EFFECTS OF A CURRICULUM INTERVENTION PROGRAM USING FAIRY TALES ON PRESCHOOL CHILDREN'S EMPATHY LEVEL, READING READINESS, ORAL LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT AND CONCEPT OF A STORY

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a curriculum intervention using fairy tales on preschool children's empathy level, reading readiness skills, oral language development and concept of a story.;The study involved 56 preschool children (aged three-five years) enrolled at Baby Gator Child Care Center, a day care center for children of students, staff and faculty of the University of Florida. Each child was pre and posttested by undergraduate students from the early childhood education department on the following instruments: (a) Interpersonal Awareness Test, (b) reading readiness subtest of the Basic Schools Skills Inventory, (c) and a storytelling measure.;An analysis of covariance was used to test for the effects of group, age and sex on most dependent variables. Fisher's Exact Test was used where the variables were dichotomous. The significance level was set at (alpha) = .05.;An experimental curriculum was developed and implemented by a team of four teachers over an eight-week period. The curriculum consisted of a unit based on fairy tales in conjunction with related follow-up activities. The control group received their regular preschool curriculum.;The experimental curriculum had significant effects on empathy, syntactic maturity and the use of formal opening and number of characters mentioned in story retelling.;These results indicate that a curriculum unit based on fairy tales can have positive effects on young children's development. Implications for teachers and suggestions for future research are discussed.