Theatre in Education

G Model
EARCHI-983; No. of Pages 14 ARTICLE IN PRESS

Early Childhood Research Quarterly xxx (2018) xxx–xxx
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Early Childhood Research Quarterly
Does theatre-in-education promote early childhood development?

The effect of drama on language, perspective-taking, and imagination夽
Wendy K. Mages
Mercy College, 555 Broadway, Dobbs Ferry, NY 10522, United States
a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
Article history: This quasi-experimental, multi-method study examines whether participation in a preschool theatre-in-
Received 31 January 2017 education (TIE) program can promote emergent literacy, theory of mind, and imaginative development.
Received in revised form This research combines quantitative assessments of children’s narrative comprehension, narrative pro-
15 November 2017
duction, vocabulary development, false-belief understanding, and imagination skills with a qualitative
Accepted 22 December 2017
descriptive analysis of the implementation of a theatre-in-education program to investigate the effect
Available online xxx
of a respected preschool TIE program on the development of 155 urban children enrolled in Head Start.
Although the measures used were unable to detect a significant effect of the drama intervention, in the
Keywords:
Arts in education
current academic climate, in which an increasing focus on academics in preschool curricula can lead
Early childhood to the elimination of arts programming, it is worth noting that the inclusion of a TIE program did not
Early childhood education detract from the children’s acquisition of skills that contribute to school readiness; the scores on assess-
Educational drama ments of language, perspective-taking, and imagination were similar for children in the intervention and
Educational theatre comparison conditions. Thus, this study suggests that the inclusion of high-quality theatre arts curricula
Head Start in early childhood education can provide young children with an entertaining and engaging preschool
Imagination drama experience while providing academic supports commensurate with those of more traditional early
Language development
childhood programs.
Narrative development
© 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Preschool
Theatre in education
Theory of mind
1. Introduction lenged and [serve] the highest need student populations often
have the fewest arts opportunities” (President’s Committee on the
Educators, administrators, and policy makers are eager to find Arts and Humanities, 2011, p. 32). Including educational drama in
better ways to prepare young children for school success. Effec- early childhood curricula can provide a meaningful, engaging, and
tive preparation methods are particularly critical for children from educative experience for young learners, while working to counter
low-income families who, on average, begin school with less aca- the documented decline in arts education programming, which
demic proficiency than their more affluent peers (Beck, McKeown, disproportionally impacts children in low-income neighborhoods
& Kucan, 2002; Hart & Risley, 1995; Lee & Burkman, 2002; Snow, (Bassok et al., 2016; Goff & Ludwig, 2013; President’s Committee
Burns, & Griffin, 1998). Drama participation in early childhood has on the Arts and Humanities, 2011; Rabkin & Heberg, 2011). The
been shown to foster the development of children’s language skills current quasi-experimental, multi-method study employs quanti-
(Conard, 1992; Kardash & Wright, 1987; Lee, Patall, Cawthon, & tative assessments of children’s language, perspective-taking, and
Steingut, 2015; Podlozny, 2000) and is believed to promote chil- imaginative proficiencies, as well as a qualitative descriptive analy-
dren’s perspective-taking abilities (Hume & Wells, 1999; Wolf, sis of the implementation of a theatre-in-education (TIE) program,
1995) and imaginative propensities (McCaslin, 1996). However, to elucidate the impact of a respected preschool TIE program on the
evidence indicates that there is a decline in arts education in school development of urban children enrolled in Head Start.1
contexts (Bassok, Latham, & Rorem, 2016; Goff & Ludwig, 2013; Young children spend many of their waking hours in group care
President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities, 2011; Rabkin & settings. Early childhood group care settings, such as Head Start, are
Heberg, 2011) and that “students in schools that are most chal- specifically designed to enhance academic outcomes for children
夽 This research was supported in part by a Head Start Research Scholars Disserta-
1
tion Grant. Head Start is a US government funded preschool program for children whose
E-mail address: wmages@mercy.edu families live at or below the poverty line.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2017.12.006
0885-2006/© 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Please cite this article in press as: Mages, W.K. Does theatre-in-education promote early childhood development?. The effect of drama on
language, perspective-taking, and imagination. Early Childhood Research Quarterly (2018), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2017.12.006
G Model
2 W.K. Mages / Early Childhood Research Quarterly xxx (2018) xxx–xxx
from low-income families. Yet these child-care settings have been prehension, has been linked to scholastic success (DeTemple &
criticized as inadequately enriched language and literacy envi- Tabors, 1996). Peterson and McCabe (1994) noted that “the ability
ronments (Zigler & Styfco, 2004). This is particularly problematic to produce decontextualized language is a crucial skill underly-
because the language skills of children from lower SES families tend ing literacy acquisition” (p. 937). In other words, children’s literacy
be less developed than those of their peers from higher SES fami- skills were related to their ability to tell a story that could be under-
lies (Fernald, Marchman, & Weisleder, 2013; Fernald & Weisleder, stood by listeners who were not present when the events occurred.
2015; Hart & Risley, 1995; Hurtado, Marchman, & Fernald, 2007; However, research indicates that many children begin school
Leech, Rowe, & Huang, 2017), and young children’s language skills unable to create a sufficiently informative and well-structured nar-
have been shown to predict their ability to succeed in school rative (Paris & Paris, 2003).
(Durham, Farkas, Hammer, Tomblin, & Catts, 2007; Snow et al., Children from different cultures or ethnic groups acquire dif-
1998). ferent narrative styles (Blum-Kulka & Snow, 1992; Westby, 1985).
Children from middle-class families have opportunities to Thus, children’s home culture affects the narrative conventions
engage in a variety of activities, such as book-reading (Snow with which they are familiar (Michaels, 1981). When a child’s nar-
et al., 1998) and pretend play (Smilansky, 1968), that foster lan- rative conventions match those of the school context, classroom
guage development, as well as perspective taking and imagination. practices such as “show-and-tell” can be viewed as “oral prepara-
Research indicates that children from low-income families often tion for literacy” (p. 423). However, when the narrative style a child
have less exposure to these activities (Smilansky, 1968; Snow brings to school is dissimilar to classroom discourse conventions,
et al., 1998). It is, therefore, important for child-care programs that child’s ability to succeed at school may be jeopardized (Westby,
that work with children from low-income families to identify 1985). Research indicates that participating in educational drama
and implement curricula that can enhance children’s language, and theatre can promote narrative development (for a review of the
perspective-taking, and imaginative development. It would also literature, see Mages, 2017a). Engaging in language-based drama
be beneficial for child-care programs to include arts education and theatre activities has the potential to help young learners from
programs for children who otherwise might not have the oppor- low-SES families acquire language and narrative skills commensu-
tunity to engage in the arts. This study draws on research from rate with those of their middle class peers and may provide young
three disciplines—language development, cognitive development, English-language learners with a compelling context to develop
and educational drama and theatre—and data from an in-depth their English-language proficiency.
investigation of a well-respected theatre-in-education program to
examine the role that participating in TIE may play in preparing
Head Start children for school success. 2.2. Cognitive development
The Creative Arts Team’s Early Learning Through the Arts: New
York City Wolf Trap Program developed high-quality TIE curricula The acquisition of perspective-taking abilities, and the con-
for Head Start classrooms in New York City (City University of New comitant ability to comprehend other people’s mental states,
York: Creative Arts Team, 2007b). These curricula were designed is a hallmark of child development (Astington, 1993; Bradmetz
to foster the linguistic, perspective-taking, and imaginative skills of & Schneider, 1999; de Rosnay, Pons, Harris, & Morrell, 2004;
young participants. Identifying high-quality, educationally sound, Goldstein & Winner, 2012; Hofmann et al., 2016; Pons, Harris, &
early childhood practices that can be scaled up to reach a larger de Rosnay, 2004; Wellman & Liu, 2004). These abilities are often
group of children is essential for improving preschool education in referred to as children’s “theory of mind” (ToM). The developmen-
general, and may be especially important for improving preschool tal trajectory in which children typically acquire different aspects
education within the Head Start context. This study investigated the of theory of mind has been documented in the literature (Wellman
Creative Arts Team (CAT) Early Learning Through the Arts (ELTA) & Liu, 2004). For example, children’s understanding that others can
curricula and the effects of the ELTA curricula on the language, hold a false belief typically develops before children understand
perspective-taking, and imagination development of children from that actions and emotions can be based on false-beliefs.
low-income families who were enrolled in Head Start. ToM is positively associated with academic outcomes, such as
emergent literacy skills (Kloo & Perner, 2008), emergent math abil-
ities (Kloo & Perner, 2008), and reading comprehension (Atkinson,
2. Theoretical context Slade, Powell, & Levy, 2017). Furthermore, Sodian and Frith (2008)
note that “the implicit ability to represent mental states is of vital
2.1. Language development importance for teaching and learning to be successful” (p. 111).
Blair and Razza (2007) concur,
Research indicates that, on average, the quantity and quality of
child-directed discourse in low-socioeconomic status (SES) fam- As a construct denoting the understanding of one’s own as well
ilies is far below that of more affluent families (Hart & Risley, as others’ beliefs and intentions as predictors of actions, false
1995; Hoff, 2003; Rowe, 2008, 2012). Language input that is limited belief understanding represents an aspect of interpersonal func-
in amount and diversity negatively affects children’s opportuni- tioning that is likely to facilitate not only knowledge acquisition
ties for language development (Pan, Rowe, Singer, & Snow, 2005). but also the demonstration of acquired knowledge in assess-
For example, children from low-SES families tend to have smaller ment situations. (p. 659)
vocabularies than their middle-class peers (Beck et al., 2002; Another hallmark of children’s development is their ability to
Fernald et al., 2013; Fernald & Weisleder, 2015; Hart & Risley, use their imaginations in pretend play (Harris, 2000). Vygotsky
1995; Hoff, 2003; Rowe, 2008, 2012). Moreover, children who begin (1967) wrote,
school with lower oral language abilities are particularly likely to
experience reading difficulties (Snow et al., 1998). Reading diffi- Play is the source of development and creates the zone of
culties, in turn, are directly related to children’s academic success. proximal development. Action in the imaginative sphere, in an
Thus, it is critically important for educators to find effective meth- imaginary situation, the creation of voluntary intentions and the
ods to nurture the language skills of children from low-SES families. formation of real-life plans and volitional motives—all appear in
In addition to children’s vocabulary development, children’s play and make it the highest level of preschool development. (p.
acquisition of narrative skills, such as storytelling and story com- 16)
G Model
W.K. Mages / Early Childhood Research Quarterly xxx (2018) xxx–xxx 3
