The Effects of Poem Reading Activity on Emotional Regulation and Concentration in Five-year-old Children

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of children's poem reading activity on emotional regulation and concentration in five-year-old children. This study formulated following research questions: First, Does... [ view full abstract ]

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of children's poem reading activity on emotional regulation and concentration in five-year-old children. This study formulated following research questions: First, Does children's poem reading activity influence their emotional regulation? Second, Does children's poem reading activity influence their concentration? This study selected 40 five-year-old children attending two day care centers, 20 for an experimental group and another 20 for a control group. The experimental group and the control group were selected from similar-sized day care centers located in the same region. Children's poem reading activity was repetitively done in the experimental group, everyday at the appointed time during their routine. In this study, the following tools were used. First, children’s emotional regulation were measured using Lee Gyeong-ra (2007)’s research based on Salovey and Mayer (1990, 1996), Goleman (1995), and Saarni (1990)’s studies. Second, to measure children’s concentration, this study employed Corbett (1998)’s Mr. CUCUI which Oh Yeon-ju and Jo Bok-hui (2001) used after modification and complementation in the study on correlation between children’s concentration and motor ability. Mr. CUCUI, the concentration test, was conducted in a silent environment outside their classroom where they could pay attention under the teacher’s instruction. Both the experimental and control groups received pre- and post-tests commonly to examine their self-regulation, and in the teacher’s free choice activity class, it was done by the teacher’s observation in natural condition. Data collected were performed using the SPSS-WIN 23.0 Program. The results of this study are as follows.: First, children's poem reading activity influences children’s development of emotional regulation significantly. Second, children's poem reading activity influences children’s development of concentration significantly. These results imply that repetitive and continuous children's poem reading activity can be an effective teaching­learning method to develop children’s emotional regulation and concentration.