© Kamla-Raj 2015 Ethno Med, 9(2): 181-189 (2015)

The Effect of Creative Drama on Pre-teaching Skills and SocialCommunication Behaviors of Children with Autism

S. Sunay Yildirim Dogru

Dokuz Eylul University, Faculty of Education, Department of Special Education, Izmir, Turkey

KEYWORDS Drama Training, Early Childhood, Inclusive Education, Special Education, Social Skills

ABSTRACT This research aims to evaluate the effectiveness of creative drama in education on pre-teaching skillsand social communication behaviors of children with autism. The research is based on a 6-year-old girl with autism,attending pre-school inclusion classes in Izmir, Turkey. To evaluate the specify effectiveness, this research is,among single subject designs, multiple baselines across behavior models, pre-test and post-test designs. The studyis expected to indicate the positive impact of applied training on developing receptive language skills, socialinteraction, social independence, and a social collaboration: instruction following, attention gathering and awaitingthe turn. Based on the findings of this research, it can be said that the drama education in early childhood forchildren with autism has a positive effect on teaching social skills and pre-teaching skills.

Address for correspondence:S. Sunay Yildirim DogruDokuz Eylul University Faculty of EducationDepartment of Special Education,Buca 35150 Ýzmir-TurkeyTelephone: 00 90 536 343 3222.Fax: 00 90 232 420 48 75E-mail: sunay.dogru@deu.edu.tr

INTRODUCTION

Early childhood is a process which containsthe years from birth to the day of basic educa-tion. This period contains such features as shap-ing the personality, progressive change of thechild, accomplishment of the physical, mental,psychomotor, social-emotional, cognitive devel-opments as well as acquisition of language skills.All these features have the primary role for thefuture life. In other words, the mental, physicaland language development of the child is sub-stantially accomplished in the period between0-6 years. What people learn throughout theirlives is learnt in this period and this is 75 percentof what they know

by the end of their life (Bloom 1979; Özçelik1999). The early years form a systematic sup-port to the full capacity of the child as it canpresent a substructure for the upcoming educa-tion period (MEB 2005; Batu and Kýrcaali-Iftar2005; Sucuoglu and Kargin 2006). In this regard,Yazici (1999) investigated the difference betweenthe level of academic maturity of 6-year-old chil-dren and made a comparison between those whodid and did not receive pre-school education.He found that pre-school education has posi-

tive effect on academic maturity of children. Thisindicates that early childhood education is im-portant because the acquisition of the child inpre-school is an assurance for the subsequentacquisitions. Therefore, it can be claimed doubt-lessly that, In acquisition of basic skills and so-cial acknowledgement of the children with dis-abilities, early childhood education has a greatimportance. The researches indicate that thechildren with disabilities who join to the inclu-sive programs in early childhood have the op-portunity to acquire the basic communicationskills which will easy their process of fitting into society in their future life (MEB 2005; Yildi-rim-Dogru and Durmusoglu-Saltali 2011). Whenthe effect of early childhood education for chil-dren who has special needs are investigated, itis seen that the cognitive, social and languageskills of the children who participate in earlychildhood education increase while they are, atthe same time, physically developing. The re-search by Spiker (1990) determined the provi-sion of helping parents and re-motivating thechildren in their early stage of life is the biggestprofit of the early education programs. So, it isobvious that early childhood education for thechildren with special needs is not only impor-tant for the child’s development, but it is alsoimportant for easing family engagements. In ear-ly childhood education, while the child is ex-pected to realize himself/herself with the talentsand characteristics they have had since birth,they are also expected to join the society in anefficient and active manner. Just at this point,early childhood education for children with spe-

182 S. SUNAY YILDIRIM DOGRU

cial needs becomes more important and urgent.Acquiring self-care and life skills and also learn-ing social skills such as sharing, mutualization,collaboration and social responsibility are theexpected skills that are to be provided by theearly childhood education for children with spe-cial needs.

