From the author: Yuliya Valerievna Lazareva (2018), senior lecturer of the Department of Psychology and Pedagogy of Childhood, Tyumen State University (Tyumen, Russia). Alexandra Evgenevna Rudakova (2018), Bachelor of Arts in Psychological and Pedagogical Education, Tyumen State University (Tyumen, Russia). The article is devoted to the development of emotional intelligence in children of senior preschool age using art therapy methods. The relevance of the study is due to the need to develop a child’s potential in the sphere of interaction with other people and the formation of a resource for social success. The article contains a review of scientific publications aimed at studying human emotional intelligence, as well as studying a group of art therapy methods that are effective in working with children. Definitions of such phenomena as “art therapy” and “emotional intelligence” are given. The author's definition of the concept “emotional intelligence” is proposed. Attention is paid to the structure of emotional intelligence, the content of such components of emotional intelligence as perception, identification of emotions, and determination of the causes of their occurrence is considered. Key words: emotional intelligence; art therapy; preschool children; development program.1. Introduction to the problem In the federal state educational standard for preschool education, which came into force on January 1, 2014, the target values ​​of preschool education include the ability to take into account the interests and feelings of other people, empathize with failures, and rejoice in the successes of others. Section 2.6 of the document, within the framework of the social and communicative direction of children’s education, notes the need for “the development of social and emotional intelligence, emotional responsiveness, and empathy” [Federal State Educational Standards for Educational Education, 2013]. The development of emotional intelligence influences the development of personality during preschool childhood, ensures productive communication, knowledge of social phenomena, and in general is a condition for the socialization of a preschooler. The inability to understand one’s own emotions and the emotions of other people, to correctly assess the reactions of others, as well as the inability to regulate one’s own emotions often lead to destructive behavior and social maladjustment. Thus, the development of emotional intelligence in preschool children can be considered as an important scientific and practical task, the solution of which is associated with the formation of a potential resource for social success. At the same time, the content of the pedagogical activities of kindergarten teachers, as a rule, does not include special types of work aimed at developing the components of children’s emotional intelligence. Based on this, there is a need to find an effective way to develop emotional intelligence, in particular, in a preschool setting. The identified contradictions determined our further research activities. The object of the study is the process of development of emotional intelligence in preschool children. The subject of the study is a set of art methods that promote the development of emotional intelligence in children of senior preschool age. The purpose of the study is to develop and implement a program for the development of emotional intelligence in children of senior preschool age using art therapy. The research hypothesis is that the use of such art methods as reflection of a person’s emotional states through drawing, role-playing emotional states, joining the emotional states of characters through literary creativity, contribute to the development of such components of emotional intelligence as perception, assessment, identification of one’s emotions and emotions other people, determining the causes of their occurrence. The theoretical basis of the study is the model of emotional intelligence of J. Mayer, P. Salovey, D. Caruso, the theoretical principles of D. V. Lyusin;theoretical principles in the field of art therapy by A. I. Kopytina, E. E. Svistovskaya, M. V. Kiseleva, I. Yu. Levchenko. The empirical study was carried out on the basis of the MADOU TsRR kindergarten No. 135 in the city of Tyumen. Children of the senior group of kindergarten (5-6 years old) in the amount of 30 people took part in the survey. To study the characteristics of children’s perception and understanding of the depicted emotional states of a person, a set of techniques developed by A. M. Shchetinina was used (stimulus material for the techniques was selected by Yu. V. Lazareva). In particular, the following subtests were used: 1) selection of an image to a verbal description of the situation (the ability to understand expression and correlate the emotional state with its facial display is studied, that is, to identify emotions); 2) “verbal fixation” of signs of expression based on the image (the ability to identify and name the signs of certain emotional states is studied, that is, to perceive and evaluate emotions); 3) “vocalization”, or “revival”, of