This study aims to know the effect of social dramatic play on young children's social competence.
The research questions are as follows.
1) What effects does social dramatic play have on young children's social competence?
1-1. Does social dramatic...
This study aims to know the effect of social dramatic play on young children's social competence.
The research questions are as follows.
1) What effects does social dramatic play have on young children's social competence?
1-1. Does social dramatic play affect young children's individual emotion control competence?
1-2. Does social dramatic play affect young children's personal relations building competence?
1-3. Does social dramatic play affect young children's adjustment competence?
The subjects of this study were 52 children, 26 of 5 age(14 boys and 12 girls) from a class for an experimental group and another 26(14 boys and 12 girls) from another class for a controlled group, at S school annexed kindergarten in Paryong-dong, Changwon, Kyungnam
To implement the social dramatic play, the experimental group selected everyday life as its subject, such as a mole's family play, a restaurant play, a beauty shop play, a laundry play, and a supermarket play, and practically used an integrating activity and Smilansky's play intervention program. The controlled group with no prearranged plan developed a dramatic play of housekeeping, which the children had experienced before.
The process of the study included a pre-test, an experiment measure, and a post-test. The pre-test and the post-test were conducted for 3 weeks each, before and after the implementation of the program.
The test materials used for this study were McGinnis and Goldstein's Social Competence Test, adapted and adjusted by Lee, Wonyeong, Park, Chanog, and Noh, Yeonghee, and Kim, Yeongog's material, recomposed into 5 steps and scores. To help the young children to understand the contents, Kim, Yeokyung's pictures from〈Appendix 2〉 were used for each content.
To analyze the collected data, Covariance Analysis was used with SPSS 10.0k, using groups(a controlled group and an experimental group) as an independent variable, the pre-score of young children's social competence(individual emotion control competence, personal relations building competence, and adjustment competence) as a common variable, and the post-score of their social competence as a dependent variable.
The results of this study are as follows.
First, the young children in the experimental group had showed more developed overall social competence than children in the controlled group.
Second, the young children in the experimental group had showed more developed individual emotion control competence, a sub-factor of social competence, in the situations of teased, left out, unfair, and punished for wrong doings.
Third, the young children in the experimental group had showed more developed personal relations building competence, a sub-factor of social competence, such as participating in play, waiting for their turns, sharing toys, helping and comforting.
Fourth, no big difference had been found in both groups for adjustment competence, a sub-factor of social competence, such as telling their thinking and feeling, asking for consent, following directions, diligently doing the heavy task, and requesting.
The results of this study present that social dramatic play with theme had effects on developing individual emotion control competence(in the situations of left out from friends, getting angry, and teased from friends) and personal relations building competence(in the condition of participating in play, waiting for their turns, sharing, and helping friends). This results show that social dramatic play is a helpful activity to develop social competence, which is necessary to social development.