Psychology in rhr Schools Volume 26, July 1989

BOOKS, PUPPETS, AND SHARING: TEACHING PRESCHOOL CHILDREN TO SHARE

TERRY R. SHEPHERD AND JANICE KOBERSTEIN

Southern Illinois University at Carbondale

This quasi-experimental study examined the change in a specific behavior in preschoolers, that of sharing, after treatment with bibliotherapy combined with pup- petry. The study took place in a small preschool in southern Illinois and utilized six 3- to 5-year-olds as the subjects. The subjects were preobserved to obtain a frequen- cy count of the number of times sharing occurred in a 10-minute period. Each child was observed for 10 minutes daily for one week. After preohservations were com- pleted, the subjects received daily 30-minute treatments of bibliotherapy and pup- petry for one week. These treatments entailed the reading of books to the subjects by the teacherhesearcher. The books were selected because they had themes relevant to the topic of sharing. This was followed by the presentation of puppets by the teacherhesearcher to role model the characters in the books. Afterwards, the children used the puppets to portray the characters in the books. Following the treatment period the subjects were postobserved using the same methods and procedures as in the preobservations. The results found that combined bibliotherapy and puppetry helped increase sharing behavior in preschoolers.

Preschools, nursery schools, day care centers, and home centers are fast becoming a much-needed resource for parents. Children are being placed into these environments at an earlier age; they are being placed into social situations during a developmental stage when they “have an egocentric concern that makes it difficult for them to distinguish between their own viewpoint and that of another” (Krogh & Lamme, 1983, p. 189). Therefore, when two or more children are together any preschool teacher can expect one type of behavior-a struggle over an object. Absence of sharing is a common prob- lem among children of preschool age (two through five years old). Sharing behavior, according to James and Egel (1986), is the offering, giving, exchanging, or receiving of an object/toy, or two children cooperating in the same use of an object or toy. Nonver- bal sharing, according to Alvord and O’Leary (1985), is both children using the material simultaneously, handing one’s own materials to another child, and trading or taking turns.

Preschool teachers spend a lot of valuable time stopping arguments and redirect- ing behavior. Simply asking a child to share is not enough; additional teaching is necessary. Learning to share is important in a child’s social growth. At a time when a lot of emphasis is placed upon competition, cooperation needs to be instilled in the young. “Cooperation is essential rather than competition, certainly if we want to live together, peacefully” (Hoffman & Wundram, 1984, p. 264). One method that helps to increase sharing behavior is a combination of bibliotherapy and puppets. Bibliorherapy

Bibliotherapy is thc use of books to help children develop skills that they need in order to live. The use of books in the preschool can aid children in looking outward, promote cognitive awareness, and contribute to an encouraging environment. Books can help children learn about sharing by taking the abstract concept and placing it in a more concrete setting (Krogh & Lamme, 1983). According to Clarke (1985),

Reprint requests should be addressed to Terry R. Shepherd, Dept. of Curriculum & Instruction, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, Carbondale, IL 62901 -4610.

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312 Terry R . Shepherd and Janice Koberstein

bibliotherapy can be a most effective mans of helping children to know themselves bet- ter, understand socially acceptable modes of behavior, and clarify and strengthen their roles as individuals and as members of a group.

Teachers can approach socialization problems by guiding children through helpful books. Books are dynamic and have the potential to change the attitudes, habits, and skills of the people who read them (Shepherd & Iles, 1976). Literature can help children learn about sharing by role taking. If children take the role of characters facing a dilemma or making a decision, it offers them an opportunity to learn why people share (Krogh & Lamme, 1983).

Puppetry Puppets are an extremely useful means of communicating important ideas and feel-

ings to children. As early as 1936, a study reported that children with behavior prob- lems responded favorably to play activities with puppets (Bender & Woltman, 1936). Bender and Woltman felt that the important part of puppetry was the opportunity for children to identify with the characters involved.

To further show the extent to which puppetry has been used with children, the Suicide Prevention Center in Dayton, Ohio, has developed an approach to death educa- tion in elementary schools using puppets. This approach has been used with great suc- cess in the Dayton area since 1981 (Bernhardt & Praeger, 1985).

McAuliffe (1 980) suggested that puppetry could be used as a form of role playing to solve personal problems. Puppets can aid instructors in the teaching of various behaviors that children need to learn; in addition, puppetry is a helpful and useful tool in working with children who have learning and/or emotional problems (Currant, 1985).

Combining Bibliotherapy and Puppetry Because both bibliotherapy and puppetry are recognized as effective tools in bring-

ing about changes in children’s social behavior, it would seem logical to combine the two methods to bring about a change in a target behavior. The target behavior for this study was “sharing.”

