Integrating excluded children through experiential games

Abstract

The study focuses on children who have been verbally, physically and/or socially bullying by their peers. In the last three decades, the investigation of the phenomenon of school bullying has become an increasingly researched field, one of the main causes of which is the significant increase in the number of child suicides. As a result, the development and application of numerous prevention and intervention programs became a priority, the aim of which is to reduce this deviant phenomenon in educational institutions. The existence of these programs and initiatives helps to create communities in which hurtful behavior occurs in low numbers. In the course of this research, I chose experiential pedagogic games. In the center of the reform pedagogy method I have chosen, the promotion of the creation of social relations and the strengthening of the existing ones becomes the priority. During experiential pedagogic games, children can experience flow, the positive benefits of interdependence, and the new knowledge they get when leaving their comfort zone. The obtained results will be presented and interpreted in the experimental part of the study. As a research tool, I chose sociometry, which demonstrates the relationship network of the given class. During the pre-survey, two children (a girl and a boy) did not have a mutual relationship, and then, through the consciously guided experiential pedagogic game, the result of the post-survey was that these children managed to establish a mutual relationship.