Investigating the effects of creative drama activities to attain mental skills on children attending the preschool

Investigating the Effects of Creative Drama Activities to Attain Mental Skills on Children Attending the Preschool In Preschool period, the relationship between the developmental areas is rather excessive and supporting child has great importance. A problem in cognitiv development, which is closely related with other developmental areas, also affects the normal development process, social and emotional development negatively. Cognitive skills are a major contributor to positive social behaviors. The development of the theory of mind is recognized as a milestone in the social and cognitive development of the individual. Having acquired the theory of mind, cause to understand the mental states of the person, either himself and others, such as will, intention, blood; mentally being able to represent them and to be able to realize that other people have a different mind than themselves. Studies on the theory of mind skills appears to be quite limited. The studies in which, drama education and the theory of mind skills are compared, are rarely found in the literature. For this reason, it is aimed to investigate the effect of drama education, which has significant contributions to the acquisition of different knowledge and skills, on children's mental thinking skills. Fort he purpose of the study experimental method has been used. The "Personal Information Form" developed by the researchers as a means of data collection and the Theory of Mind Scale adapted to Turkish by Gözün Kahraman (2012) developed by Wellman and Liu (2004) were used in the research to measure the thinking skills of thechildren attending preschool. The scale was applied face-to-face to child by the practitioner and performed as pre-test, post-test, follow-up test. The study group consisted of a total of 30 children, including 15 experimental groups and 15 control groups, who continued to the pre-school education institution in the province of Ankara, Çankaya. As a result of the research, significant differences were determined in 5 sub-dimensions measuring mind theory skills among children who receive drama education drama education. As a result, drama education has a positive effect on the mental ability of children attending preschool. Keywords: Child, creative drama, mental skill, theory of mind.