Harris (2000) asserted that pretend play offers children “a way to focus on accountability and academic achievement has resulted in
imagine, explore, and talk about possibilities inherent in reality” (p. the decline of arts education in schools (Bassok et al., 2016; Goff &
8) and contends that children’s ability “to entertain counterfactual Ludwig, 2013; Rabkin & Heberg, 2011), and specifically a decline in
alternatives to an actual outcome is critical for making causal and theatre activities in early childhood classrooms (Bassok et al., 2016).
moral judgments about that outcome” (p. 7). Thus, children’s imag- This is unfortunate as “school-based arts education is of particular
inative propensities may foster the intellectual capacities needed importance because schools are the only institutions that reach vast
for the type of planning and reasoning needed in academic contexts. numbers of children, particularly low-income children, who are
Although drama is thought to promote both children’s perspec- unlikely to receive arts education any other way” (Rabkin & Heberg,
tive taking (Wolf, 1995) and imaginative abilities (McCaslin, 1996), 2011, p. 52). Moreover, research indicates that the arts can have
and the development of these abilities has been described in the beneficial outcomes for children from low-SES families (Catterall,
literature, only a few studies have investigated these associations Dumais, & Hampden-Thompson, 2012). For example, among stu-
(Corbett et al., 2011, 2016; Goldstein & Winner, 2012). Thus, at dents from low-SES families, “eighth graders who had high levels
present, there is a dearth of empirical evidence to support or refute of arts engagement from kindergarten through elementary school
claims that drama participation fosters these abilities. Such evi- showed higher test scores in science and writing than did stu-
dence is necessary to guide the selection of the most productive dents who had lower levels of arts engagement over the same
and beneficial activities in Head Start classrooms. period” (p. 12). Thus, identifying theatre and drama activities that
can be successfully integrated into early childhood curricula, while
2.3. Educational drama and theatre maintaining or improving academic outcomes, may be particu-
larly important for children who may have limited opportunities
Bruner asserts that “being ‘exposed’ to a flow of language is to experience and benefit from arts education.
not nearly so important as using it in the midst of doing” (Bruner,
1990, p. 70). Educational drama and theatre afford children a vari- 3. Research context
ety of opportunities to engage in language “in the midst of doing” a
drama. In other words, educational drama and theatre provide play- 3.1. Creative Arts Team
ful, non-threatening environments where children are encouraged
to actively engage in the action while practicing and honing their The Creative Arts Team (CAT) is affiliated with the City Uni-
language, perspective-taking, and imaginative skills. Drama and versity of New York (CUNY) (Creative Arts Team, 2017a) and
theatre activities provide tangible, language-rich, social contexts specializes in using “theatre as a medium to promote social, emo-
for decontextualized language, in which children are introduced to tional, and intellectual growth in communities throughout New
new language structures and vocabulary, and are offered oppor- York City” (City University of New York: Creative Arts Team, 2007a).
tunities to use their verbal and physical communication skills to CAT’s programs are based on constructivist principles, as well as
actively engage with both adults and peers. This type of multi- on principles articulated by Augusto Boal, Paulo Freire, Howard E.
modal, interpersonal communication and engagement provides a Gardner, and the English Drama-in-Education Movement (Mages,
stimulating experience that may motivate children to engage their 2010). Specifically, CAT programs focus on critical thinking, choices
language, perspective-taking, and imagination capacities in new and consequences, and problem solving.
ways, which may foster growth and development in these domains
(see Mages, 2006, for a more fully explicated theory of drama’s 3.2. Early Learning Through the Arts: New York City Wolf Trap
effect on narrative comprehension and narrative production). This Program
type of multimodal communication within a social context may
be particularly effective for preschool children, as they do not yet This study focused on CAT’s Early Learning through the Arts
have the reading skills necessary to use books and other forms of (ELTA) program and specifically focused on the implementation
text as a medium to develop their language, perspective-taking, of the ELTA curricula within a Head Start context. The ELTA web-
and imaginative abilities. site noted that ELTA was “particularly effective in supporting and
Importantly, a number of meta-analyses (Conard, 1992; Kardash developing emergent literacy skills” (City University of New York:
& Wright, 1987; Lee et al., 2015; Podlozny, 2000) and literature Creative Arts Team, 2007b) and that the strategies that ELTA
reviews (Mages, 2008a, 2017a; Wagner, 1998) have concluded that employed “develop listening and speaking skills, while the issues
drama has a positive effect on language development. Research addressed in the stories encourage group problem solving, cooper-
also suggests that drama and theatre are associated with chil- ation, creativity and critical thinking” (City University of New York:
dren’s ToM development (Corbett et al., 2011, 2016; Goldstein Creative Arts Team, 2007b). In addition, ELTA curricula encourage
& Winner, 2012). If, as the research literature suggests, drama children to engage their imaginations as they become a character
and theatre can improve children’s language and ToM skills then and enter into the world of the drama. This type of imaginative
a theatre-in-education intervention in the context of Head Start role playing, which requires children to adopt the perspective of
classrooms has the potential to provide a compelling and effective a fictional character in an imaginary context, may foster ToM and
way to enhance the language and ToM development of children imagination development.
from low-SES families, while simultaneously providing an arts-
based experience for children who may have little exposure to arts 3.2.1. The ELTA Head Start company
education. In addition, identifying effective educational drama and At the time this study was conducted, two ELTA company mem-
educational theatre paradigms that are sufficiently developed to bers were serving as interim co-directors of the ELTA program. Eight
be readily replicated and brought to scale would benefit the dis- actor-teachers (ATs) comprised ELTA’s Head Start team. The eight
semination and implementation of educational drama and theatre Head Start ATs were a diverse multi-ethnic ensemble with an equal
programming. number of males and females (see Mages, 2013, for information on
In recent years, however, scholars have noted that an increased the creation and development of the ELTA ensemble). All of the
focus on standards and basic skills, such as math and literacy, as ATs were professionally-trained, college-educated actors who had
well as budgetary concerns, has led to a narrowing in curricular worked professionally in the theatre.
content areas (Bassok et al., 2016; Goff & Ludwig, 2013; President’s In ELTA, the actor-teachers taught the curricula in teams of two
Committee on the Arts and Humanities, 2011). This heightened to create a theatricality unachievable by one actor-teacher working
G Model
alone (see Mages, 2010, for additional information on the concep- Table 1
Schedule of the ELTA Intervention.
tion, design, and evolution of the ELTA program). During the data
collection period for this study, each of the three actor-teacher ELTA in the Classroom ELTA Activities
teams had one female and one male AT. One AT in each partnership 2 Weeks (10 Weekdays) of Rehearsals
was a Spanish-speaker. When necessary, the Spanish-speaking AT 5 Days An-Nyong Dal—5 TIE Drama Sessions—(2
was able to communicate essential information in Spanish, which sessions per week)
allowed the Spanish-speaking English-language learners to more 1 Week (5 Weekdays) of Rehearsals
1 Week Midwinter Break
fully participate in the dramas.
1 Week (5 Weekdays) of Rehearsals
4 Days La Feria de Sevilla—4 TIE Drama Sessions—(2
3.2.2. Overview of the Head Start theatre-in-education sessions per week)
1 Day 1 Actor-Teacher Led Interactive Storytelling
intervention
Session
The ELTA Head Start intervention was designed to promote lit- 1 Day 1 Actor-Teacher Led Picture-Book-Based
eracy skills in two ways (Creative Arts Team, n.d.-a). The first was Drama Activity
by conducting the ELTA participatory TIE and drama activities with 1 Day 1 Head Start Teacher Led Interactive
the children and their Head Start teachers. The second was by facili- Storytelling Session
1 Day 1 Head Start Teacher Led Picture-Book-Based
tating professional development training sessions designed to help Drama Activity
the Head Start teachers continue to use drama to promote literacy 1 Week Spring Break
in their classrooms after the conclusion of the intervention. 1 Day Farewell Drama Session
“Drama” and “theatre” are terms that often connote formally Total Number of Days
scripted plays. However, much of the work in educational drama 14 Days ELTA in the Classroom (over a 20-Week Time
and theatre is based on dramatic improvisations rather than on Span)
the performance of written texts. Improvisation is at the heart +13 Days Head Start Teacher Orientation, Training, and
Reflection (Administered Throughout the
of ELTA’s theatre-in-education work. In contrast to other more
Course of the Intervention)
freeform improvisational styles that may, for example, ask children
Note: All non-classroom activities are listed in bold italics.
to enact a theme (see Mages, 2008a, for a review of research using
theme-based dramas), ELTA’s workshops have a clearly defined
story-based structure. one 10-session block followed by two 5-session blocks. As a result
of the block scheduling, implemented, in part, to accommodate the
3.2.2.1. The ELTA curricula. When this study was conducted, there Head Start and CUNY vacation breaks, the first classroom drama
were two participatory theatre-in-education dramas included in session occurred 20 weeks prior to the final (14th) in-class drama
the intervention: An-Nyoung Dal, Hello Moon (Creative Arts Team, session.
2004–2005b; Creative Arts Team, 2005c), a 5-day drama, and La
Feria de Sevilla (Creative Arts Team, 2004–2005a), a 4-day drama.
3.2.2.3. The TIE dramas.
In addition to these two literacy-focused dramas, the ATs also
3.2.2.3.1. An-Nyong Dal, Hello Moon. An-Nyong Dal, Hello Moon
led two classroom sessions in which they implemented educational
is a drama set in Korea (Creative Arts Team, 2004–2005b; Creative
drama strategies known as “Interactive Storytelling” (Creative
Arts Team, 2005c). In the drama the children play the Kim family
Arts Team, n.d.-a, p. 1) and “Creating Activity from [a] Picture
farmers. The children are led to imagine themselves planting seeds,
Book” (p.2). These drama-oriented activities focused on techniques
watering their plants, and tending their farm. At one point in the
developed to help young children become more fully engaged in
story, the Kim family farmers journey to the palace to meet the
children’s literature. As part of the professional-development pro-
selfish princess. Difficulties arise and the children must decide what
gram, the ATs trained the Head Start teachers to lead an interactive
to do to remedy the situation. Thus, the children, as the Kim family
storytelling session and a session in which the Head Start teachers
farmers, must use their language, perspective-taking, imagination,
created drama activities based on a picture book. The ATs observed
and problem-solving skills to devise a plan that can affect the course
the Head Start teachers implementing these sessions in their class-
and outcome of the drama.
rooms and provided feedback. Finally, at the conclusion of the two
3.2.2.3.2. La Feria de Sevilla. La Feria de Sevilla is a story that
TIE dramas, the AT-led interactive storytelling and drama activity
takes place at a festival in Seville, Spain (Creative Arts Team,
sessions, and the Head Start teacher-led interactive storytelling and
2004–2005a). One AT plays Sancho, the jester and the other AT
drama activity sessions, the ATs led a “farewell” drama session.
plays Pepita, the puppeteer. The children play festival performers
In sum, 14 days2 of the intervention were dedicated to interac-
who receive a letter inviting them to perform for the queen. San-
tive drama-oriented activities with the Head Start children in the
cho and Pepita are also preparing to perform for the queen. Pepita
