Supporting the Social-Emotional Skills of Preschool Children Through Creative Dance and Musical Stories

Abstract

Aim: The study aimed to support the social-emotional skills of five- and six-year-old children by utilizing creative dance and musical storytellingMethods: The study was designed using a pre-post quasi-experimental model involving an experimental and a control group. The participants were 58 children enrolled in kindergarten at an elementary school during the 2023–2024 academic year. Twenty-nine children were assigned to the experimental group and 29 to the control group. The Social Competence and Behavior Evaluation-30 (SCBE-30) scale was administered to all children as a pre- and post-test. As part of the study, eight creative dance and musical story activities were conducted with the experimental group twice a week over a four-week period. The Mann–Whitney U and Wilcoxon Signed-Rank tests were used to analyze the dataResults: A difference in favor of the experimental group was observed on the anxiety dimension. Although the difference was statistically significant, the effect size was found to be marginal.Conclusion: It has been determined that these activities make a limited positive contribution to supporting behaviors associated with anxiety and introversion.