The development of social skills is impor-tant in the life of children with/ without disabili-ties. The children with disabilities are less ad-vantageous in social competence and develop-ment of social skills. That’s why, to develop thesocial skills of the people with disabilities whosesocial inadequacy is defined, convenient edu-cation programs are needed to be designed andapplied. In these education programs, the mainpoint which should be implied is to train socialskills (Önalan-Akfirat 2004; Ömeroglu 2002). InMeyer and Ostrosky’s (2015) study, they inves-tigated whether a class-wide disability aware-ness curriculum would result in increased closefriendships for 26 kindergarteners with disabili-ties enrolled in six inclusive classrooms. Find-ings suggest that participation in a disabilityawareness curriculum alone does not lead to in-creased friendships. Evidence suggested hav-ing a close friendship may partially mediate therelationship between children’s social compe-tence and acceptance. These findings arealigned with research that emphasizes the im-portance of individualizing class-wide programsbased on children’s support needs and facilitat-ing children’s friendship formation in kindergar-ten classrooms to promote peer acceptance. Im-plications for the future, new support programresearch and practice are discussed. There aremany ways to train social skills. Rhythm, drama,and pantomime are used for education of chil-dren with mental deficiency by many educators(McCaslin 1990). In addition, to gather attentionskills, drama experience may be a powerful fac-tor in development of social and communicationskills for children (Kempe 2014). Drama does notonly perform imaginary stories, but also deepenthe level of thinking with the help of questionsthe story brings forward and provides mentaldischarge and self expressions. Besides, dramahelps the child ask questions of “how” and“why.” Using drama in education helps the childunderstand and think better (Irwin 1986; Gönen1998). Drama is more useful in learning and selfexpressing for children with mental deficiencyrather than without. Children with mental defi-

ciency have the opportunity of perceiving a prob-lem at their level, solving and explaining it bythe help of drama (D’Amico et al. 2015) Usage ofdrama will help these children learn several thingsabout life through innocent trials, learn to be-lieve in themselves and experience the satisfac-tion of joining a group. Furthermore, the storiescan develop children’s imagination by drama andit will teach children to be ready for new experi-ences and thus, they set up a substructure forverbal communication. They will be able to gath-er their attention for a long period of time bydeveloping their listening and observation skills(Gönen and Dalkiliç 2002; Bayhan and Yükselen2007; Önder 2009).

This research is important in acquisition ofpre-teaching skills and social communicationskills of the children with autism who attend topre-school inclusion classes.

METHODOLOGY

This case study, involves a 6 year old girlwith autism who attends inclusive education.

Research Model

In this research, among single subject de-signs, multiple baselines across behavior leveland pre-test and post-test without control groupmodel are used. With this model, the equilibriumon a target behavior is investigated with morethan one behavior. First, the commencing leveldata is collected from the informant. After thecommencing level has revealed determination,the application starts with the first behavior.During the behavior pattern, the effectuationcounterbalances the criteria, the probe state isallowed for all behaviors and data is collected inthree sessions successively. It is expected thatprobe session to counterbalance the criteria forfirst behavior and for other behaviors, it is ex-pected to be in the same level as the commence-ment level. After the probe session, the secondbehavior is applied. It is expected that probedata can counterbalance the criteria for the sec-ond behavior, and for the other situations, it isexpected to be at the similar level with com-mencement level. This application is renewedfor all behaviors (Kircaali-Iftar and Tekin 1997).

In this research, the inter-application multi-ple probe desing with probe session is testedfirst, then the commencement level data is col-

THE EFFECT OF CREATIVE DRAMA ON PRE-TEACHING SKILLS 183

lected. After the equilibrium of the commence-ment level data, the teaching of concepts withinformant is started. In the last probe session, thedata of the informant are expected to counterbal-ance the criteria. The data is collected for educat-ing pre-teaching skills by the drama program forwhich the applicator prepared. Latter 30 percentof each application was recorded and evaluated.

Working Group

The case study was presented and conduct-ed by a female informant who attends a specialeducation and rehabilitation center and, at thesame time, participates in Inclusive EducationApplications. The participant is a 6 year old fe-male who has autism. The child is selected bythe method of sample selection criteria. For thisreason, she forms the research group of:

Making eye contact,Looking face to face,Autism,Desire, to participate in a group activity.The children who have these criterias are

identified by classroom observation and teach-ers opinions.

