Education Commons^™

The Effect Of Dramatic Play On Children's Graphic Representation Of Emotion, Lynda Anne Kapsch

Communication Sciences and Disorders Dissertations

Drawing is valued as a non-verbal assessment tool to measure children's conceptual development and emotional state. Drawing has also been described as a problem-solving activity and unique symbol system. Although drama has been known to facilitate learning in other symbol systems, such as reading and writing, and to bring about advances in perspective taking and understanding of emotion, its impact on drawing has not been previously examined. In this study, Kindergarten and first grade children were instructed to draw a happy tree, sad tree, and angry tree before and after a 10-hour drama intervention. Half of the children participated in …