The Effect of Traditional Games on the Language Development of Pre-School Children in Pre-School Education

The aim of this study is to analyze the effect of Traditional Game Education Program (TGEP) on language development of pre-school children. Dependent and independent variables were determined as the children’s language development scores and "traditional game education program", respectively. The study group was determined with “typical case sampling”, one of the purposive sampling methods, and it consists of a total of 72 children attending four nursery classes depending on Diyarbakır Eğil District Directorate of National Education, 36 of whom are experiment group and 36 of whom are control group. Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) prepared by L. Loyd and M. Dunn in the USA was used as data collection tool. While analyzing the data, Independent and Dependent Groups t-Tests were used. It was found at the end of the study that PPVT post-test scores of the children in experiment and control groups were statistically different. Post-test average scores of the children in the experiment group were higher than the ones in the control group. Accordingly, it was determined “Traditional Game Education Program” increased the children’s language development in a positive way.