Trainers

A researcher has conducted the study. Theapplication part of the research has been real-ized by the researcher. The researcher that real-ized the application process has ten years ofexperience in giving education to the childrenwho need special education.

Data Collection Tools

The data of the research is collected withtwo different collection tools. In the research, tomeasure social skills and problem behaviors,PKBS Preschool and Kindergarten BehaviorScales Form B are used: Additionally, by usingmultiple probe design across behaviors from sin-gle subject research design, registration formsare used to collect data.

PKBS Preschool and Kindergarten BehaviorScales Form B

The data collection tool is formed by 2 formsand 76 likert-type questions, which was intend-ed to determine the social skills and problembehaviors of the nursery school and kindergar-ten children. In this research, Form B, SocialSkills Scale is used.

“Social skills” consists of three sub-dimen-sions; social collaboration, social interaction,and social independence. Teachers exercisedtheir attitude by ticking one of the categorieswhich are “strongly disagree,” “disagree,” “nei-ther agree nor disagree,” “agree,” and “stronglyagree,” which was indicated on the form. Teach-ers gave 1-5 points to the items on the scale.High points were expressed to be developed insocial skills.

To provide the construct validity of the scale,factor analysis (Principal Component Analysis)was done. The percentage of the total varianceexplains which intended to measure 3 factorsbelonging to social skills dimension in 74.34%and the Cronbach’s Alpha Reliability Coefficientwas 98. The factor load of the items change be-tween 55 and 88. In the scale, the Cronbach Al-pha coefficient of the social collaboration subdimension was 97, Cronbach Alpha coefficientof social interaction sub dimension was 95 andCronbach Alpha coefficient of the social inde-pendence sub dimension was 95 (Çeliköz et al2010).

As for the second data collection tool, whichwas used in this research, a measurement in-strument was developed to collect student’scommencement level, teaching and observationdata for teaching pre-teaching skills. The instru-ment prepared consists of three sections: state-ments, criteria, measurement tool directive. Be-sides, information about why the target skill wasselected, the place where the measuring instru-ment was applied, time of the students’ reaction,determination of the evaluation measuring in-strument and preparation of the data collectionchart were the other constituent of the preparedmeasuring instrument.

Preparation of the Individualized EducationProgram

The individualized education program wasprepared for teaching the determined pre-teach-ing skills. Direct teaching method were used inthis program.

Data Collection and Application

With the prepared data collection tools, com-mencement, application and observation datawere collected. While collecting data in the com-mencement level and application sessions, ofsingle opportunity methods were used.

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Process of data collection continued for ayear. In this period, a development evaluationform was applied to the case and Problems suchas: social communication (talking) request, join-ing games, awaiting her turn, following rules,following directions, and self-confidence. Wasdetected during the drama lesson activity. With-in the pre-teaching skills; social communication,social collaboration, social independence andcommunal skills, and within social skills werethe activities completed with the informant. Dur-ing the applications, mid-term evaluation is doneeach month and new subjects are added to theprogram. An Individualized Education Program(IEP) is prepared for each new subject. Teach-ings are maintained either individually in a re-source room or for group education within class-room. This study was completed with short dra-ma workshops related to pre-teaching skills andsocial communication skills during 16 weeks.After the 16-week-education period, the situa-tion of the child was assessed with posttest.After four weeks, the applications were reviewedfor permanence assessment. While preparingeducation programs for the creative drama, a lit-erature review was completed. Social behaviorsand educationals targets such as following di-rections, awaiting her turn and gathering the at-tention and social communication skills weredetermined for the child. Afterwards, a 16-weekcreative drama education program was preparedin such a way as to contain motion studies, pan-tomime, role playing, improvisation and compos-ing plays by stories. The program conductedtwo session per week which was a total of 32sessions. Each session was completed between20 and 35 minutes. After the sessions, in assess-ment phase, open-ended questions about activ-ities and the subject were asked to provide theemotions and considerations to be shared andthe acquisitions to be reinforced. The same ap-plication was considered with the afternoonclass of four-year-old groups with the sameschool.

