THE DEVELOPMENT OF RECREATIONAL PROGRAM TO PROMOTE EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONS IN EARLY CHILDHOOD

Abstract

The purposes of this research were 1) to develop a recreation program to promote executive function skills of early childhood, 2) to study the effect of participating in a recreation program on executive functions skills of early childhood. It was a quasi-experimental research, divided into 3 phases: 1) to study the needs of recreational activities to enhance executive function skills of early childhood; 2) to develop a recreation program to enhance executive skills of early childhood by experts and 3) to study the results of participating in recreation programs to promote executive function skills of early childhood with a sample of 51 early childhood by matching methods (Match-Paired sampling) divided into an experimental group of 25 people and a control group of 26 people. The research tools were 1) the need questionnaire for recreational activities to promote executive function skills of early childhood; executive functions of early childhood and 3) behavioral evaluation form of executive function skills of early childhood. The statistics used in the research were percentage, mean, standard deviation. and t-test The results of the research were as follows: 1) The study of the need for recreational activities to promote executive function skills of early childhood. Overall, it was at the highest level. 2) The development of a recreation program to promote executive function skills of early childhood was most appropriate and could be applied to practice. 3) Executive Function skills of early childhood in the experimental group after attending program was higher than before the participation at a statistical significance at the .05 level, and executive function skills of the experimental group preschool children were higher than the control group at a statistical significance at the .05 level.