughts freely. Originality/value-Moreover, such discussions allow for understanding how preschoolers interpret the social-emotional skills of literary characters in a critical manner.

12ο Πανελλήνιο Συνέδριο Παιδαγωγικής Εταιρείας Ελλάδος "Ελληνική παιδαγωγική και εκπαιδευτική έρευνα", 2024

Τα βιβλία χωρίς λόγια (wordless ή silent books) είναι πλούσια σε οπτικές αφηγήσεις και προσφέρουν... more Τα βιβλία χωρίς λόγια (wordless ή silent books) είναι πλούσια σε οπτικές αφηγήσεις και προσφέρουν μια σημαντική ευκαιρία στα παιδιά προσχολικής αγωγής, τα οποία δεν έχουν κατακτήσει ακόμη τον μηχανισμό ανάγνωσης, να αναπτύξουν βασικές δεξιότητες γραμματισμού, να προωθήσουν τη δημιουργικότητα (creativity), τη φαντασία (fantasy), την κριτική σκέψη (critical thinking) και το κίνητρο (motivation) προκειμένου να εξελιχθούν σε ικανούς αναγνώστες.
Η εισήγηση παρουσιάζει μια έρευνα που διεξήχθη, κατά το σχολικό έτος 2021-2022, με παιδιά προσχολικής ηλικίας (3-5 ετών), προκειμένου να διερευνηθούν οι εκπαιδευτικές δυνατότητες των βιβλίων χωρίς λόγια στην προσχολική εκπαίδευση. Στόχος της έρευνας ήταν να αξιολογήσει τη συμβολή των βιβλίων χωρίς λέξεις σε συγκεκριμένες πτυχές της ανάπτυξης του πρώιμου γραμματισμού: στην απόκτηση λεξιλογίου, στην κατανόηση ιστοριών, στις αφηγηματικές δεξιότητες και στην εκφραστική γλώσσα αλλά και στη φιλαναγνωσία γενικότερα.
Ο ερευνητικός σχεδιασμός ήταν πειραματικού τύπου με μια πειραματική ομάδα που ερχόταν σε επαφή με βιβλία χωρίς λέξεις και μια ομάδα ελέγχου που ακολουθούσε το κανονικό πρόγραμμα, χωρίς να έχει πρόσβαση σε αυτά. Η συλλογή δεδομένων πραγματοποιήθηκε μέσω του οδηγού ποιοτικής παρατήρησης, των συζητήσεων με τα παιδιά και των αφηγήσεών τους, ενώ η ανάλυση του σώματος των παρατηρήσεων και του απομαγνητοφωνημένου αφηγηματικού υλικού έγινε με βάση τους άξονες των ερευνητικών ερωτημάτων.
Οι συγκεκριμένες ποιοτικές μέθοδοι στοχεύουν στην καταγραφή της εμπλοκής των παιδιών, των συναισθηματικών αντιδράσεων και των αλληλεπιδράσεών τους με τα βιβλία χωρίς λέξεις. Τα ποιοτικά δεδομένα απομαγνητοφωνήθηκαν, κωδικοποιήθηκαν και αναλύθηκαν θεματικά, με βάση τους άξονες των ερευνητικών ερωτημάτων, προκειμένου να εντοπιστούν αναδυόμενα μοτίβα και θέματα που σχετίζονται με τη χρήση των βιβλίων γενικότερα, του λεξιλογίου, των αφηγηματικών τεχνικών αλλά και της δημιουργίας κινήτρων για τη δημιουργία ικανών αναγνωστών στο μέλλον.
Τα ευρήματα της έρευνας παρέχουν πολύτιμες πληροφορίες για την αποτελεσματικότητα των βιβλίων χωρίς λόγια, ως ένα ισχυρό εργαλείο για την ανάπτυξη της φιλαναγνωσίας και των δεξιοτήτων πρώιμου γραμματισμού από τα παιδιά που δεν έχουν ακόμη κατακτήσει τον μηχανισμό της ανάγνωσης.
Η παρούσα έρευνα φιλοδοξεί να εμπνεύσει εκπαιδευτικούς και ερευνητές να ενσωματώσουν τα βιβλία χωρίς λόγια στις καθημερινές αναγνωστικές εμπειρίες των παιδιών προσχολικής ηλικίας, καλλιεργώντας τελικά την αγάπη για την ανάγνωση και βελτιώνοντας τη συνολική μαθησιακή εμπειρία των μικρών παιδιών.

