The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of small group paper-folding activity on young children’s spatial perception, social and language ability.
To acquire the purpose of the study, study questions are as follows;
First, What is the e...
The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of small group paper-folding activity on young children’s spatial perception, social and language ability.
To acquire the purpose of the study, study questions are as follows;
First, What is the effect of small group paper-folding activity on young children’s spatial perception?
Second, What is the effect of small group paper-folding activity on young children’s social ability?
Third, What is the effect of small group paper-folding activity on young children’s language ability?
The subjects used in this study were 48 children who were attending at Y kindergarten located in A town, Gyeonggi–do. They was divided into two groups, one is experimental group(24 children) and the other one is comparative group(24 chidlren).
To measure the children’s spatial perception, 'Korea-Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Third Edition : K-WISC-Ⅲ', was used. And as a Measurement of the children’s social ability, 'The Bronson Social and Task Skill Profile' made by Bronson(1985) was used. As a Measurement of the children’s language ability, 'The Construction Meaning Comprehension Test for Children' made by Seoul Community Rehabilitation Center(2004) was also used.
The Pre-Experimental Test, Pre-test, Experimental Treatment and Post-test were processed in order. The experimental treatment was conducted from June 20 to July 15, 2011. Experimental group participated in paper-folding activity in small group(3 children) and these treatment carried out 4 times a week during 4 weeks.
To verify the effects of small group paper-folding activity on young children’s spatial perception, social and language ability, the data gained from the pre and post tests were analyzed by SPSS 18.0 computer program and t-test was used to measure signification.
The results of this research are summarized as follows.
First, small group paper-folding activity influenced with positive effect on the spatial perception of young children. In 'Block Design', 'Object Assembly' and 'Mazes' which are sub-categories of K-WISC-Ⅲ, experimental group showed a significant difference comparing with comparative group.
Second, small group paper-folding activity influenced with positive effect on the social ability of young children. In 'Social Control' and 'Cooperation Strategies' which are sub-categories of The Bronson Social and Task Skill Profile, experimental group showed a significant difference comparing with comparative group.
And third, small group paper-folding activity influenced with positive effect on the language ability of young children. In 'construction' and 'meaning' which are sub-categories of Construction Meaning Comprehension Test for children, experimental group showed a significant difference comparing with comparative group.
In conclusion, the research showed that small group paper-folding activity had the positive effects on the young children’s spatial perception, social and language ability. This results proved the validity of small group paper-folding activity application to early childhood education field. Therefore, it suggests that small group paper-folding activity can be available as the effective activities for improving the children's spatial perception, social and language ability.