The topicality of the research lies in the fact that negative changes in modern children’ development are more common nowadays.The aim of the article is to analyse peculiarities of the child’s emotional development in senior preschool age. The following key features of the preschooler’s emotional sphere were singled out in scientific literature: the ability to realize emotional states of others around him, the ability to empathize. During diagnostics, the formation of the following indicators was checked: awareness of emotional states of others and the ability to empathize. The following methods were used: «Study of understanding the emotional states of people», «Study of children’s awareness of moral norms» (G.Uruntayeva, Y.Afonkina), «The nature of empathic reactions’ manifestations in behaviour» (A. Shchetinina), «Unfinished stories» (T. Gavrilova). The analysis of the methods showed that 70.5% of older preschoolers demonstrate zero and elementary levels of awareness of the emotional states of others. This is manifested in the fact that preschoolers partially understand the emotional states of others, allow inaccuracies when asked to determine them. As a rule, children cannot identify mimics which helped them to identify emotions. In most cases, preschoolers mention situations or possible causes of the emotional states being assessed. Zero and elementary levels of empathy were demonstrated by 56.3% of preschoolers. Children show occasional interest in the emotional behavior of their peers, sometimes «get infected» by their emotional state. Manifestations of empathy are isolated and often depend on the presence of an adult. As a rule, preschoolers understand the situation only from their point of view, thus there is no peer orientation.