An Empirical Study Comparing Different Art Forms to Develop Social and Personal Skills in Early Years Education

Social and personal development is a very important area within child development. There are a number of researchers who provide empirical findings about this using art experiences in the early years settings. However, what is missing is a thorough investigation of different art forms and their effects in children’s social and personal development. Previous findings of a small-scale study, showed that child-led art experiences can have a substantial contribution on children’s social and personal skills. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of different art forms in children’s social and personal skills. The ‘Play and Learn through the Arts’ programme was used for the art intervention in three experimental groups that were compared against a control group. The sample included 61 5-6-year-old children from state and private early years settings in Attica in Greece. Data analysis showed that an arts-based methodology is indeed beneficial for children’s social and personal development such as confidence, independence, relationships etc. but there was no difference among the different art forms. This leads us to suggest that it is the arts in general and not a particular art form which contributes to child development.