From Early Childhood to Special Education: Interactive Digital Storytelling as a Coaching Approach for Fostering Social Empathy

Much research is being conducted over the years about the social inclusion of individuals with special needs. These individuals have to face their own deficiencies in social interaction, but also the social exclusion by other members of their environment. This results often in isolation and the enhancement of their social problems, especially in the case on inclusive classrooms. In this paper, a case study regarding (social) empathy fostering in early childhood with the exploitation of the interactive digital storytelling approach is described. The results were positive. Considering the incomplete development of social dexterities of 3-5 year old children and its similarity to social deficiencies of individuals with special needs, this paper builds a discussion upon the exploitation of the same technique within Special Education as a future research path.