The natural love which children have toward both books and puppets should make the intervention more powerful. Children are quick to relate to characters in books and to puppets; it would seem, therefore, that utilizing bibliotherapy and puppetry could help preschoolers develop social skills, particularly the ability to share.

Bandura (1977) emphasized the importance of modeling appropriate behaviors to influence social learning. Modeling includes people and types of symbolic models per- forming acceptable behavior which is observed and imitated. Studies indicate that children display greater generosity when exposed to models who behave generously (Lipscomb, McAllister, & Bregman, 1985). Modeling has been carried out using pictures (Alvord & O’Leary, 1985), peer modeling (Barton, 1981), live models (Presbie & Coiteux, 1975), literature (Krogh & Lamme, 1983), and puppets (Leyser & Wood, 1980).

The literature emphasizes that sharing is an important skill for preschool children to learn. Modeling has been successful in teaching children social skills. The success of bibliotherapy and puppetry, used independently, in developing skills for personal living has been well documented. This study combined the two to see the effect they might have on the sharing behavior of the preschool child.

The study sought to answer the following question: Will there be a positive change in the sharing behavior of preschool children as measured by the frequency with which sharing occurs as recorded on an observation form after a treatment (teaching) using

Books, Puppets, and Sharing 313

bibliotherapy and puppetry? Hypothesis: There will exist a positive change in the shar- ing behavior of preschool children as measured by the frequency with which sharing occurs as recorded on an observation form after treatment of combined bibliotherapy and puppetry.

METHOD Subjects

The subjects in this study were six preschool children (one girl and five boys) from 3 to 5 years of age. The average age was 4. The subjects resided in a university-based community in a rural coal-mining area. They were from White, middle-class families. Subjects were selected because of their availability to the researcher; parental consent by signature was obtained. Treatment

A lesson entailed the presentation of a combined bibliotherapy and puppetry treat- ment. Each daily lesson treatment consisted of a book selected by the researcher (teacher); three of the five books selected had been recommended by Krogh and Lamme (1983) as appropriate bibliotherapy for sharing. The other two books were selected by the researcher for their relevance to the topic of sharing. (A list of books utilized is includ- ed in the references.) The books were read to the subjects. Following the readings, the researcher asked questions to be sure the subjects understood the books. Using the pup- pets, the researcher role-modeled the characters in the books. Next, the subjects were asked to recreate the story using the puppets. Afterwards, the subjects discussed how they felt about the actions of the puppets. Instrumentation

The Frequency-Count Recording procedure was used to observe the subjects and determine the number of times sharing occurred in a 10-minute observation period. (McMillan & Schumacher, 1984). Procedures

The quasi-experimental design used in the study was the Single Group Interrupted Time Series as described by McMillan and Schumacher (1984). Several conditions were met in employing this design: equal time intervals for observation were used for the five preobservations and five postobservations, as well as identical subjects and pro- cedures. The Frequency-Count Recording procedure (McMillan & Schumacher, 1984) was used to record the frequency with which sharing occurred in a 10-minute observa- tion period, as shown in Table 1. Alvord and O’Leary’s (1985) definition of sharing was used: it stated that nonverbal sharing was an observed incident of both children using the material simultaneously, handing one’s own materials to another child, trading, or taking turns; verbal sharing occurred when the child offered to share, gave, took turns, or traded materials. The treatment was a distinctive, abrupt intervention that was new to the existing environment (McMillan & Schumacher, 1984). It was presented to all the subjects at the same time.

314 Terry R . Shepherd and Janice Koberstein

The Single Group Interrupted Time Series Design is:

Preobservation Postobservation

Group A 01 02 0 3 04 0s X 06 07 0s 09 010

Time

x = Treatment

Table 1 Pre- and Postobservations

Subject Preobservations

(September 21-25)

S1 s2 s3 s4 S5 S6

(Treatment: September 28-October 1)

~~ ~

Postobservations Subject (October 4-9)

S l s 2 s3 s4 s5 S6

~

06 07 0 8 09 010

/// // // // // // / /// /// / // // /// / / / / // / // /// // /

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The purpose of this study was to see if there would be an increase in sharing behavior

of preschool children following a treatment combining bibliotherapy and puppetry. The results of the postobservations showed an increase in sharing frequency, as

shown in Table 2. Additionally, the total results seem to confirm the 0 5 06 analysis, as the total number of sharings during pretreatment was 27 (average of 4.5 per child) and the total number of sharings during posttreatment was 44 (average of 7.3 per child).

The Sharing Frequency was analyzed by performing a t-test analysis on the preobser- vation and postobservation scores (05 and 06) (Borg and Gall, 1983). The .05 level of significance was utilized; the degrees of freedom = 5, and t>2.015 was needed for significance.