classrooms; 12 of the 14 classroom sessions were led by the ATs
struggles to create a puppet show, but her puppets always get into
(Creative Arts Team, 2005c). In addition, 13 intervention sessions
an argument. The children, as the performers, use their imagina-
were devoted to orientation, training, and reflection activities with
tions and perspective-taking skills to offer Pepita suggestions on
the Head Start teachers and Head Start education directors (see
how to revise her puppet show. Following the performers’ recom-
Table 1 for an overview of the ELTA intervention schedule).
mendations, Pepita revises her puppet show and realizes that the
new argument-free version is better than the original. Later, Pepita
3.2.2.2. The ELTA actor-teacher training paradigm. Rehearsals, held and Sancho get into an argument. The performers, using the skills
for four weeks (20 workdays) from 9:00 in the morning until 3:30 they learned helping Pepita revise the puppet show, help Pepita and
in the afternoon, were designed to prepare the actor-teachers to Sancho understand each other’s perspective, manage their anger,
effectively facilitate all aspects of the ELTA intervention (see Mages, and resolve their differences.
2017b, for a detailed description of the training paradigm). The sea- 3.2.2.3.3. Literacy activities embedded in the dramas. The ELTA
son this study was conducted, rehearsals were held in three blocks: TIE dramas incorporated a number of elements that reinforced the
value of literacy. For example, in An-Nyoung Dal, the receipt of
two letters was integral to the plot of the drama. These letters,
2
Each classroom session was allotted 45 min. both of which were read aloud to the children, motivated events
G Model
in the drama. Similarly, the receipt of a letter motivated much of of Augusto Boal (1979). In Boalian dramas, the members of the
the action in La Feria de Sevilla. Another example of an embedded audience are given an opportunity to step into the drama to take
literacy activity within La Feria de Sevilla was when the children, the place of one of the actors. Usually, they take the role of a
within the context of the drama, helped to create the text of a poster character who is being victimized in the drama. This allows the
to advertise La Feria de Sevilla. These types of embedded literacy audience member an opportunity to change the course of the
activities provided a context that highlighted the importance and drama by empowering the victimized, or oppressed, character to
functions of reading and writing. stand up to the oppressor. Due to the real-world power dynamic
Literacy scholars have noted that children become aware of between adults and young children, when ELTA does this type of
literacy through observing the functions of literacy in daily inter- work with preschoolers, a child is never asked to play the victim,
actions (Goodman, 1986; Teale, 1986; Teale & Sulzby, 1986). Teale as in traditional Boal dramas. This adjustment was designed to
(1986) wrote: empower the children to stand up for what they thought was right
without placing them in a position that might make them feel
Interacting with literate others in such situations provides the
defenseless or overwhelmed.
[child] with direct experience in the motives, actions, opera-
The ELTA dramas gave the children a safe setting in which to
tions, and routines of literacy, all of which help the child develop
practice their problem-solving and conflict-resolution skills. When
new understandings about the functions, uses, and “how-to” of
the children offered solutions to a problem or conflict, they had
reading and writing. (p. 181)
the opportunity to see their solutions implemented. Based on their
Dramas designed to highlight the uses and functions of reading observations of the efficacy of their suggested solution, they were
and writing may foster children’s understanding and appreciation then able to modify their suggestions. This type of problem-solving
of literacy. During the course of the intervention the children devel- activity often requires perspective-taking skills and the ability to
oped a friendly bond with the ATs, often greeting them with hugs imagine possible outcomes. It is, therefore, possible that partici-
and “high-fives.” Seeing respected adults, such as the ATs, engage pation in this type of interactive drama could facilitate children’s
in literate behaviors that then impact the course of a drama may theory of mind and imagination development.
pique young children’s interest in participating in reading and writ-
ing themselves and may motivate them to more fully engage in
literacy activities.
During the course of the dramas, the children were asked to
repeat important vocabulary words or phrases. Sometimes they
were asked to say these words syllable by syllable clapping their 3.2.2.4. Interactive storytelling and picture-book-based drama activ-
hands to punctuate each syllable. Literacy experts (for a review see ity. The season this study was conducted was the first time the
Pan & Gleason, 2000) note the ability to segment words into sylla- interactive storytelling and picture-book-based drama activity
bles helps children understand the relationship between oral and component was added to the ELTA Head Start program. Interac-
written language. All of these activities, which were integrated into tive storytelling was designed to develop children’s “imaginations
the dramas, were designed to reinforce the importance of literate as well as literacy skills such as phonetics, sequencing, recall, and
behaviors, such as reading and writing, and help children begin to problem solving” (Creative Arts Team, n.d.-b, p. 2). Interactive
understand the underlying structure of words. storytelling draws on elements of drama—plot, character, envi-
In addition, rituals, songs, and chants were incorporated into ronment, costumes and props, and tension and conflict—to enrich
each of the dramas to foster phonemic awareness (Mages, 2010, the children’s experience of a story (Creative Arts Team, n.d.-c).
2017b). Young children’s knowledge of nursery rhymes, which may “In order to fully engage young children within the storytelling
be similar to songs and chants, has been shown to be related to their experience, storytellers must ‘invite the children into the stories’
phonological development (Bryant, Bradley, Maclean, & Crossland, by offering them fun and engaging opportunities to contribute to
1989; Maclean, Bryant, & Bradley, 1987). Moreover, Bryant et al. the telling” (Creative Arts Team, n.d.-b, p.1).
(1989) argue “that knowledge of nursery rhymes affects children’s The interactive storytelling process begins with the selection of a
sensitivity to rhyme which in turn has an effect on their success in picture book. Then, using “the text as a starting point” (Creative Arts
reading and spelling” (p. 422). Thus, it is possible that the inclusion Team, n.d.-c), the tellers add points of participation (Creative Arts
of songs and chants in drama activities could affect children’s rhyme Team, n.d.-b). Points of participation are moments in the story when
awareness and, thus, their later literacy development. the storyteller asks the children for a verbal or physical response,
The use of questioning techniques is a hallmark of the CAT cur- such as a sound effect, a gesture, or the repetition of a short phrase,
ricula. The children were asked open-ended questions and their or asks the children to make a prediction or answer a question.
responses were incorporated into the dramas. In this way, the In some ways interactive storytelling is similar to dialogic reading
children had an opportunity to see how their use of language (What Works Clearinghouse, 2007; Whitehurst et al., 1994), as they
could affect the course of a drama. This open-ended questioning both encourage children to take a participatory role in the telling of
technique is similar to that used when engaging preschoolers in a story. In addition, some of the interactive storytelling strategies,
dialogic reading (What Works Clearinghouse, 2007; Whitehurst such as asking children to make predictions or answer questions
et al., 1994); dialogic reading has been shown to promote chil- about a story, are strategies that literacy experts recommend for
dren’s language development. It is also worth noting that literacy use with young children (Beck & McKeown, 2001; Shedd & Duke,
scholars (Beck & McKeown, 2001; Shedd & Duke, 2008) have rec- 2008).
ommended using open-ended-questioning techniques to foster The picture-book-based drama activity, an extension of interac-
language, vocabulary, and literacy development, and Paley (1986, tive storytelling, is a dramatic exploration of an element, such as
1988), an early childhood educator whose work focuses on enact- the environment, a character, or a theme, presented in the book. If
ing child-authored stories with young children, has also advocated the story takes place on a farm, the activity might ask the children
for the use of open-ended questions in early childhood classrooms. to pretend to be animals exploring life on the farm. If the story is
3.2.2.3.4. Problem-solving and conflict-resolution activities about the adventures of a bear, the drama activity might encourage
embedded in the dramas. ELTA’s TIE dramas all included a the children to pretend to be bears. This drama activity affords chil-
problem-solving element. This work is based, in part, on the work dren an opportunity to more fully imagine and dramatize specific
aspects of the story.
G Model
4. Research question other 50% came from homes where a language other than English
was spoken or from homes where both English and another lan-
Is participation in a high-quality theatre-in-education program guage were spoken. The participants who spoke a language other
related to enhanced language, perspective-taking, and imagination than English spoke Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, or Bengali. All eligi-
development of young children enrolled in Head Start? ble study participants demonstrateed sufficient English-language
competence to be tested in English. Seventy-two children (48%
5. Research design of the sample) were in one of the six Head Start classrooms that
received the CAT intervention; 83 children (52%) were in one of the
This quasi-experimental multi-site study used a pretest- six Head Start classrooms that did not receive the CAT intervention.
posttest design with a treatment group and comparison group.3 Eligibility for Head Start necessitates that the participating child’s
New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services/Head Start family income is at or below the poverty line. Thus all of the children
Education director identified 12 sites that were willing to partici- in this sample came from low-SES families.
pate in this study and determined which six sites would receive the
ELTA program during the data collection period. Thus, assignment 6.2. Adults
to treatment and comparison groups was done by site. Although the
assignment to treatment and comparison conditions was not ran- The CAT actor-teachers and administrators, as well as the teach-
dom, which has the potential to introduce biases into the selection ers of the participating Head Start classrooms, comprised the
process, every effort was made to ensure that the treatment and sample of adult participants.
control conditions were comparable. Importantly, both the CAT and
non-CAT sites were eligible for the ELTA intervention and the non- 7. Measures and procedures
CAT sites were offered the opportunity to participate in the ELTA
intervention after data collection for this study was completed. 7.1. Child assessments
The CAT and the non-CAT sites were comparable in racial
makeup and neighborhood demographics. In a number of instances This study assessed children’s language abilities in three
the matched intervention and comparison sites were under the domains: receptive vocabulary (PPVT-III, Dunn & Dunn, 1997b),
direction of the same Head Start program. The 12 Head Start sites aural story comprehension (MMSC, Mages, 2008b), and narrative
were located in four New York boroughs: two intervention and production (DELV, Seymour, Roeper, & de Villiers, 2003a). The chil-
two comparison sites were in Brooklyn; two intervention and two dren’s ToM abilities were measured using two items that are part
comparison sites were in Manhattan; one intervention and one of the DELV story production measure (Seymour et al., 2003a) and
comparison site were in Queens; and one intervention and one the “Rabbit-Fox Test” (Pons et al., 2004), a measure of a child’s
comparison site were in the Bronx. comprehension of others’ emotions. Finally, children’s imagina-
At each treatment and comparison site, child participants were tive propensities were assessed using the Telephone Task (Taylor,