Data Analysis

The research was based on true answers theinformant submitted to the tests, which were ap-plied to measure the level of pre-teaching andsocial skills. The true answer percentage was cal-culated by dividing the number of the total itemsby the number of the informant’s true answersand multiplied by one hundred.

Reliability Analysis

In this research, to analyze inter-observersreliability and application reliability, all the datawas recorded.

Inter-observers Reliability

Inter-observers reliability and applicationreliability data was collected for least 20 percentof the probe and application sessions. The in-ter-observers reliability was written for the DataCollection Form by 2 researchers who was notincluded in the application process. Insteadthese researched by watched video recordingsof each other. Coefficient of inter-observers reli-ability was calculated by using the formula;“Agreement/(Agreement + Disagreement)x100.Meanwhile, in the single subject desing accept-able inter-observers reliability coefficient is 80percent, ideal inter-observers reliability coeffi-cient was 90 percent (Kircaali-Iftar and Tekin1997). In analysis of this research, inter-observ-ers reliability coefficient was obtained at 100percent.

Application Reliability

In this research, the analysis of applicationreliability was developed to review if the inde-pendent variable was applied as planned or not.All the studies done to collect the data of appli-cation reliability were recorded. The 50 percentof the studies which was determined by unbi-ased assigning were investigated by the re-searchers who conducted the reliability of theresearch. Before starting the application reliabil-ity studies, pre information, on how teachingwould be completed was given to the applica-tors by the researchers who would do the appli-cation reliability. While watching the data whichwas obtained at the end of the application, theresearcher marked the Application ReliabilityForm as (+) or (-) by deciding if the items on theApplication Reliability Form was true or falseEach step of the application was written in termsof complete or done or not completed by theapplicators. Application reliability was calculat-ed by “Observed Behaviors of the Teachers/Planned Behaviors and the Teacher x100” for 50percent of the teaching sessions which are donefor each informant that was determined by Un-biased Assignment Table. After the study wascompleted, application reliability of this researchwas determined at 90 percent.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Research data is collected before and afterthe training with a model without a control grouppre-test and post-test. Participant’s performanceon pre teaching skills is shown in Figure 1. Par-ticipant’s Performance on Pre Teaching Skills.

The obtained findings presented the posi-tive effect of the drama education applied in ear-ly childhood on child with mental deficiency. Asit is seen in Figure 1, while the commencementlevel data is 10 percent in the first informant, itwas zero for the other two. Because the consis-tency is acquired in three sessions for com-mencement level data, it has been passed toteaching application with first informant. Byachieving 100 percent in teaching the skill toawait her turn, the target criterion was compen-

sated. Application phase was finished when theinformant acquire the terminal behavior at theend of the application sessions and continuedwith second probe phase. It was seen that thefirst informant achieved 100 percent in terminalbehavior for each of three probe phases.

As it is seen in the second diagram of Figure1, commencement level data is achieved as level10 for second informant. Because the consis-tency is acquired in three sessions for com-mencement level data, it has been passed toteaching application with second informant. Byachieving 100 percent in teaching the skill tofollow directions, the target criterion was com-pensated. Application phase was finished whenthe informant acquired the terminal behavior atthe end of the application sessions and contin-ued with second probe phase. It is seen that the

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THE EFFECT OF CREATIVE DRAMA ON PRE-TEACHING SKILLS 185

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first informant achieved 100 percent in terminalbehavior for each of three probe phases.

As it is seen in the third diagram of Figure 1,commencement level data is achieved as level zerofor second informant. Because the consistencyis acquired in three sessions for commencementlevel data, it has been passed to teaching appli-cation with the third informant. By achieving 90percent in teaching the skill to gather the atten-tion, the target criterion was compensated. Ap-plication phase was finished when the informantacquired the terminal behavior at the end of theapplication sessions and continued with the sec-ond probe phase. It is seen that the first infor-mant achieved 90 percent in terminal behavior foreach of three probe phases. As it seen can beseen in Figure 1, following the treatment sessionsgeneralization and maintenance sessions are ap-plied. Maintenance sessions show us that threeweeks after the intervention, the social behaviorwhich was learned, continued.

