Design Game Set For Children To Improve Communication And Social Skills

Communication and social interactions are fundamental issues in societies. Recent research in various fields has shown that people are increasingly isolated and struggle with diseases and disorders such as depression. Therefore, the development of necessary skills for social interaction is both important and essential for human societies. It is obvious that the development of these skills, especially from childhood, leads to an increase in the quality of social communications. Playing is an activity during which children identify their abilities and capacities, reveal their thoughts and actions, and use their physical and mental capacities to explore and interact with the environment. Hence, the domain of play is a good context for learning social skills and developing children's communication skills. Therefore, the aim of this study is to design a game device to improve social interactions such as sharing, helping and cooperation. This applied research is a qualitative-descriptive study in which information was collected through library and field methods. The information has been used to design a game after analysis. The evaluation of the game was performed using a hypothesis test by 15 children aged 3 to 6 years old from two kindergartens in Tehran. Random sampling was performed through cluster sampling method.The results of the study confirmed the positive effect of the game on the three components of sharing, helping and cooperating in children's social interactions. This game can be used in homes and educational environments and all indoor and outdoor spaces, and its shared use between children and adults can cause more interaction between parents and children.