randomly selected from the children whose parents had granted Cartwright, & Carlson, 1993; Taylor, Sachet, Maring, & Mannering,
them permission to participate. Baseline data on measures of chil- 2013) and the Assessment of Pretend Actions (Dick, Overton, &
dren’s language, perspective-taking, and imaginative development Kovacs, 2005; Overton & Jackson, 1973; Taylor et al., 1993).
were collected between December and January, prior to the start
of the ELTA intervention. CAT’s ELTA actor-teacher training pro- 7.1.1. Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test
gram and classroom intervention were observed. Interviews of The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT-III, Dunn & Dunn,
each of the six ELTA actor-teachers and the two ELTA co-directors 1997b) is a widely used measure of children’s receptive vocabu-
were conducted. In addition, the original creator of the ELTA pro- lary. In this test, a child is presented with a panel of four pictures
gram and the CAT educational director were interviewed. The ELTA and asked to place his or her finger on the picture depicting the
Head Start intervention concluded at the beginning of May. Posttest word spoken by the researcher. Alternate forms of the PPVT (A
assessments of the children’s language, perspective-taking, and and B) were used at Time 1 and Time 2. The authors report that,
imagination skills were carried out in May and early June of that for children in the age range represented in the current sample
school year. (3 years, 6 months to 5 years, 5 months), alternate-forems relia-
bility coefficients for raw scores ranged from 0.93 to 0.95 (Dunn
6. Participants & Dunn, 1997a, p. 49). In addition, for children between 3 and 6
years old the PPVT-III has shown good internal consistency relia-
6.1. Children bility (Cronbach’s ␣ = 0.94) and good split-half reliability (Odd/Even
corrected = 0.92) (Dunn & Dunn, 1997a, p. 50). Raw scores, which
A sample of 167 four and five year olds who were enrolled in represent the total number of words identified correctly, were used
the New York City treatment and comparison Head Start sites was in the following analyses to maximize the variation in the distribu-
randomly selected. Of the study participants, 155 children were tion. In addition, the use of raw scores allowed age to be included
assessed at two time-points during a single academic year. The as a predictor variable in the regression models.
other 12 children were either absent from school for the second
assessment or had dropped out of the Head Start program. Thus, 7.1.2. MMSC
155 children comprised the sample. The sample was evenly divided The administration of the MMSC (see Mages, 2008b, for a
between female (n = 77) and male (n = 78) students. At Time 1, the detailed description of this measure and an analysis of its valid-
children ranged in age from 3 years, 10 months to 5 years, 1 month ity and reliability) begins with the researcher reading a short story
(m = 4 years, six months). Fifty percent of the children in this sam- to the child. No illustrations accompany the text to ensure that the
ple came from homes where English was the language spoken. The child is able to comprehend the text of the narrative and is not sim-
ply deriving story meaning from accompanying illustrations. The
researcher then asks the child a series of five questions. For each
3
This study was conducted in accordance with the requirements for research with
question the child is shown a set of three pictures, one depicting the
human subjects and permission to conduct this study was granted by the Harvard correct response and two distractors, and asked to select the picture
University Institutional Review Board. that best answers the question. When a child points to the correct
G Model
picture, it indicates that the child was able to comprehend a criti- 7.1.4. Rabbit-Fox Test
cal element of the story. This measure was specifically designed so The “Rabbit-Fox Test” (Pons & Harris, 2005; Pons, Lawson,
that the child could select the appropriate answer without having Harris, & de Rosnay, 2003; Pons et al., 2004) is part of a series of
to formulate and produce a verbal response. In this way, the MMSC ToM tests designed to assess a child’s ToM and emotion compre-
avoids confounding the child’s ability to comprehend an aural nar- hension. Integral to these tests is a child’s ability to take another’s
rative with the child’s ability to formulate and produce an oral reply. perspective in an emotionally-charged situation. Specifically, the
Moreover, the MMSC does not require the use of perspective tak- Rabbit-Fox test assesses children’s comprehension of false-beliefs
ing skills or ToM abilities to answer the questions. Possible scores in an emotional context and their belief-based emotion under-
ranged from 0 to 5. standing.
In the Rabbit-Fox test a child is shown a drawing of a rabbit eat-
ing a carrot next to a bush. The bush hinges open to reveal a fox that
the rabbit cannot see. The child is presented with a short scenario
7.1.3. DELV measure of narrative development explaining that the rabbit likes carrots and that the fox is hiding
The DELV (Seymour et al., 2003a), developed to be a culturally behind the bushes because he wants to eat the rabbit. The child is
unbiased assessment of the language skills of children who speak then asked a few questions about what the rabbit knows and how
any variety of English. This standardized measure assesses chil- the rabbit feels. First the child is asked a question about what the
dren’s language development in four domains: syntax, pragmatics, rabbit knows about his circumstances, circumstances that the child,
semantics, and phonology. This study used the measure of narrative but not the rabbit, knows are perilous (Question 1: Does the rabbit
production, a subtest within the pragmatic domain that assesses a know the fox is hiding behind the bushes?). The child can respond
child’s ability to construct a story based on a series of pictures. The to this question either verbally or by nodding or shaking his or
child is presented with six pictures that illustrate a series of events her head. The answer to this question reveals a child’s perspective-
and asked to tell the story that is illustrated in the pictures. The taking abilities, or ToM, in an emotionally-charged context. The
child’s story is coded for two narrative features: the contrastive second question the child is asked is about the rabbit’s emotions
identification of the two characters depicted in the illustrations (Question 2: How does the rabbit feel: happy, just all right, angry
(e.g., the big boy and the little boy) and the use temporal links or scared?). The child has the option to respond to this question
between the depicted events. A child’s narrative can receive a score verbally or to respond by pointing to a picture of one of the four
between 0 and 3 points: one point for contrastively identifying the emotions (happy, just all right, angry, or scared). The child’s answer
characters and up to two points for the use of temporal links. indicates whether the child understands that the rabbit’s emotions
After the child has produced a story the test administrator looks are based on his false beliefs and not on his actual circumstances.
at the pictures with the child and asks two questions that assess the This belief-based emotion understanding question has four possi-
child’s perspective-taking abilities. These questions are designed to ble answers. Two of these answers have a positive valence (happy
elicit evidence of two aspects of children’s ToM understanding: that and just all right) and two of the answers have a negative valance
others have thoughts or desires and that others may act based on (angry or scared). For this study any answer with a positive valence
a false-belief. The first question focuses on one of the six pictures (happy or just all right) was considered correct. Possible scores
depicting the events of the story in which a boy is depicted with a ranged from 0 to 2.
“think bubble,” such as those used in cartoons, next to his head. The
think bubble contains an image of the toy train, a key element of the 7.1.5. Telephone Task
story. The test administrator asks, “Tell me (again) what is happen- The Telephone Task (Taylor et al., 1993, 2013) was developed
ing in this picture” (Seymour, Roeper, & de Villiers, 2003b, p. 10). A to assess a child’s imaginative abilities. In this task a child is asked
child is given 1 point for referring to the big boy’s desire to find the to pretend to call a friend on a toy telephone. Children with more
train or to his intention to look for the train. A child is given 2 points developed imaginative capacities tend to engage in longer more
for an “explicit reference to the boy thinking, dreaming, wondering, elaborated pretend conversations. In addition, children with more
talking to self, or remembering the train” (Seymour et al., 2003b, developed imaginative skills tend to more fully enact the physical-
p. 10). The second ToM question addresses a child’s understand- ization of placing a phone call; they pretend to dial the phone, hold
ing of false beliefs. In the illustrations, the big boy placed the train the phone to their ear, and pause as they pretend to listen to their
under the bed, but, after the big boy left the room, the little boy imaginary friend.
put the train in the toy box. The final illustration depicts the big
boy looking for the train where he had left it underneath the bed. 7.1.6. Assessment of pretend actions
The test administrator asks, “The big boy is looking for the train The Assessment of Pretend Actions (Dick et al., 2005; Overton
under the bed. Why is he looking there?” (Seymour et al., 2003b, p. & Jackson, 1973; Taylor et al., 1993) is a task that asks children to
10). If the child refers to the big boy’s desire for the train or simply show how they would pretend to “comb their hair with a comb” and
explains that the big boy is looking for the train the child receives how they would “pretend to brush their teeth with a toothbrush.”
one point. If the child explains why the big boy is looking under Research suggests that this skill has a developmental trajectory and
the bed, such as, “He thinks it is under the bed,” the child receives is associated with both a child’s age and imaginative abilities. Chil-
two points. A child can receive between 0 and 4 points for the ToM dren who are less sophisticated in their ability to pretend tend to
items on this measure. In total, a child can receive between 0 and 7 use their hands as the object itself where children who are more
points for both the storytelling and ToM elements of DELV measure sophisticated in their ability to pretend tend to hold an imaginary
of narrative production. object. This measure was used because it does not rely on a child’s
For the pragmatics domain of the DELV, the authors report that oral language capabilities to assess the child’s ability to pretend.
when children were tested twice, with a different test administra-
tor at each administration, 36% of the children were classified the 7.2. Head Start teacher surveys
same way at both administrations and 72% differed by only one
classification category (Seymour et al., 2003a, p. 85). They also note Surveys based on the FACES 2000 Head Start Teacher Interview
that 72% of the time administrators agreed on whether the child had (Zill, Resnick, & Hubbell-McKey, 2000) were given to each of the
passed or failed the pragmatics domain, taking all of the subtests primary Head Start teachers who were willing to participate. In a
within the domain into consideration. few instances the primary Head Start teacher was not available. In
G Model
these cases, the survey was administered to the assistant teacher. 8. Analytic approach
This survey was designed to assess the content and focus of teach-
ers’ classroom instruction and was used in this study to identify This study was designed to examine preschoolers’ development
possible teacher, curriculum, or site differences. of emergent literacy skills (narrative comprehension, narrative pro-
duction, and vocabulary development), theory-of-mind abilities
(understanding of mental states, false-beliefs, belief-based actions,
7.3. CAT observations and interviews and belief based emotions), and their imaginative capacities. The
analysis of the assessment data began with an investigation of the
Systematic observations of the ELTA actor-teacher training pro- distributions, measures of central tendency, and variability for each
gram and of the actor-teachers as they facilitated the ELTA Head of the variables. In addition, t-tests were performed to investigate
Start intervention were conducted. Detailed field notes of these whether the children’s performance on these measures improved
observations were taken during each observation session, and the from Time 1 to Time 2. Correlation analyses were also conducted.