the perceived character (allows us to study the ability to empathy, the ability to reveal the reasons, the subtext of the experience, that is, analyze emotional states, understand the reasons for their occurrence) [Shchetinina, 2000].2. Review of research on the topic The phenomenon of “emotional intelligence” was studied by foreign and domestic scientists, in particular, D. Goleman, R. Bar-On, S. Stein, G. Book, J. Mayer, P. Salovey, D. Caruso, D. V. Lyusin, I. N. Andreeva, O. A. Aigunova, etc. The first studies of emotional intelligence appeared in scientific articles in the 80-90s of the 20th century. R. Bar-On was the first to introduce the designation EQ (emotional quotinent) in his doctoral dissertation [Bar-On, 2006]. Exploring the issue of people achieving general emotional health, he considered emotional intelligence as all non-cognitive abilities, knowledge and competence that give a person the opportunity to successfully cope with various life situations.S. Stein and G. Book defined emotional intelligence as the ability to correctly interpret a situation and influence it, predict the desires and needs of other people, and assess their strengths and weaknesses [Stein et al., 2007]. D. Goleman, in his model of emotional intelligence, identified four areas of competencies: self-awareness, self-control, social sensitivity and relationship management [Goleman, 1998]. P. Salovey, J. Mayer and D. Caruso proposed a model of emotional intelligence and defined it as a set of skills expressed in the accurate assessment of one’s own and others’ emotions and their effective regulation. They identified such components of emotional intelligence as identifying emotions, using emotions to improve the efficiency of thinking and activity, understanding and analyzing emotions, and consciously managing them [Mayer et al., 2001]. The works of domestic scientists L. S. Vygotsky, S. L. Rubinstein, A. N. Leontyev presented key ideas that contributed to the development of the concept of “emotional intelligence”. L. S. Vygotsky came to the conclusion about the existence of a dynamic semantic system, which represents the unity of affective and intellectual processes: “Whoever separated thinking from the very beginning from affect has forever closed the way to explaining the causes of thinking itself, because a deterministic analysis of thinking necessarily presupposes revealing the driving motives of thought, needs and interests, motives and tendencies that direct the movement of thought in one direction or another" [Vygotsky, 1982, p. 21]. S. L. Rubinstein, developing the ideas of L. S. Vygotsky, noted that thinking in itself is a unity of the emotional and rational [Rubinstein, 1973]. In Russian psychology, the most famous concept is emotional intelligence, developed by D. V. Lyusin. Considering the phenomenon of emotional intelligence, D. V. Lyusin defines it as the ability to understand one’s own and others’ emotions and manage them. The ability to understand emotions, in his opinion, means that a person can determine a factthe presence of emotional experience in oneself or in another; the ability to identify emotion - its definition and verbal expression; Another component is understanding the causes of emotion and the consequences of its manifestation. The ability to control emotions assumes that a person can control the intensity of emotions, primarily dampening excessively strong ones, and can also control the external expression of emotions and, if necessary, voluntarily evoke one or another of them. According to D.V. Lyusin, “emotional intelligence is a psychological formation that is formed during a person’s life under the influence of a number of factors that determine its level and specific individual characteristics” [Lyusin, 2004, p. 34]. After analyzing the scientific literature on the problem, we developed the following definition of emotional intelligence. EMOTIONAL IINTELLIGENCE is a psychological formation that arose on the basis of the relationship between emotional and cognitive processes, allowing one to process the information contained in emotions (perceive, identify, determine causality ) and use the results to improve the efficiency of the thinking process and regulate your own emotions. The phenomenon of “art therapy” was studied by A. I. Kopytin, E. E. Svistovskaya, V. N. Nikitin, M. V. Kiseleva, A. A. Suchilin, L. A. Tikhonovich; the features of the use of art therapy in preschool age were studied by T. D. Zinkevich-Evstigneeva and others [Kopytin et al., 2010, p. 7; Nikitin, 2014, etc.]