Λέξεις-κλειδιά: βιβλία χωρίς λόγια, προσχολική εκπαίδευση, πρώιμος γραμματισμός, φιλαναγνωσία, κίνητρο.

Visual Literacy in The Virtual Realm: The Book of Selected Readings 2021, 2021

Using a digital camera to achieve a successful result requires from the user, first and foremost,... more Using a digital camera to achieve a successful result requires from the user, first and foremost, to be familiar with the proper use of the medium and to have obtained basic knowledge of the principles of the art of photography. What is the result in those cases where the photographer either does not know the basic principles of photography or cannot apply them effectively in practice? Is the product considered a “failure” thus leaving photos with no clear and recognizable objects? This paper focuses on designing and implementing an applied educational intervention, themed on ”shaken” photos taken by preschoolers and using this material to create digital narratives. This case study examines "shaken" photos as an opportunity to develop imagination and creativity through photography.

Journal of Research in Innovative Teaching & Learning, 2019

Purpose The contribution of children’s literature to the social-emotional development of children... more Purpose The contribution of children’s literature to the social-emotional development of children has been recognized across disciplines. Especially picture books, as multimodal texts which communicate with young readers with two codes simultaneously, can be a potential means of fostering empathy in young children (Nikolajeva, 2013). The purpose of this paper is to introduce the program “My BEST friends, the books,” an empirical project (in progress) based on a Book-Based Emotional Social Thinking approach. Design/methodology/approach This approach is inspired by the Critical Thinking and Book Time approach (Roche, 2010, 2015). The program, based on the scales and competences of the Βar-On (2006) model of social-emotional intelligence, explores the way young readers interpret social-emotional skills when discussing about literary characters in children’s picture books. This paper examines the philosophy, the main characteristics and structure of the program, and presents the first r...

“The Photographer of the Day”: Using a Digital Camera in Preschool Classroom, 2023

Children use digital cameras from very early age as the progress of technology provides accessibl... more Children use digital cameras from very early age as the progress of technology provides accessible tools such as smartphones and tablets in everyday life. Children use the photographic medium to create their own photos, take photos to represent and explore their environment, to communicate with others, etc. By designing and implementing a visual literacy program focused on the impact of using the photographic medium from preschoolers, the researcher examines how children behave when they use the camera or are photographed in the class environment. The dimensions examined are the role of the child as a photographer and the role as the subject of the photograph and how the medium affects children's behavior. The results highlight the impact of the medium in preschoolers' behaviors when using a digital camera, and the importance of the observation in children's' reactions for the adults.

‘Love Cannot be Framed.’ A Visual Art Project during the Pandemic, 2023

Distance and communication during the Covid-19 pandemic have been one of the challenges of the la... more Distance and communication during the Covid-19 pandemic have been one of the challenges of the last two years worldwide. While traveling was difficult, new technologies and visual stimuli provided opportunities to overcome those obstacles. This paper describes the art project titled Love cannot be framed implemented by Wally De Doncker and Katerina Dermata. While "trapped" in their own countries, the two authors creatively challenged each other during the pandemic. Every week they proposed a theme to each other and took photos from their own living environment in Belgium and Greece. The authors created a synthesis by combining those photos, one Greek and one Belgian for each theme. As a writer, Wally De Doncker interpreted each synthesis with a literary and philosophical methodology and created an artistic album. This art project indicated that distance is only sometimes a barrier to creativity. It is an example of how love bridges a global epidemic.

The research on short stories for children has focused in Greece mostly on their literary, pedago... more The research on short stories for children has focused in Greece mostly on their literary, pedagogical, linguistic and educational aspects. This paper attempts to approach Short Form Stories for children under the light of social semiotics, the main elements being the author’s choices in sign-creation process and its interpretation by the reader. In the case of short stories, the recipient is the child, who for the first time tries to decode without help the verbal text and to enter - symbolically but also in reality – to the literate society. This moment of the reader's first encounter with a multimodal text is crucial to her/his future reading behaviour. The paper examines the concept of the ‘Horis sosivio’ (without lifejacket) series, as evidenced at the level of visual design and the combination of text and image for the construction of meaning, as well as the interpretation of the visual text by preschool children as participants in meaning production.