field notes were entered into a computer directly following each Then a comparison of the ELTA intervention group and the com-
observation. In addition, interviews were conducted with each of parison group was conducted. This began with t-test analyses.
the six ELTA actor-teachers and the two co-directors of the pro- Following these simple comparisons of the two groups, a series
gram, as well as with the originator of the ELTA program. All of of multiple regression models were examined in order to further
these interviews were recorded and were transcribed verbatim. An investigate the impact of the drama program.
interview with the CAT artistic and education director, was also
conducted. Extensive written notes were taken at the time of this
interview. Transcripts of all the interviews were coded and ana- 9. Results
lyzed.
Considering all of the children together, analyses revealed the
children’s language, ToM, and imagination skills improved signif-
7.4. Procedures icantly from Time 1 to Time 2. Table 2 displays the descriptive
statistics and t-tests results comparing Time 1 and Time 2 assess-
Written permission to conduct research in each of the 12 Head ments for all of the children. As seen in Table 2, the children’s
Start sites was obtained. Parental permission was requested and improvement on all of the language measures was substantial. Both
only those children whose parents signed letters of informed con- children’s receptive vocabulary (PPVT) and narrative comprehen-
sent and who were able to demonstrate sufficient English-language sion (MMSC) scores increased one half of a standard deviation. Their
competence to engage in the assessments were considered eligible narrative production (DELV Language) scores showed even greater
to participate in the study. Each child was assessed individu- improvement (d = 0.81).
ally by the researcher or one of five research assistants. Research The children also showed improvement on their ToM abilities.
assistants, who had previous experience working with young chil- In particular, significant differences were detected between chil-
dren, were individually trained to administer each of the measures dren’s Time 1 and Time 2 scores on both the Rabbit-Fox False Belief
included in this study. To ensure consistent high-quality admin- component (d = 0.50) and the DELV ToM items (d = 0.28). However,
istration, the research assistants’ ability to interact with young there were no significant differences on their performance on the
children and properly administer the measures was observed. Their emotion component of the Rabbit-Fox test. Children’s imagination
performance was evaluated and feedback was given. The assess- skills also showed improvement. There were significant differences
ments, all of which were conducted in English, took approximately between children’s Time 1 and Time 2 scores on both the Telephone
20 min per child. These assessments were conducted in the Win- Task and the Assessment of Pretend Actions. Interestingly, children
ter (Time 1) and the Spring (Time 2) of the same academic year. improved relatively more on the Telephone Task (d = 0.54), which
There was a 4–5 month interval between assessments. All of the has a verbal component, than they did on the Assessment of Pretend
child assessments were conducted at the Head Start centers where Actions (d = 0.34), a non-verbal measure. Therefore, the improve-
children were enrolled. ment noted in their language skills may have positively affected
In addition, written permission to conduct this research was their performance on the Telephone Task.
granted by the directors of the CAT organization, and each of The results of the correlation analyses are displayed in Table 3.
the CAT team members who were interviewed signed a letter of Children’s home language was positively correlated with all of the
informed consent. measures, except the Rabbit Fox Test at Time 1 (see Mages, 2008b,
for a more in-depth discussion of the relation of home language and
ToM). Thus, at Time 1, children who spoke only English at home
7.5. Fidelity of the implementation of the intervention tended to score higher on all but one of the measures. However, at
Time 2, children who spoke only English at home tended to score
The ATs were well qualified and trained to implement the cur- higher only on the PPVT, the Telephone Task, and the Assessment of
riculum as designed (see Mages, 2017b, for a detailed description Pretend Actions. Thus, it appears that over the course of the study,
of the AT training paradigm). A review of the educational-drama the size of the gap between the narrative skills of the children who
research literature found that qualified facilitators with sufficient came from homes where a language other than English was spo-
training were critically important to the success of drama interven- ken and those of their peers who spoke only English at home was
tions “because untrained, under-trained, or mistrained facilitators reduced.
can lead to poor-quality, impoverished dramas” (Mages, 2008a, p. The relation between a child’s home language and the Assess-
140). ment of Pretend Actions is particularly intriguing because this
Despite some minor implementation issues, such as one Head assessment, unlike the Telephone Task, requires only a non-verbal
Start teacher’s difficulty presenting a picture-book-based drama response. The correlation between home language and the Assess-
activity and some scheduling and organization issues at one of the ment of Pretend Actions may indicate that a child’s cultural
Head Start site (Mages, 2012a, 2012b), the ELTA intervention was background plays a role in a child’s dramatization of an action, a
implemented as designed (Mages, 2017b). Thus the fidelity of the skill associated with imaginative play. As noted above, Smilansky
implementation of the drama intervention was maintained. (1968) found that children come to school with differing abilities
G Model
Table 2
Combined Intervention and Control Groups: t-tests and Effect Sizes (n = 155).
Time 1 Time 2
Mean SD Mean SD t-test d
Language Measures
PPVT 36.84 16.63 44.99 15.97 8.47*** 0.50
MMSC 3.14 1.25 3.76 1.08 6.22*** 0.50
DELV Language 0.66 0.80 1.30 0.85 8.64*** 0.81
ToM Measures
Rabbit-Fox False Belief 0.34 0.48 0.34 0.48 5.91*** 0.55
Rabbit-Fox Emotion 0.30 0.46 0.34 0.47 0.63 0.07
DELV ToM 1.52 1.16 1.84 1.26 3.09** 0.28
Imagination Measures
Telephone Task 2.64 1.59 3.50 1.58 7.00*** 0.54
Pretend Actions 2.25 1.12 2.64 1.00 4.58*** 0.34
Note: Effect sizes represent the difference in the means divided by the pretest standard deviation.
**
p < 0.01.
***
p < 0.001.
Table 3
Correlations for the Full Sample (n = 155).
Time 1 Time 2
Drama Age HL PPVT MMSC DELV R-F TT PA PPVT MMSC DELV R-F TT PA
Drama
Age −0.07
Home Language −0.07 0.03
Time 1
PPVT 0.03 0.27*** 0.45***
MMSC 0.16* 0.14∼ 0.17* 0.43***
DELV −0.01 0.37*** 0.25** 0.44*** 0.37***
Rabbit-Fox Test 0.04 0.22** 0.03 0.20* 0.01 0.15∼
Telephone Task <0.01 0.22* 0.28*** 0.36*** 0.11 0.31*** 0.10
Pretend Actions −0.05 0.18* 0.45*** 0.49*** 0.28*** 0.38*** 0.12 0.43***
Time 2
PPVT −0.02 22** 0.33*** 0.73*** 0.48*** 0.39*** 0.10 0.28*** 0.40***
MMSC 0.13∼ 0.07 0.14∼ 0.39*** 0.44*** 0.31*** 0.16∼ 0.20* 0.15∼ 0.43***
DELV 0.13 0.35*** 0.13 0.40*** 0.32*** 0.48*** 0.16* 0.23** 0.32*** 0.38*** 0.31***
Rabbit-Fox Test −0.16* 0.18* 0.10 0.22** 0.09 0.17* 0.31*** 0.08 0.10 0.20* 0.09 0.27***
Telephone Task 0.04 0.23** 0.19* 0.39*** 0.20* 0.21** 0.10 0.56*** 0.34*** 0.37*** 0.16* 0.26** 0.20*
Pretend Actions 0.12 0.21** 0.32*** 0.36*** 0.26*** 0.30*** 0.05 0.27*** 0.51*** 0.36*** 0.19* 0.28*** 0.06 0.25**
∼
p < 0.10.
*
p < 0.05.
**
p < 0.01.
***
p < 0.001.
to engage in imaginative play. In Smilansky’s research, the children The Rabbit-Fox Test was also correlated with the Telephone Task at
with less sophisticated play skills not only came from low-SES fam- Time 2. Hence, children with more sophisticated ToM skills tended
ilies, but their families’ cultural background was often dissimilar to be better able to pretend to have a telephone conversation.
from that of their peers who came from higher SES families. Thus, With the exception of the measure of narrative comprehension
the value a culture places on pretend play may affect the type and (MMSC), children’s age was significantly correlated with all mea-
frequency of children’s play within that culture. sures of language, ToM, and imagination development. Thus, older
The children’s scores on the PPVT, the MMSC, and the DELV children tended to perform better on all of the measures except the
were significantly correlated with each other at both time points. MMSC at both time points.
Thus, children who did well on one of these measures tended to do The correlations between drama and children’s age and home
well on the other two measures. At both time points the PPVT and language reveal that, on average, the children who did not receive
the DELV were also significantly correlated with both measures of the drama intervention were slightly older and were more likely
imaginative development: the Telephone Task and the Assessment to speak only English at home, than were their counterparts in the
of Pretend Actions. In other words, children with better receptive drama program. However, these differences were not significant.
vocabulary or productive narrative skills tended to perform bet- The only significant correlations between the drama intervention
ter on the tests of imagination. Children’s ability to understand a and the measures of language, ToM, and imagination development
narrative (MMSC) was also correlated with their ability to demon- were on the Time 1 measure of narrative comprehension (MMSC)
strate a pretend action (Assessment of Pretend Actions) at both and on the Time 2 measure of belief-based emotion understanding
time points. In addition, at Time 2 children who were better able to (Rabbit-Fox Emotion). Thus, at Time 1 the children in the interven-
comprehend a narrative (MMSC) tended to be better able to engage tion had slightly higher scores on narrative comprehension, and
in an imaginary telephone conversation (Telephone Task). Finally, at Time 2 the children in the control group had slightly higher
the PPVT and the DELV were correlated with the Rabbit-Fox test scores on belief-based emotion understanding. These differences
at both time points (see Mages, 2008b, for a detailed investigation were further investigated using t-tests and regression analyses. The
of the relation between ToM, narrative, and receptive vocabulary). results of those analyses are detailed below.
G Model
Table 4
Drama Intervention and Comparison Group: t-tests and Effect Sizes (n = 155).
Drama Intervention and Comparison Group
Time 1 Time 2
Drama No Drama Drama No Drama
Mean SD Mean SD t-test d Mean SD Mean SD t-test d
Language Measures
PPVT 37.36 16.00 36.40 17.24 0.36 0.06 44.72 15.00 45.23 16.85 0.20 0.03
MMSC 3.36 1.21 2.95 1.26 2.06* 0.33 3.92 1.03 3.63 1.10 1.69∼ 0.27
DELV Language 0.66 0.79 0.65 0.82 0.09 0.01 1.38 0.78 1.24 0.90 0.32 0.16
ToM Measures
Rabbit-Fox False Belief 0.36 0.48 0.33 0.47 0.41 0.07 0.56 0.50 0.64 0.48 1.05 0.17
Rabbit-Fox Emotion 0.32 0.47 0.29 0.46 0.46 0.08 0.25 0.44 0.41 0.49 2.14* 0.34
DELV ToM 1.48 1.22 1.55 1.11 0.36 0.06 2.01 1.20 1.70 1.30 0.99 0.25
Imagination Measures
Telephone Task 2.65 1.49 2.64 1.68 0.04 0.00 3.57 1.59 3.43 1.59 0.53 0.09
Pretend Actions 2.20 1.20 2.30 1.04 0.57 0.09 2.76 1.09 2.53 0.90 1.44 0.24
Note: Effect sizes represent the difference in the means divided by the pooled standard deviation.
∼
p < 0.10.
*
p < 0.05.
Descriptive statistics for the children who received the drama and comparison groups; more than twice as many of these chil-
intervention and those who did not receive the drama program dren were from the comparison group (n = 10) than were from the
are displayed in Table 4. This table also displays the t-test statis- intervention group (n = 4).
tics comparing the scores of the intervention and comparison It is possible that the anomalous pattern is due to the very
groups. The two groups began the study with similar scores on young age of the children in this sample. On average, the children
their receptive vocabulary development (PPVT) and on their pro- who passed only the belief-based emotion question (Rabbit-Fox
ductive narrative capacities (DELV). The only significant difference Emotion) were younger than either those that passed only the false-
in the Time 1 language scores between the two groups was that the belief (Rabbit-Fox False Belief) question or those that passed both
treatment group demonstrated somewhat stronger narrative com- the false-belief question and the belief-based emotion question.
prehension (MMSC) abilities. There were no significant differences Perhaps, as Bradmetz and Schneider (2004) suggested, these very
