Forest Activities for Developing Emotional Vocabulary and Lowering Cortisol Levels in Kindergarteners

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of forest activities on the cortisol concentrations in the body and emotional vocabulary of kindergarteners. The participants were 36 kindergarten children aged 4-5, 17 in the control group and 19 in the experimental group. Forest activities consisted of six steps according to the level of kindergarteners, and the program was carried out at G City Environment Training Institute. Before and after the experiment, the children's emotional vocabulary was self-reported and salivary cortisol was analyzed to evaluate changes in the body 's stress hormones. As a result, in the control group, positive words increased significantly from 0.14 to 1.53 (p=.003), but the decrease in negative words was not significant (p=.059). In the experimental group, positive words increased significantly from 0.47 to 2.84 after forest activities (p=.000). Negative words decreased significantly from 1.94 to 0.00 after forest activities (p=.000). In the analysis of salivary cortisol, the change in salivary cortisol concentrations was not significant (p=.667) in the control group, merely decreasing from 0.179 μg/dl to 0.161 μg/dl. However, the experimental group showed a significant decrease from 0.202 μg/dl to 0.161 μg/dl after forest activities (p=.049). These results suggest that forest play activities may be helpful in encouraging young children's emotional development by increasing positive vocabulary and decreasing negative vocabulary and reducing stress in kindergarteners.

Analysis of Horticultural Activities in the Teacher’s Guidebooks of Nuri Curriculum for 5-Year-Olds

“…Spring, tend to decrease, but forest and ecological experience programs for preschoolers are proved to be effective in improving concentration, promoting problem-solving skills, helping a balanced development of both sides of the brain, relieving stress, alleviating anxiety and tension, and bringing mental stability (Shin, 2019). Forest play activities for preschoolers also helped increase positive vocabulary and decrease negative vocabulary (Jang et al, 2019), and reduce cortisol in the body, which is a stress hormone (Yun et al, 2019), and thus there are many reports on the positive effects of preschoolers' outdoor play. Table 5).…”

An Analysis on the Preference of Early Childhood Teachers in Horticultural Activities Based on Conjoint Analysis

“…Children aged 5 showed improvement in community spirit, intimacy, sense of belonging and participation by playing in the forest (Jang and Chung, 2018), and playing in the forest had a positive effect on reducing daily stress of children aged 4-5 (Lee, 2014). There was also a study determining the reduction of preschoolers' stress after playing in the forest by examining the change in cortisol levels (Yun et al, 2019). Forest activities of preschoolers aged 5 had a significant effect on increasing positive vocabulary and decreasing negative vocabulary of preschoolers (Jang et al, 2019).…”

Components for Early Childhood Horticultural Education Program derived from Expert Delphi Research

“…This finding is in line with those of the following studies: ecological-experience activities for young children influenced the use of self-emotions, perception and consideration of others' emotions, control of emotions and suppression of impulses (Kang and Park, 2010); and, as a result of horticultural activities of preschoolers, their use of self-emotions, and the perception and consideration of others' emotions were statistically significantly improved (Jeong et al, 2009). As for the direction of horticultural education, (Jeong et al, 2014), and forest experience activities improved their scientific inquiry ability and attitude of respect for life (Lee and Choi, 2015), and also affected their stress reduction (Yun et al, 2019).…”