The study was carried out in during the year 2018-20 in Dharwad taluk of Karnataka state. The aim of the study was to evaluate the emotional and social development of children in rural and urban settings and determine how age affects children' socio- emotional development in rural and urban setting. A total of 208 children aged three to six years, comprising 104 from rural and 104 from urban areas, were chosen for the study. The necessary information was gathered using a general information questionnaire. Children in preschool were assessed for their socio-emotional development using the Transdisciplinary Play Based Assessment-2 tool. The influence of play-based activities on socio-emotional development was observed, analyzed, and studied using a qualitative approach that employed the naturalistic observation method. A study involved combination of participant observation, which comprised taking field notes, and video capturing of children engaged in unstructured play allowed for the creation of naturalistic observations. Most of the children in both rural and urban anganwadis fell into the Socio-emotional development watch and concern category, according to the results. Age and children's Socio-emotional development were discovered to be significantly correlated and different. The results of the t-test analysis with regard to age indicated that, there was a significant difference at the 0.01 percent significance level in the socio-emotional development of children. Children in the 49–60month age group (37.17) and the 36–48 month age group (32.44) had considerably lower mean scores (39.05) than children in the 61–72 month age group, as indicated by the difference value.

Socio-emotional development, preschoolers, play based activities, ECCE centres

In terms of their socio-emotional development, the majority of children in both rural and urban anganwadis fell into the watch and concern group. A noteworthy correlation was discovered between the kind of early childhood education facilities and the socio-emotional development of kids. Age and children's socio-emotional development were found to be significantly correlated. The socio-emotional development of children was found to be highly correlated with age, with older children (5–6 years old) scoring significantly higher on these domains.

Soumya Hirelingannavar and Manjula Patil (2023). Investigating Age Differences in Socio-emotional Development of Children Attending Different ECCE Centers. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 15(12): 378-384.