between the two groups on any of the Time 1 ToM or imagination young children have difficulty attending to the task. It is also pos-
measures. sible that this pattern is due to the children’s language difficulties.
At Time 2, a comparison of the two groups showed that their On average, the children who passed only the belief-based emotion
scores on the three language measures were still similar. Although question had lower PPVT scores than their peers who passed only
there was a small difference between their scores on narrative the false-belief question or those that passed both the false-belief
comprehension (MMSC), this difference was not significant. Fur- and the belief-based emotion questions.
ther analyses revealed that there were no significant differences It is also possible that a combination of age and language abili-
between the two groups in their improvement on the MMSC ties led to this anomalous pattern. It is worth noting that the group
(t(153) = 0.60, p = 0.55). The two groups scored similarly on most of of children who correctly answered only the belief-based emotion
the ToM and imagination measures. The only significant difference question were virtually the same age and had the same average
between the two groups was in their performance on the emo- PPVT scores as those who answered neither question correctly.
tion component of the Rabbit-Fox test. Although further analyses Perhaps some young children, who do not fully comprehend the
revealed that there were no significant differences between the language of the question and therefore must guess the rabbit’s
two groups in their improvement on the emotion component of the feelings, simply prefer to think of the rabbit as happy, a more desir-
Rabbit-Fox test (t(152) = 1.88, p = 0.06), the differences between the able and socially acceptable emotion. As children mature, and their
two groups on this measure merits additional interpretation. language skills develop, fewer children fall into this anomalous
The ToM literature indicates that children develop false belief category.
understanding before they develop an understanding that emo- To reiterate, at Time 2 the number of children following this
tions can be based on false beliefs (Schneider, 1999, 2004; ; de anomalous pattern in the control was more than double that in the
Rosnay et al., 2004; Hadwin & Perner, 1991; Harris, Johnson, intervention group. This uneven distribution was driving the dif-
Hutton, & Andrews, 1989). However, this pattern was not ference between the intervention and comparison groups. Thus,
fully supported in this sample. When answering the Rabbit- at Time 2 the comparison group appears to be performing bet-
Fox test questions at Time 1, 29 participants—evenly divided ter on this measure (t(153) = 2.14, p = 0.03). However, when the 14
between the intervention group (n = 15) and the comparison group children whose responses followed this anomalous pattern were
(n = 14)—failed the false-belief question, but nonetheless passed removed from the sample, the differences between the two groups
the belief-based emotion question. Bradmetz and Schneider (1999) was not significant (t(138) = 166, p = 0.10). Ironically, it seems that
hypothesized that this pattern—failing a false-belief question and this anomalous response, which may be due to the children’s young
yet passing a belief-based emotion question—will never occur. age or immature linguistic skills, may be driving the statistical anal-
However, when this pattern did occur, Bradmetz and Schneider yses that make the children in the comparison group appear more
(2004) considered it an anomaly and attributed it to “attentional sophisticated than their peers in the intervention group.
or linguistic reasons” that prevent children from giving “their best As a final investigation in assessing the potential effect of a
performance” (p. 190). Interestingly, in the present study, at Time drama program, multiple regression models were designed to
2 only 14 children followed this anomalous pattern. However, the identify the effect of drama on each of the outcome variables:
14 children were not evenly distributed between the intervention vocabulary acquisition, narrative comprehension, and narrative
G Model
production, ToM competency, and imagination development. In a understood the specific vocabulary words they had dramatized.
study of kindergarten children’s literacy development, drama was Thus, if an instrument had been used to assess whether children
found to be more effective for children with lower baseline scores acquired specific vocabulary words featured in the ELTA dramas,
than it was for their peers with moderate or high baseline scores it might have been able to detect an effect of the intervention on
(Nielsen, 1993). Thus, interactions between the drama interven- vocabulary acquisition that the PPVT was not able to detect.
tion and variables such as a child’s age, pretest scores, gender, and It is worth mentioning that both of the ELTA dramas used dur-
home language were tested in the models. In addition, site differing the data collection period were set in non-English speaking
ences were taken into consideration. Thus, an extensive series of contexts; An-Nyoung Dal, Hello Moon was set in Korea (Creative
analyses were carried out in an attempt to be comprehensive and Arts Team, 2004–2005b; Creative Arts Team, 2005c) and La Feria de
thorough, although, due to the large number of analyses conducted, Sevilla was set in Spain (Creative Arts Team, 2004–2005a). Thus,
caution in interpreting the probability values is warranted. many of the words introduced in the drama were non-English
As indicated in Table 4, analyses of the pretest data indicated words. For example, in An-Nyoung Dal, Hello Moon, the word
that there were minimal differences in the language, perspective- an-nyoung , the Korean expression for hello and good-bye,
taking, or imaginative skills of the treatment group and the and dal , the Korean word for moon, were used. In La Feria de
comparison group at the start of the intervention. Thus differences Sevilla words such as pantalones, camisas, and casetas—the Spanish
at the conclusion of the study could likely be attributed to the drama words for pants, shirts, and tents—were introduced. Exposure to
intervention. The results of the regression analyses, however, were words in a second language may prompt children to reflect met-
consistent with the results of the earlier comparisons; no meaning- alinguistically on the arbitrary relationship between words and
ful differences were found. Even after controlling for factors such as their referents. Thus, it may be that participation in the ELTA inter-
age, gender, home language, receptive vocabulary, pretest scores, vention contributed to children’s metalinguistic awareness, a skill
and Head Start site, the differences between the drama intervention not measured in this study. It is also possible that dramas set in
group and the comparison group were minimal. an English-language context, or dramas designed to introduce a
larger percentage of English words, might have had a larger effect
on children’s English vocabulary knowledge.
10. Discussion A measure designed to assess increases in verbal participa-
tion may also have been worthwhile. One teacher in this study
Although there was no measureable effect of the ELTA inter- expressed surprise at the verbal engagement of one of her students
vention, all of the children in this study showed significant who did not typically volunteer to speak in class. The ELTA team
improvement on their language, perspective-taking, and imagina- members reported multiple instances when drama participation
tive abilities. At the start of the study the children who came from motivated usually shy or quiet children to voice their thoughts and
homes where a language other than English was spoken tended opinions (for specific examples of these reports, see Mages, 2008b,
to have lower scores on the measures of narrative development 2012b). In addition, drama’s ability to entice hesitant or reluc-
than did their peers who came from homes where only English tant children to speak has been mentioned by preschool educators
was spoken. Importantly, at the conclusion of the study the narra- (Paley, 1981) and TIE experts (O’Toole, 1976). This type of report
tive performance of these children was more similar to that of their has also been documented in the educational-drama research liter-
peers. ature (Mages, 2004). In the future it would be helpful to investigate
The ELTA intervention was designed using strategies believed to whether children who participate in drama and theatre program-
promote language, ToM, and imagination development. The instru- ming are more likely to engage in verbal discourse than children
ments employed in this study, however, were not able to detect a who do not participate in such programming.
meaningful difference in improvement in these domains between One of the foci of the ELTA intervention was teacher professional
the intervention and comparison groups. There may be several development. A Head Start education director, who initially ques-
reasons contributing to the absence of an apparent effect of the tioned the value of the ELTA program, commended the program
intervention. and, in particular, its effect on one of her teachers. The education
The preschool activities of the comparison group may have been director reported that prior to the ELTA experience this teacher’s
equally effective as the preschool activities (including the ELTA pro- demeanor was overly stern and businesslike. Through participating
gram) of the intervention group. In other words, adding the ELTA in the ELTA program, the teacher not only began to incorporate the
program to the typical Head Start activities may not have had an arts into her own lesson plans, but her demeanor became friendlier
effect on the children in this study. It is worth noting, however, that and more congenial. The education director felt that this difference
although the comparison sites did not receive the ELTA program substantially improved the teacher’s ability to work with young
during the data collection period, they did receive programming children. The director’s laudatory comments were striking because,
from outside sources. For example, children in some comparison prior to the start of the intervention, she was the sole Head Start
classrooms participated in activities such as African dancing and education director to express concerns about the value of the ELTA
puppet making. Thus, the enrichment activities the comparison program and whether the investment of time and effort would be
group received may have been comparable to the ELTA curricula. worthwhile.
An alternative reason the results were not able to demonstrate If the professional development component of the ELTA
an effect of the ELTA curricula may relate to the sensitivity of intervention can significantly improve teachers’ classroom perfor-
the measures that were used. For example, the Peabody Picture mance, the teachers’ improved performance could then positively
Vocabulary Test (PPVT-III, Dunn & Dunn, 1997b) was designed to affect their students’ learning. Over the course of the teachers’
measure receptive vocabulary, but may not have been able to detect careers, this could have a multiplicative effect, benefiting new class-
small changes in children’s word knowledge. In a study of dia- rooms of children every year. Future research should explore the
logic picture-book reading, in addition to standardized measures, effect of drama-based professional development programs, such as
Whitehurst et al. (1994) used a measure to assess whether the ELTA, on the participating teachers’ praxes.
children learned words associated with the specific picture-books Another factor worth considering is whether the ELTA imple-
used in the intervention. Similarly, in a study that used drama mentation schedule could be adjusted to be more beneficial for
to teach kindergarten children sophisticated vocabulary words, Head Start children. The 14 drama sessions in the interven-
Cullum (1967) designed a measure to assess whether the children tion, including the interactive storytelling and picture-book-based
G Model
drama activities led by the ATs and those led by the classroom Services/Head Start, Pat Hussey, and each of the Head Start centers
teachers, were spread out from the end of January to the begin- that granted me permission to conduct my research. I also want to
ning of May. This extended schedule may have diminished the express my gratitude to the children who agreed to participate in
intensity of the drama program and, thus, diluted the measur- this study and their parents who consented to their participation.
able impact on the children’s language, perspective-taking, and I am also thankful for the research assistants who worked dili-