. A. I. Kopytin and E. E. Svistovskaya believe that art therapy is based on an interdisciplinary approach that combines various fields of knowledge - psychology, medicine, pedagogy, cultural studies, etc. Its basis is artistic practice, since during art therapy sessions clients are involved in visual activities. A.I. Kopytin gives the following definition: “Art therapy is a direction in psychocorrection based on clients’ engagement in visual arts” [Kopytin et al., 2010, p. 7]. V. N. Nikitin identifies the main directions of art therapeutic activity: 1) therapy with visual and plastic artistic means - art therapy, clay therapy, mask therapy, phototherapy, collage, etc.; 2) drama therapy; 3) music therapy; 4) dance movement therapy; 5) fairytale therapy [Nikitin, 2014]. I. Yu. Levchenko and E. A. Medvedeva identify several areas of art therapy that can be used in correctional and developmental work with children: isotherapy, bibliotherapy (exposure to reading), imagotherapy (exposure through images, theatricalization), music therapy, vocal therapy , kinesitherapy (dance therapy, corrective rhythm), etc. [Levchenko et al., 2001]. M. V. Kiseleva writes that the achievement of positive psychocorrectional results in art therapy occurs due to the following phenomena: development and increased attention to one’s feelings and experiences, which increases self-esteem; the creative process itself, which makes it possible to freely express one’s feelings, needs and fantasies in the form of a creative product (drawing, collage, sculpture, sound composition, fairy tale, dance) and is a safe way to relieve tension; the emergence of a sense of internal control and order, since creativity leads to the need to organize the surrounding space; mastering new forms of experience [Kiseleva, 2007]. 3. Analysis and discussion of the results To study the current development of children's emotional intelligence and the further formation of the experimental group, a confirmatory experiment was conducted. According to the results of the “Selection of an image to a verbal description of the situation” technique, it was revealed that the majority of children in the sample (70%) are quite good at identifying emotions. Children with a low level (17%) are characterized by difficulty in naming an emotion in a word or the inability to correctly define it (for example, they confuse surprise with joy, find it difficult to name the emotion of fear, identify a cheerful moodas good, and sadness as bad). The results of using the method “Verbal recording of signs of expression based on images” show that in most children the ability to assess and perceive the emotional state is expressed quite well (average level - 60%, high level - 20%) . This can be explained by the fact that the illustrative diagnostic material had a storyline, and the emotional state of the characters could be determined not only by facial expressions, but by pantomime. A low level of development of this component is present in 20% of the sample. Using the “Verification” method of a perceived character, it was revealed that the ability to empathy, the ability to analyze emotional states, and understand the reasons for their occurrence in most children are developed at a sufficient level (average level - 50%, high level - 40%). 10% of children with a low level of development had difficulty verbalizing the emotional state of surprise (confused with a state of fear). As a result of the diagnostic cross-section, from the examined 30 children of the older group, 11 people with a low level of development of emotional intelligence were selected for a formative experiment. In order to develop the emotional intelligence of children, a developmental program was created. The tasks included: 1) developing the ability to recognize the emotions of other people and one’s own; 2) developing the ability to determine the causes of emotions; 3) developing the ability to control emotions and use them to achieve goals. The program is intended for group work with children 5-7 years old, includes 30 lessons, with a frequency of meetings 3 times a week, lasting 25-30 minutes. The program implementation period is January 22 – March 18, 2018. The structure of the program consists of 3 blocks related to the objectives of the development program: 1) perception of emotions; 2) understanding one’s own and others’ emotions; 3) managing emotions. The program was developed taking into account the age patterns and developmental capabilities of children of senior preschool age. At this age, the leading type of activity is play, which is why classes are conducted in a playful way. The main developmental methods of the program are art methods, which include role-playing emotional states characteristic of a person, reflecting various emotional states through drawing, and joining the emotional states of characters through literary creativity. After the implementation of the development program, a control diagnostic section was performed. According to the “Selection of an image to a verbal description of the situation” method, at the stage of the ascertaining experiment, a low level of development of this component was found in 4 children of the experimental group, an average level in 7 children, and there were no children with a high level of development of this component. After conducting a formative experiment, the children’s level of ability to understand expression increased and their active vocabulary increased. This is evidenced by the following - there are no children left with a low level of development of this component, at the same time, the number of children with an average level