Young children love to dress up in costumes and play pretending games. They also love being read stories. So could these activities be used to increase language skills?
This is the question Dr Sherry Haar and Dr Linda Crowe from Kansas State University asked recently. Dr Haar had been developing costumes to assist with occupational therapy, and Dr Crowe had been involved in literacy development. They decided to combine their skills to see if research would support the role of costume as a prop to promote literacy development.
'Our hypothesis was that the children would use the costume as a memory aid for retelling the story, by wearing the costume and re-enacting the story events (assuming character roles),' says Dr Crowe. 'We assumed the children would wear the costume during retelling and attempt to re-enact the story, using character voice, etc.
'In the first study, there were ten children between the ages of three years, five months and five years, six months. Two children listened to a classroom teacher reading an unfamiliar story. Then, one child went to another room and retold the story to a naive listener. The second child explored the costume, then went to another room and used the costume to retell the story to the naive listener. Data from this study showed that children using costumes tell longer stories, use greater vocabulary diversity, and remember greater detail.'
The use of costume clearly made a difference, so Dr Crowe and Dr Haar were keen to investigate further. Their current study involves 40 children between three and five and a half years. As Dr Crowe explains, comparisons are being made between storytelling with costume and without.
'In the no costume condition, the teacher reads the story to the children over three consecutive days. On the fourth day, the children draw their stories and then go to another room to retell the story to a naive listener.
'In the costume condition, the children listen to a second story read over three consecutive days. Following the reading, costumes are available for the children to explore. On the fourth day, the children draw the story, then go to another room to retell it to a naive listener. The costumes are not available to aid in the retelling.'
Preliminary data suggests the costume exploration aided the drawing more than the retelling - it had more effect on written than oral language.
In both studies, costumes helped the children remember the story, but in the second study, having the costumes available meant the children drew what they remembered. Circumstances, such as time delay and not having costumes available for retelling the story, meant it benefited the children more in drawing the story than retelling it.
Dr Crowe believes all nursery children should be using thematic teaching.
'By re-enacting stories, children develop an understanding of books and how they represent real world events. Props - whether pictures, stuffed animals or costume - allow young children to recall detail, use new vocabulary and sequence ideas. Rehearsal of new vocabulary and exploration of materials that represent that vocabulary provide children with richer conceptual knowledge to associate with new words.'
Dr Crowe and Dr Haar have plans for further research. So far they have only used true to life books, so fantasy stories may be considered. They would also like to look at using costumes and books in therapeutic settings.
'Children with special needs often perform similarly to younger children,'
says Dr Crowe. 'Research shows younger children need more contextual support for learning new vocabulary and recalling longer discourse units.
The memory support provided by costume could potentially be used to supplement language interventions.'
Dr Haar says dressing-up can help a special needs child fit in. 'Costume play is a typical stage in play, and is considered "normal" among children.
Therefore, a child with a disability is dressing and interacting in a developmentally-appropriate social scenario. This is an area for further research.'
For further reading
These books proved popular with the children when re-enacting stories:
* The Jacket I Wear in the Snow by Shirley Neitzel (Walker Books)
* The Mitten by Jan Brett (Hodder Wayland)
* Mrs Wishy Washy by Joy Cowley (Shortland Publications)
* Something From Nothing by Phoebe Gilman (Scholastic)
* Shoes from Grandpa by Mem Fox (Orchard Books)
