Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
29th EAS Conference “Music and Meaning”, 18-21 May 2022- Belgrade, Belgrade, Sırbistan, 18 Mayıs 2022, ss.71-72
Social and
Emotional Skills Development at Early Childhood through Integrated Music
Activities within “Creative Drama”
This study examines children’s social and emotional skills development by integrating music and
creative drama under the Erasmus + project SESDECE (Social and Emotional
Development at Early Childhood Education). The project aims to provide
cooperation between schools and parents by creating guideline programs for the
adaptation process of children to prevent social and emotional problems in the
first year at school.
To achieve academic success, the
project provides a good start and school adaptation environment by preparing
children, parents, schools and teachers for this challenge. In this context,
the current research focuses on an integrated approach using music and creative
drama to investigate preschool children’s social and emotional skills
development.
Music has an immense impact on
the emotional development of the individual. Moreover, music education raises awareness of the development of children's emotional skills. However,
many scholars emphasize the lack of studies on the effects of teaching
emotional skills on musical development (Campayo-Muñoz & Cabedo-Mas,
2017). Besides, creative drama is a learning tool that activates the senses and
offers opportunities for children to use their natural power of imagination.
The research sample consisted
of five-year-old children in a state preschool in Bursa/Turkey. First, a
personal information form was used to obtain data on children and their
parents. After, the Vineland Social-Emotional Early Childhood Scale developed
by Sparrow et al. (1998) was applied to determine children’s social-emotional
behaviours.
The researchers have
integrated music activities with creative drama regarding preschool-aged
children’s social and emotional skills development. After the teaching process,
which lasted two months, the scale was applied again as a post-test. The
preliminary results will be reviewed, and implications for music education
regarding the significance of music on emotional and social
skills development in the early years will be discussed.
Key Words: Social-emotional
skills, integrated music lessons, creative drama, preschool-aged children