increased to 8, and a high level - to 3 people. After the program, the children’s vocabulary of emotions was enriched, they began to better understand their own emotions and the emotions of other people. This was noted both during developmental work and after re-diagnosis. Using the “Verbal fixation of signs of expression based on an image” method, at the ascertaining stage the following distribution according to the levels of development of this component was revealed: 6 children had an average level, 4 children had a low level level. After the formative experiment, these same children showed increased levels of understanding of expression and cause-and-effect relationships. There are no children left with a low level of development of this component, at the same time, the number of children with a high level increased to 6 people, and the average level was detected in 5 children. Children began to understand and evaluate emotions much better, and they acquired the ability to substantiate reasonsthe appearance of one or another emotion. According to the “Normanization” method of a perceived character, the following distribution according to development levels can be noted: 2 children have a low level, 7 children have an average level. After the formative experiment, the indicators of the level of development in children increased: 1 child had a low level of development, 5 children had an average level, 5 children had a high level of development of the ability to get used to the condition of another person. Children began to better understand the emotional states of other people, analyze and identify the causes of emotions. It is important to note that in one girl the level of development of this component of emotional intelligence remained low, since she rarely attended kindergarten and, accordingly, was rarely included in the developmental work of the program. To statistically confirm the effectiveness of the developmental program, the Wilcoxon T-test was used. The results of the experimental sample were compared before and after the formative experiment. Significance was revealed at the level of 0.01 according to the Wilcoxon T-test for all subtests. Thus, the components of emotional intelligence - perception, assessment, identification of emotions, empathy, analysis, understanding of emotions - developed through such techniques as reflecting a person’s emotional states through a drawing, role-playing emotional states, joining the emotional states of characters through literary creativity, which correspond to the areas of art therapy - isotherapy, fairy tale therapy, music therapy, dance therapy. The hypothesis put forward is confirmed. The program “Development of emotional intelligence of children of senior preschool age through art methods” is recommended for use in the work of educational psychologist MADOU TsRR - d/s No. 135 of the city of Tyumen. 4. Conclusions As a result of the ascertaining experiment, it was revealed that among the children who had mastered the program and were examined, the ability to understand expression and correlate the emotional state with its facial display, that is, to identify emotions, was developed in the following ratio: 17% - low level, 70% - average level , 13% is a high level. The ability to identify and name the signs of certain emotional states, that is, to perceive and evaluate emotions, is developed in children as follows: 20% - low level, 60% - average level, 20% - high level. The ability to empathy, the ability to reveal the subtext of an experience, that is, to analyze emotional states and understand the reasons for their occurrence, has the following results: 10% - low level, 50% - average level, 40% - high level. After the formative experiment, the development levels of all diagnosed components of children’s emotional intelligence increased: the ability to understand expression and correlate the emotional state with its facial display, that is, identify emotions (low level - from 4 people to 0, medium level - from 7 to 8 people, high level — from 0 to 3 people); the ability to identify and name the signs of certain emotional states, that is, to perceive and evaluate emotions (low level - from 4 people to 0, medium level - from 6 to 5 people, high level - from 1 to 6 people); the ability to empathize, the ability to reveal the subtext of an experience, that is, to analyze emotional states and understand the reasons for their occurrence (low level - from 2 to 1 person, medium level - from 7 to 5 people, high level - from 2 to 5 people). Developmental effectiveness program for preschoolers was confirmed using mathematical statistics using the Wilcoxon T-test. Significance was found at the 0.01 level according to the Wilcoxon T-test for all subtests. Thus, the hypothesis of this study was completely confirmed. Literature1. Art pedagogy and art therapy in special education: a textbook for students / E. A. Medvedeva, I. Yu. Levchenko, L. N. Komissarova, T. A. Dobrovolskaya. - Moscow: Academy, 2001. - 248 p.2. Vygotsky L. S. Collected Works: in 6 volumes. T. 2. Problems of general psychology / L. S.