imagination development. Goldstein and Winner (2012) found an gently and devoted many hours to this study. In addition, I would
effect of acting training on ToM only when the students received like to gratefully acknowledge Barbara Alexander Pan, Catherine
a sufficiently intense “dose” of the intervention. Similarly, a meta- E. Snow, Paul L. Harris, and Terrence Tivnan, whose advice and
analysis (Hofmann et al., 2016) investigating whether children’s support guided the study on which this article is based.
ToM responded to training, showed training could enhance chil-
dren’s ToM, but that the intensity of the training mattered; “longer
sessions and the number of sessions was associated with higher References
impact of the training, while longer training periods decreased the
Astington, J. W. (1993). The child’s discovery of the mind. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
impact” (p. 7). In the present study, the effect of the “dose” of TIE University Press.
may have been attenuated by the extended length of the imple- Atkinson, L., Slade, L., Powell, D., & Levy, J. P. (2017). Theory of mind in emerging
mentation schedule. In other words, the young children may not reading comprehension: A longitudinal study of early indirect and direct
effects. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 225–238. http://dx.doi.org/10.
have been able to sustain and build upon what they had learned 1016/j.jecp.2017.04.007
when the 14 educative encounters were distributed over so many Bassok, D., Latham, S., & Rorem, A. (2016). Is kindergarten the new first grade?
months. AERA Open, 1(4), 1–31. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2332858415616358
Beck, I. L., & McKeown, M. G. (2001). Text Talk: Capturing the benefits of
Throughout the intervention the children were actively engaged read-aloud experiences for young children. Reading Teacher, 55(1), 10–20.
in the dramas and appeared to be eager to participate. In addition, Beck, I. L., McKeown, M. G., & Kucan, L. (2002). Bringing words to life: Robust
the children who participated in this ELTA intervention seemed to vocabulary instruction. New York: Guilford Publications, Inc.
Blair, C., & Razza, R. P. (2007). Relating effortful control, executive function, and
develop a particularly good rapport with the ATs, often greeting the false belief understanding to emerging math and literacy ability in
ATs with hugs and high-fives. Thus the children appeared to enjoy kindergarten. Child Development, 78(2), 647–663. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.
both the program and the program facilitators. Although the instru- 1467-8624.2007.01019.x
Blum-Kulka, S., & Snow, C. E. (1992). Developing autonomy for tellers, tales, and
ments used in this study were not able to measure a significant
telling in family narrative events. Journal of Narrative & Life History, 2(3),
difference in the children’s language, perspective-taking, and imag- 187–217. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/jnlh.2.3.02dev
ination abilities, their growth in these domains was on par with that Boal, A. (1979). Theatre of the oppressed. New York: Theatre Communication Group
(C. A. McBride & M. L. McBride, Trans.).
of the children in the comparison group who did not participate in
Bradmetz, J., & Schneider, R. (1999). Is Little Red Riding Hood afraid of her
the drama sessions. This is worth mentioning because in the current grandmother? Cognitive vs. emotional response to a false belief. British Journal
academic climate even preschool educators may fear that devoting of Developmental Psychology, 17(4), 501–514. http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/
time to artistic or creative endeavors could negatively impact chil- 026151099165438
Bradmetz, J., & Schneider, R. (2004). The role of the counterfactually satisfied
dren’s academic development. This study indicates that those fears desire in the lag between false-belief and false-emotion attributions in
are unsubstantiated. The children in the ELTA program seemed to children aged 4–7. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 22(2), 185–196.
be enthusiastic participants and willing to engage in verbal interac- http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/026151004323044564
Bruner, J. (1990). Acts of meaning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
tions. Hence, they devoted time and energy to drama activities that Bryant, P. E., Bradley, L., Maclean, M., & Crossland, J. (1989). Nursery rhymes,
could have been spent on “academic” pursuits. Yet, their scores on phonological skills and reading. Journal of Child Language, 16(2), 407–428.
tests of language, perspective-taking, and imagination were similar http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0305000900010485
Catterall, J. S., Dumais, S. A., & Hampden-Thompson, G. (2012). The arts and
to those of their peers who were not enrolled in the ELTA interven- achievement in at-risk youth: Findings from four longitudinal studies.
tion. Thus, this study suggests that the inclusion of high-quality Washington, DC: National Endowment for the Arts.
educational drama and theatre curricula in early childhood educa- City University of New York: Creative Arts Team. (2007a). About The Creative Arts
Team. , from. http://portal.cuny.edu/portal/site/cuny/index.jsp?epi-
tion can provide young children with an entertaining and engaging
content=GENERIC&epiproxymethod=get&viewID=epiproxybanner
preschool experience while providing academic supports commen- &beanID=1550983858&epiproxyrealurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww1.cuny.
surate with those of more traditional early childhood programs. In edu%2Fportal ur%2Fcontent%2Facademic affairs%2Fcat%2Findex.html
City University of New York: Creative Arts Team. (2007b). Early learning through
an era of declining arts education (Goff & Ludwig, 2013; President’s
the arts. , from. http://portal.cuny.edu/portal/site/cuny/index.jsp?epi-
Committee on the Arts and Humanities, 2011; Rabkin & Heberg, content=GENERIC&epiproxymethod=get&viewID=epiproxybanner
2011), which has had a disproportionally negative impact on access &beanID=1550983858&epiproxyrealurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww1.cuny.
to the arts for children in low-income communities, the findings edu%2Fportal ur%2Fcontent%2Facademic affairs%2Fcat%2Fprograms%2Fwolf.
html
of this study are noteworthy, as they indicate educational drama Conard, F. (1992). The arts in education and a meta-analysis. Purdue University.
and theatre programing does not detract from academic achieve- Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation.
ment and school readiness. Hence, the findings of this study may Corbett, B. A., Gunther, J. R., Comins, D., Price, J., Ryan, N., Simon, D., et al. (2011).
Brief report: Theatre as therapy for children with autism spectrum disorder.
empower educators, administrators, and policy makers who under- Journal of Autism & Developmental Disorders, 41, 505–511. http://dx.doi.org/10.
stand the benefits of the arts to advocate for including educational 1007/s10803-010-1064-1
theatre and drama in early childhood curricula. Corbett, B. A., Key, A. P., Qualls, L., Fecteau, S., Newsom, C., Coke, C., et al. (2016).
Improvement in social competence using a randomized trial of a theatre
intervention for children with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Autism &
Developmental Disorders, 46, 658–672. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10803-015-
Acknowledgements 2600-9
Creative Arts Team (2004–2005a). La feria de Sevilla: Resource guide 2004–2005.
New York: Creative Arts Team/New York City Wolf Trap Program: Early
I would like to express my gratitude to the Administration for Learning Through the Arts.
Children and Families Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation Creative Arts Team. (2004–2005b). An-nyoung dal, hello moon: Resource guide
2004–2005. New York: Creative Arts Team/New York City Wolf Trap Program:
for funding this study. I would also like to express my apprecia-
Early Learning Through the Arts.
tion to Lynda Zimmerman for granting me permission to conduct Creative Arts Team. (2005). Early Learning Through the Arts Program, 2004–2005
research on the Creative Arts Team’s Early Learning Through the updated five-day version: An-Nyoung Dal, Hello Moon (a Korean story of the
Arts: New York City Wolf Trap Program and to the members of moon). New York: Creative Arts Team/New York City Wolf Trap Program: Early
Learning Through the Arts.
the Creative Arts Team who agreed to participate in this study. I Creative Arts Team. (2017). About CAT. , from. http://www.creativeartsteam.org/
would like to thank New York City’s Administration for Children’s about-cat
G Model
Creative Arts Team (n.d.-a). Drama for literacy 27-day residency program. New York: Maclean, M., Bryant, P., & Bradley, L. (1987). Rhymes, nursery rhymes, and reading
Creative Arts Team/New York City Wolf Trap Program: Early Learning Through in early childhood. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 33(3), 255–281.
the Arts. Mages, W. K. (2004). Urban Improv: A portrait of an educational drama
Creative Arts Team (n.d.-b). Interactive storytelling: Participation points. New York: organization. Youth Theatre Journal, 18, 30–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/
Creative Arts Team/New York City Wolf Trap Program: Early Learning Through 08929092.2004.10012562
the Arts. Mages, W. K. (2006). Drama and imagination: A cognitive theory of drama’s effect
Creative Arts Team (n.d.-c). Storytelling: Learning/telling/expansion handout. New on narrative comprehension and narrative production. Research in Drama
York: Creative Arts Team/New York City Wolf Trap Program: Early Learning Education, 11(3), 329–340. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13569780600900750
Through the Arts. Mages, W. K. (2008a). Does creative drama promote language development in
Cullum, A. (1967). Push back the desks. New York: Citation Press. early childhood? A review of the methods and measures employed in the
de Rosnay, M., Pons, F., Harris, P. L., & Morrell, J. M. B. (2004). A lag between empirical literature. Review of Educational Research, 78(1), 124–152. http://dx.
understanding false belief and emotion attribution in young children: doi.org/10.3102/0034654307313401
Relationships with linguistic ability and mothers’ mental-state language. Mages, W. K. (2008b). Language and theory of mind development in the context of
British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 22(2), 197–218. http://dx.doi.org/ a Head Start theatre-in-education program. In Unpublished Dissertation.
10.1348/026151004323044573 Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Graduate School of Education.
DeTemple, J. M., & Tabors, P. O. (1996). Children’s story retelling as a predictor of Mages, W. K. (2010). Creating a culture of collaboration: The conception, design,
early reading achievement. Quebec City, Quebec: Biennial Meeting of the and evolution of a Head Start theatre-in-education program. Youth Theatre
International Society for the Study of Behavioral Development. Retrieved from. Journal, 24(1), 45–61. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08929091003732989
http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/detail?accno=ED403543 Mages, W. K. (2012a). Preschool characteristics influence the success of
Dick, A. S., Overton, W. F., & Kovacs, S. L. (2005). The development of symbolic professional development: Is your preschool ready, willing, and able? NHSA
coordination: Representation of imagined objects, executive function, and Dialog: A Research-to-Practice. Journal for the Early Childhood Field, 15(2),
theory of mind. Journal of Cognition and Development, 6(1), 133–161. http://dx. 195–200. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15240754.2012.6655013
doi.org/10.1207/s15327647jcd0601 8 Mages, W. K. (2012b). Professional development in the context of a Head Start
Dunn, L. M., & Dunn, L. M. (1997a). Examiner’s manual for the peabody picture theatre-in-education program. NHSA Dialog: A Research-to-Practice. Journal
vocabulary test-third edition. Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Services. for the Early Childhood Field, 15(2), 159–186. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/
Dunn, L. M., & Dunn, L. M. (1997b). Peabody picture vocabulary test-third edition. 15240754.2012.665508
Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Services. Mages, W. K. (2013). Building a strong ensemble of teaching artists: Characteristics,
Durham, R. E., Farkas, G., Hammer, C. S., Tomblin, J. B., & Catts, H. (2007). contexts, and strategies for success and sustainability. International Journal of
Kindergarten oral language skill: A key variable in the intergenerational Education & the Arts, 14(8). Retrieved from http://www.ijea.org/v14n8/.