Books, Puppets, and Sharing 315

Table 2 Frequency of Sharing Behavior

Subject 0s 06

s1 S2 s3 s 4 ss S6

3 3 2 1 3 3 3 2 2 1 3 3

D = Difference between 05 and 06 (Observation 6). d = Difference squared. df=5 . r=5.42. p = < .05, one-tailed. t>2.015 needed for significance.

The research hypothesis stated that there would exist a positive change in the shar- ing behavior of preschool children as measured by the frequency with which sharing occurred as recorded on an observation form after treatment with bibliotherapy and puppetry. The t-test analysis showed that there was a greater than .05 statistical significance between observations 05 and 06. This corresponded with the researcher's sub- jective evaluation; the subjects not only showed an increase in sharing but argued less over toys, which created a more pleasant classroom atmosphere. The children actively participated in discussions and puppetry and had an awareness of how one shares with others.

The results of this study allow one to conclude that combining bibliotherapy and puppetry increased the sharing behavior as measured by the frequency with which shar- ing occurred. Literature and puppets were used as models to influence the sharing behavior of preschool childrn. Bandura (1977) has emphasized the importance of model- ing appropriate behaviors to influence social learning. Sharing is an appropriate behavior for preschoolers to learn in order for them to get along socially in a preschool setting. Bibliotherapy and puppetry proved to be an effective type of modeling for children to observe and imitate.

Parents and preschool teachers should make a consistent, planned effort to incor- porate books and puppetry as tools for influencing pupil behavior, specifically sharing behaviors. Bibliotherapy and puppetry could also be used as treatment'for other behaviors found in preschoolers, such as lying, stealing, talking back, and whining; verifications in these areas would be helpful.

REFERENCES ALVORD, M. K. & O'LEARY, K. D. (1985).

BANDURA, A. (1977). Learning theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. BARTON, E. J . (1981). Developing sharing: An analysis of modeling and other behavior techniques. Behavior

BENDER, L. & WOLW, A. G . (1936). The uses of puppet shows as a psychotherapeutic method for behavior

BERNHARDT, B. R. a PRAEGER, S . B. (1985). Preventing child suicide: The elementary school death educa-

BORO, W. R. & GALL, M. D. (1983). Educational research. New York: Longman.

Teaching children to share through stories. Psychology in the Schools, 22, 323-330.

Modification, 5, 387-398.

problems in children. The American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 6, 34 1-354.

tion puppet show. Journal of Counseling and Development, 63, 311-312.

316 Terry R. Shepherd and Janice Koberstein

CLARKE, B. K. (1985).

CURRANT, N. (1985). HOFFMAN, S. & WUNDRAM, B. (1984). Views from 3-year-olds and thought for teachers. Childhood educa-

tion, 60, 261-263. JAMES, S. D., & EGEL, A. L. (1986). A direct prompting strategy for increasing reciprocal interaction between

handicapped and nonhandicapped siblings. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 19, 175-186. KROGH, S. L. & LAMME, L. L. (1983). How literature can help. Childhood Education, 59, 183-192. LEYSER, Y. & WOOD, J. (1980).

LIPSCOMB, T. J., MCALLISTER, H. A. & BREGMAN, N. J. (1985).

MCAULIFFE, J. C. (1980). MCMILLAN, J. H. & SCHUMACHER, S. (1984). Research to education: A conceptual introduction. Boston:

PRESBIE, R. J. & COITEUX, P. (1975). Learning to be generous or stingy: Imitation of sharing behavior as

SHEPHERD, T. & ILES, L. B. (1976).

Bibliotherapy through puppetry: Socializing the young child can be fun! Early Childhood Development and Care, 19, 337-344.

The expansive educational value of puppets. Academic Therapy, 21, 55-60.

An evaluation of puppet intervention in a second grade classroom. Educa-

A developmental inquiry into the effects tion, 100, 292-296.

of multiple models on children’s generosity. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 31. 335-343. The child and puppets: A belief and a project. School Arts, 80, 48.

Little, Brown.

a function of model generosity and vicarious reinforcements. Child Development, 42, 1033-1038, What is bibliotherapy? Language Arts, 53, 569-571.

LITERATURE USED FOR BIBLIOTHERAPY ON SHARING FLETCHER, S. (1955). GORDON, S. (1980). *HOBAN, R. (1969). *KEATS, E. L. (1975). Louie. New York: Greenwillow Books. *VAN LEEUWEN, J. (1979). The bad day. In Tales of Oliver Pig. New York: The Dial Press.

Tom and Jerry’s party. Racine, W1: Western Publishing. The friendly snowman. Mahwah, NJ: Troll Associates. Best friends for Frances. New York: Harper & Row.

* Krogh and Lamme (1983) recommendations