Journal of Visual Literacy

The research on short stories for children has focused in Greece mostly on their literary, pedago... more The research on short stories for children has focused in Greece mostly on their literary, pedagogical, linguistic and educational aspects. This paper attempts to approach Short Form Stories for children under the light of social semiotics, the main elements being the author’s choices in sign-creation process and its interpretation by the reader. In the case of short stories, the recipient is the child, who for the first time tries to decode without help the verbal text and to enter - symbolically but also in reality – to the literate society. This moment of the reader's first encounter with a multimodal text is crucial to her/his future reading behaviour. The paper examines the concept of the ‘Horis sosivio’ (without lifejacket) series, as evidenced at the level of visual design and the combination of text and image for the construction of meaning, as well as the interpretation of the visual text by preschool children as participants in meaning production.

Journal of Visual Literacy

The research on short stories for children has focused in Greece mostly on their literary, pedago... more The research on short stories for children has focused in Greece mostly on their literary, pedagogical, linguistic and educational aspects. This paper attempts to approach Short Form Stories for children under the light of social semiotics, the main elements being the author’s choices in sign-creation process and its interpretation by the reader. In the case of short stories, the recipient is the child, who for the first time tries to decode without help the verbal text and to enter - symbolically but also in reality – to the literate society. This moment of the reader's first encounter with a multimodal text is crucial to her/his future reading behaviour. The paper examines the concept of the ‘Horis sosivio’ (without lifejacket) series, as evidenced at the level of visual design and the combination of text and image for the construction of meaning, as well as the interpretation of the visual text by preschool children as participants in meaning production.

The chapter explores how illustration offers young readers a range of visual challenges in interp... more The chapter explores how illustration offers young readers a range of visual challenges in interpreting the emotions and the social-emotional skills demonstrated by literary characters when reading picture books. Literature studies focus either in the texts or in the response of the readers; our research attempts to combine two aspects: the creation and the interpretation. The author studies the choices of the creatorsemphasizing on the illustration, and how those choices affect children's interpretation. To achieve this, the author applies a dual research design called the Social-Emotional Profile (SEP) and Book-based Social Emotional Thinking (BEST). The first approach focuses on visual elements that sketch the social-emotional skills of the literary characters. The second approach is an empirical program of reading with preschoolers to explore the way young readers interpret social-emotional skills based on the visual elements. This work involves an experimental process which combines theory from the fields of children's literature and cognitive literary approach, visual studies, social-emotional intelligence and applied educational research. The corpus of the study consists of five Greek awarded children's books published from 2014 to 2017. The initial findings indicate that discussing with preschoolers about the socialemotional profile of the literary characters is a challenging procedure, due to the complex nature of picture books and the special characteristics of preschoolers as readers. Insights gained from the implementing the procedure identify visual elements and choices made by the creators as playing key roles to the interpretation of the SEP of the literary characters.

Using a digital camera to achieve a successful result requires from the user, first and foremost,... more Using a digital camera to achieve a successful result requires from the user, first and foremost, to be familiar with the proper use of the medium and to have obtained basic knowledge of the principles of the art of photography. What is the result in those cases where the photographer either does not know the basic principles of photography or cannot apply them effectively in practice? Is the product considered a "failure" thus leaving photos with no clear and recognizable objects? This paper focuses on designing and implementing an applied educational intervention, themed on "shaken" photos taken by preschoolers and using this material to create digital narratives. This case study examines "shaken" photos as an opportunity to develop imagination and creativity through photography.

Purpose-The contribution of children's literature to the social-emotional development of children... more Purpose-The contribution of children's literature to the social-emotional development of children has been recognized across disciplines. Especially picture books, as multimodal texts which communicate with young readers with two codes simultaneously, can be a potential means of fostering empathy in young children (Nikolajeva, 2013). The purpose of this paper is to introduce the program "My BEST friends, the books," an empirical project (in progress) based on a Book-Based Emotional Social Thinking approach. Design/methodology/approach-This approach is inspired by the Critical Thinking and Book Time approach (Roche, 2010, 2015). The program, based on the scales and competences of the Βar-On (2006) model of social-emotional intelligence, explores the way young readers interpret social-emotional skills when discussing about literary characters in children's picture books. This paper examines the philosophy, the main characteristics and structure of the program, and presents the first results of the pilot phase. Findings-The initial findings indicate that the design and implementation of such a program is a complex procedure that requires from the researcher to take into consideration various aspects that concern both the material and the participants, but also to step back and let children express their thoughts freely. Originality/value-Moreover, such discussions allow for understanding how preschoolers interpret the social-emotional skills of literary characters in a critical manner.