transmission of socioeconomic status. Research in Social Stratification and Mages, W. K. (2017a). Drama-based interventions and narrative. In N. Kucirkova, C.
Mobility, 25, 294–305. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rssm.2007.03.001 E. Snow, V. Grøver, & C. McBride (Eds.), The Routledge international handbook of
Fernald, A., & Weisleder, A. (2015). Twenty years after Meaningful Differences, it’s early literacy education: A contemporary guide to literacy teaching and
time to reframe the ‘deficit’ debate about the importance of children’s early interventions in a global context (pp. 296–307). New York, NY: Routledge.
language experience. Human Development, 58(1), 1–4. http://dx.doi.org/10. Mages, W. K. (2017b). Practice makes perfectible: The impact of training and
1159/000375515 rehearsal on program fidelity. Youth Theatre Journal, 31(1), 7–22. http://dx.doi.
Fernald, A., Marchman, V. A., & Weisleder, A. (2013). SES differences in language org/10.1080/08929092.2017.1298542
processing skill and vocabulary are evident at 18 months. Developmental McCaslin, N. (1996). Creative drama in the classroom and beyond (6th ed.). White
Science, 16(2), 234–248. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/desc.12019 Plains, NY: Longman Publishers.
Goff, R., & Ludwig, M. (2013). Teacher practice and student outcomes in Michaels, S. (1981). Sharing time: Children’s narrative styles and differential access
arts-integrated learning settings: A review of literature. Washington, DC: to literacy. Language in Society, 10(3), 423–442. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/
American Institutes of Research. S0047404500008861
Goldstein, T., & Winner, E. (2012). Enhancing empathy and theory of mind. Journal Nielsen, D. C. (1993). The effects of four models of group interaction with
of Cognition and Development, 13(1), 19–37. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/ storybooks on the literacy growth of low-achieving kindergarten children. In
15248372.2011.573514 D. J. Leu, & C. K. Kinzer (Eds.), Examining central issues in literacy research,
Goodman, Y. M. (1986). Children coming to know literacy. In W. H. Teale, & E. theory, and practice: Forty-second yearbook of the National Reading Conference
Sulzby (Eds.), Emergent literacy: Writing and reading (pp. 1–14). Norwood, NJ: (Vol. 42) (pp. 279–287). Chicago: National Reading Conference.
Ablex Publishing Corporation. O’Toole, J. (1976). Theatre in education: New objectives for theatre—New techniques
Hadwin, J., & Perner, J. (1991). Pleased and surprised: Children’s cognitive theory of in education. London: Hodder and Stoughton.
emotion. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 9(2), 215–234. http://dx. Overton, W. F., & Jackson, J. P. (1973). The representation of imagined objects in
doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-835X.1991.tb00872.x action sequences: A developmental study. Child Development, 44, 309–314.
Harris, P. L., Johnson, C. N., Hutton, D., & Andrews, G. (1989). Young children’s Paley, V. G. (1981). Wally’s stories: Conversations in the kindergarten. Cambridge,
theory of mind and emotion. Cognition & Emotion, 3(4), 379–400. http://dx.doi. MA: Harvard University Press.
org/10.1080/02699938908412713 Paley, V. G. (1986). On listening to what the children say. Harvard Educational
Harris, P. L. (2000). The work of the imagination. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. Review, 56(2), 122–131. http://dx.doi.org/10.17763/haer.56.2.
Hart, B., & Risley, T. R. (1995). Meaningful differences in the everyday experience of p775487x30tk69m8
young American children. Baltimore, MD: Paul H Brooks Publishing Company. Paley, V. G. (1988). Bad guys don’t have birthdays: Fantasy play at four. Chicago:
Hoff, E. (2003). The specificity of environmental influence: Socioeconomic status University of Chicago Press.
affects early vocabulary development via maternal speech. Child Development, Pan, B. A., & Gleason, J. B. (2000). Semantic development: Learning the meaning of
74(5), 1368–1378. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.00612 words. In J. B. Gleason (Ed.), The development of language (5th ed., Vol. 42, pp.
Hofmann, S., Doan, S. N., Sprung, M., Wilson, A., Ebesutani, C., Andrews, L., et al. 125–161). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
(2016). Training children’s theory-of-mind: A meta-analysis of controlled Pan, B. A., Rowe, M. L., Singer, J. D., & Snow, C. E. (2005). Maternal correlates of
studies. Cognition, 150(200–212) http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2016. growth in toddler vocabulary production in low-income families. Child
01.006 Development, 76(4), 763–782. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.00498-i1
Hume, K., & Wells, G. (1999). Making lives meaningful: Extending perspectives Paris, A. H., & Paris, S. G. (2003). Assessing narrative comprehension in young
through role-play. In B. J. Wagner (Ed.), Building moral communities through children. Reading Research Quarterly, 38(1), 36–76. http://dx.doi.org/10.1598/
educational drama (pp. 63–87). Stamford, CT: Ablex Publishing Corporation. RRQ.38.1.3
Hurtado, N., Marchman, V. A., & Fernald, A. (2007). Spoken word recognition by Peterson, C., & McCabe, A. (1994). A social interactionist account of developing
Latino children learning Spanish as their first language. Journal of Child decontextualized narrative skill. Developmental Psychology, 30(6), 937–948.
Language, 34(2), 227–249. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0305000906007896 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.30.6.937
Kardash, C. A. M., & Wright, L. (1987). Does creative drama benefit elementary Podlozny, A. (2000). Strengthening verbal skills through the use of classroom
school students: A meta-analysis. Youth Theatre Journal, 1(3), 11–18. drama: A clear link. Journal of Aesthetic Education, 34(3–4), 239–275. http://dx.
Kloo, D., & Perner, J. (2008). Training theory of mind and executive control: A tool doi.org/10.2307/3333644
for improving school achievement. Mind, Brain, and Education, 2(3), 122–127. Pons, F., & Harris, P. L. (2005). Longitudinal change and longitudinal stability of
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-228X.2008.00042.x individual differences in children’s emotion understanding. Cognition &
Lee, V. E., & Burkman, D. T. (2002). Inequality at the starting gate: Social background Emotion, 19(8), 1158–1174. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02699930500282108
differences in achievement as children begin school (Exectutive Summary). Pons, F., Lawson, J., Harris, P. L., & de Rosnay, M. (2003). Individual differences in
Washington, DC: Economic Policy Institute. Available from. http://epsl.asu. children’s emotion understanding: Effects of age and language. Scandinavian
edu/epru/articles/EPRU-0603-138-OWI.pdf Journal of Psychology, 44(4), 347–353. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-9450.
Lee, B. K., Patall, E. A., Cawthon, S. W., & Steingut, R. R. (2015). The effect of 00354
drama-based pedagogy on PreK-16 outcomes: A meta-analysis of resaerch Pons, F., Harris, P. L., & de Rosnay, M. (2004). Emotion comprehension between 3
from 1985–2012. Review of Educational Research, 85(1), 3–49. http://dx.doi.org/ and 11 years: Developmental periods and hierarchical organization. European
10.3102/0034654314540477 Journal of Developmental Psychology, 1(2), 127–152. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/
Leech, K. A., Rowe, M. L., & Huang, Y. T. (2017). Variations in the recruitment of 17405620344000022
syntactic knowledge contribute to SES differences in syntactic development. President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities. (2011). Reinvesting in arts
Journal of Child Language, 44(4), 995–1009. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/ education: Winning America’s future through creative schools. Washington, DC:
S0305000916000210 Author.
G Model
Rabkin, N., & Heberg, E. C. (2011). Arts education in America: What the declines mean Teale, W. H. (1986). Home background and young children’s literacy development.
for arts participation. Washington, DC: National Endowment for the Arts. In W. H. Teale, & E. Sulzby (Eds.), Emergent literacy: Writing and reading (pp.
Rowe, M. L. (2008). Child-directed speech: Relation to socioeconomic status, 173–206). Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corporation.
knowledge of child development and child vocabulary skill. Journal of Child Vygotsky, L. S. (1967). Play and its role in the mental development of the child.
Language, 35(1), 185–205. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0305000907008343 Soviet Psychology, 5(3), 6–18.
Rowe, M. L. (2012). A longitudinal investigation of the role of quantity and quality Wagner, B. J. (1998). Educational drama and language arts: What research shows.
of child-directed speech in vocabulary development. Child Development, 83(5), Portsmouth. NH: Heinemann.
1762–1774. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2012.01805.x Wellman, H. M., & Liu, D. (2004). Scaling of theory-of-mind tasks. Child
Seymour, H. N., Roeper, T. W., & de Villiers, J. (2003a). DELV: Diagnostic evaluation Development, 75(2), 523–541. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2004.
of language variation criterion referenced. San Antonio, TX: The Psychological 00691.x
Corporation. Westby, C. E. (1985). Learning to talk-talking to learn: Oral-literate language
Seymour, H. N., Roeper, T. W., & de Villiers, J. (2003b). DELV: Diagnostic evaluation differences. In C. S. Simon (Ed.), Communication skills and classroom success:
of language variation criterion referenced: Record Form. San Antonio, TX: The Therapy methodologies for language-learning disabled students (pp. 181–213).
Psychological Corporation. San Diego, CA: College-Hill.
Shedd, M. K., & Duke, N. K. (2008). The power of planning: Developing effective What Works Clearinghouse. (2007). Dialogic reading: What works clearinghouse
read-alouds. Young Children, 63(6), 22–27. intervention report. Revised. from US Department of Education: Institution of
Smilansky, S. (1968). The effects of sociodramatic play on disadvantaged preschool Education Sciences:. https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/Docs/InterventionReports/
children. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. WWC Dialogic Reading 020807.pdf
Snow, C. E., Burns, M. S., & Griffin, P. (Eds.). (1998). Preventing reading difficulties in Whitehurst, G. J., Arnold, D. S., Epstein, J. N., Angell, A. L., Smith, M., & Fischel, J. E.
young children. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. (1994). A picture book reading intervention in day care and home for children
Sodian, B., & Frith, U. (2008). Metacognition, theory of mind, and self-control: The from low-income families. Developmental Psychology, 30(5), 679–689. http://
relevance of high-level cognitive processes in development, neuroscience, and dx.doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.30.5.679
education. Mind, Brain, and Education, 2(3), 111–113. http://dx.doi.org/10. Wolf, S. A. (1995). Language in and around the dramatic curriculum. Journal of
1111/j.1751-228X.2008.00040.x Curriculum Studies, 27(2), 117–137. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/
Taylor, M., Cartwright, B. S., & Carlson, S. M. (1993). A developmental investigation 0022027950270201
of children’s imaginary companions. Developmental Psychology, 29, 276–278. Zigler, E., & Styfco, S. J. (Eds.). (2004). Head Start debates. Baltimore: Brookes
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.29.2.276 Publishing Company.
Taylor, M., Sachet, A. B., Maring, B. L., & Mannering, A. M. (2013). The assessment of Zill, N., Resnick, G., & Hubbell-McKey, R. (2000). FACES 2000 Head Start teacher
elaborated role-play in young children: Invisible friends, personified objects, interview. Head Start family and child experiences survey. Rockville, MD: Westat,
and pretend identities. Social Develpoment, 22(1), 75–93. http://dx.doi.org/10. Inc.
1111/sode.12011
Teale, W. H., & Sulzby, E. (1986). Introduction: Emergent literacy as a perspective
for examining young children becoming writers and readers. In W. H. Teale, &
E. Sulzby (Eds.), Emergent literacy: Writing and reading (pp. vii–xxv). Norwood,
NJ: Ablex Publishing Corporation.

Theatre in Education

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Theatre in Education

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

G Model

EARCHI-983; No. of Pages 14 ARTICLE IN PRESS

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Early Childhood Research Quarterly

Does theatre-in-education promote early childhood development?

Mean SD Mean SD t-test d

Drama Intervention and Comparison Group

Drama No Drama Drama No Drama

Mean SD Mean SD t-test d Mean SD Mean SD t-test d

You might also like