Creativity training for preschool children and its effect on self-regulation
Abstract
Creativity and self-regulation are related skills that develop rapidly in early childhood. This study aims to set up creativity training for preschoolers and then examine the effects of this training on cognitive (i.e. executive functions) and emotional (i.e. emotion-regulation) dimensions of self-regulation. Four -and five-year-old children (n=80) participated in the study. Imagination and symbolic play-based activities were the main elements of the creativity training that lasted for six sessions. Each session was approximately 40 minutes. We used the Alternative/Different Use Task (in the pre-test) and Wallach-Kogan Creativity and the Sampling Tasks (in the post-test) to evaluate creativity performance. Verbal ability was also tested to control. The training boosted creativity in the experiment group. There was an increase from pre-test to post-test in the training group's executive functions and emotion-understanding performances as well. This training suggests a relationship between creativity and self-regulation in terms of cognitive flexibility and emotion comprehension.
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