Drama can provide different opportunitiesin education for children with different proper-ties (Ingersoll and Dvortcsak 2010). Önalan Ak-firat (2004) investigated the impact of the cre-ative drama on development of social skills of 10hearing-impaired children between the age of10-12. In the research, pre-test post-test controlgroup experimental design was used. It resultedby implying the positive effect of creative dramaeducation on the skills of “representing one selfwhen meet for the first time” and “ thanking whenhelped.” citation Barnes (1998) implied that thehearing-impaired children who receive the cre-ative drama education are more successful insocial, emotional, and cognitive developmentthan these, who do not receive education, Warger(1983) implied that the creative drama developsthe autistic adolescents’ social skill, game skilland increases the awareness of themselves andothers, Roach (1990) implied that study of a spec-tacle of the children with mental deficiency, whichis done with drama method, increases the lan-guage, motor, social, and cognitive skills (citedin; Önalan 2004). Ramey and Ramey (2004) re-

searched the impact of inclusive education andearly intervention on the child’s preparation forschool and proved the positive impact of theearly intervention. Erbay et al. (2015) implied thatthe effect of drama in education on languageand communication skills of children between48-60 month-old. In this study, pre-test and post-test of the control groups experimental designhas been utilized on collectively 64 children; 32children from test group and 32 children are fromcontrol group. Research findings have manifest-ed that drama education improves language andcommunication skills of children.

The performance on points of pretest andposttest of the informant’s PKBS Preschool andKindergarten Behavior Scales Form B. When thepre and post test is investigated, informant’sPKBS Preschool and Kindergarten BehaviorScales Form B, the point of social collaborationsub dimension pretest was 45 percent, posttestpoint was 57.8 percent (Table 1). The 12.8 per-cent increase was observed in informant’s PKBSPreschool and Kindergarten Behavior ScalesForm B in social communication sub dimensionpoint the informant obtain before and after theinclusive education. Informant’s PKBS Pre-school and Kindergarten Behavior Scales FormB, the point of social interaction sub dimensionpretest was 22 percent, posttest point was 55.7percent. The 33.7 percent increase was observedin informant’s PKBS Preschool and Kindergar-ten Behavior Scales Form B in social interactionsub dimension point the informant obtained be-fore and after the inclusive education. Infor-mant’s PKBS Preschool and Kindergarten Be-havior Scales Form B, the point of social inde-pendency sub dimension pretest was 31 per-cent, posttest point was 83.1 percent. The 52.1percent of increase was observed in informant’sPKBS Preschool and Kindergarten BehaviorScales Form B in social independency sub di-mension point the informant obtained before andafter the inclusive education. Informant’s PKBSPreschool and Kindergarten Behavior ScalesForm B, the point of total social skill sub dimen-

Table 1: The performance about the points of pretest and posttest of the informant’s PKBS Preschooland Kindergarten Behavior Scales Form B

Social Social Social Totalcollaboration interaction independence

Pretest 45 22 31 20.05Posttest 57.8 55.7 83.1 65

THE EFFECT OF CREATIVE DRAMA ON PRE-TEACHING SKILLS 187

sion pretest was 20.05 percent, posttest pointwas 65 percent. The 44.95 percent of increasewas observed in informant’s PKBS Preschooland Kindergarten Behavior Scales Form B in to-tal social skill sub dimension point the infor-mant obtained before and after the inclusiveeducation.

Research findings showed that the dramaeducation applied in early childhood developsthe social skill. The obtained finding were alsoparallel to the results of other researchers whichinvestigated the impact of inclusive education.Lindsay (2007) had the result of the support ofinclusion to social skill in his studies that inves-tigated the impacts of inclusive education. InRafferty, Piscitelliand Boettcher’s research (2003)development of the social competence by inclu-sion was seen. Lal (2005) proved the positiveeffect of the inclusive education on autistic chil-dren on their language and social developments.After the studies completed by her about cre-ative drama with children with social perceptiondeficiency, Guli (2004) mentioned the effect ofeducation on children’s social skills. Jackson andBynum (1997) showed the positive contributionof drama education to the social interaction ofchildren with emotional deregulations and be-havior disorders. Colston (1985) determined thatcreative drama education makes positive differ-ences on verbal and social communication skillsof children with intrinsic disorder of differentages (cited in Özdemir 2003). Cornoy implies theeffect specially on acquiring social behaviors tothe children with disability in the preschoolphase (cited in Özdemir 2002). De La Cruz (1995)stated that the creative drama education givento 35 children with learning disability during 12weeks positively affected children’s social skillsand verbal language skills.

Gathering the attention skill was one of theskills that had importance in child’s preparationto school and it should be developed until theage of 6. The base of the attention-gatheringeducation was based on the child’s finding ofhis fault and correcting (Özdogan 2004). In gath-ering and focusing the attention, the child’s in-terest, learning environment and physical stim-uli stands in environment, have great importance(Karaduman 2004; Özdogan 2004). The educa-tion environment in inclusion was arranged bythe help of these researched. The result of theresearch showed parallelism with the research-es in literature.

CONCLUSION

As known, the period of early childhood isthe fastest period for learning. Therefore, to in-crease the efficacy of this period, education giv-en in pre-school should be planned and per-formed in a simple, clear and understandable wayfor children. One of these ways which enhancesthis success is drama education. Because dramahas a close relationship with imagination andcreation, the child learns to know his feelings, tolive with them or cope with them by this feel-ings. Just like a normally developed child, thechild with mental deficiency also takes the reallife as a model and reflects it in his/her games.This can occur slower for children with mentaldeficiency.

Drama is a discharging and controlled reveal-ing way of feelings containing violence andaggressive. In recent years, using drama in edu-cation was being widespread. The games andtoys, with numerous benefits for the child, arealso vital, which is needed for children with dis-abilities. As normal developed children, the childwith the disability also reflects the real life as amodel to his games. In this research, the effectof the drama education in early childhood onteaching social skills and pre-teaching skills areinvestigated. At the end of the research, the find-ings have indicated that an effective drama edu-cation develops receptive language skills, gath-ering the attention skills, social interaction, so-cial independence, and social collaboration.Based on these findings, the general result whichcan be reached is that the drama education inearly childhood has positive effect on teachingsocial skill.

RECOMMENDATIONS

In accordance with the results of this re-search, the suggestions below can be devel-oped:

Drama activities should be done by notic-ing children’s developmental process and itis convenient to pass to the next processwhen all children are ready in the result ofthe determination of which child is success-ful in which the process.Children should be awarded and supportedduring the drama activities. Besides, train-ers should help and support the child to

188 S. SUNAY YILDIRIM DOGRU

understand and comprehend the work thathe does.The trainer should remember that he/sheshould be flexible in drama studies just likehe/she is in all fields of education program.He/she should manage the time of dramaactivities, which should take between 20-30minutes.

· Environment of the drama should be ar-ranged by the trainer: it should be an envi-ronment that children could do their activi-ties comfortably and in environment thatwould not block communication.This study is a case presentation with a sin-gle informant. To increase the reliability ofthe study, the number of the informants canbe increased and development levels amonginformants can be seen. In addition, thisstudy is done with only one child with au-tism (mental deficiency). In similar studies,children from different disability groups canbe joined and the differences of the devel-opment levels can be followed.Future longitudinal studies with the samechild are important in a way of following thedevelopment. It is imperative, this type of lon-gitudinal study should argue for enlighten-ing the way for new studies on similar sub-jects, reintegrating the child into society, in-forming the monde about individuals withdisabilities and increasing the awareness.

LIMITATIONS

This research is limited to;Working with a 6-six-year-old girl withautismCreative drama education,On social skills of developing receptivelanguage skills, social interaction, and so-cial independence, social collaboration,On pre-education skills of instruction fol-lowing, attention gathering and awaitingtheir turn.

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