The general purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of using relaxation training utilizing the Turtle Technique as developed by Schneider and Robin (1975) to teach preschool children to control their overactive behaviors. The specific purpose was to determine whether hyperactive children who participated in the relaxation training group would evidence fewer overactive behaviors than hyperactive children who did not. Another purpose was to determine older hyperactive preschool children would evidence fewer observed overactive behaviors following the treatment sessions than younger hyperactive preschool children.The 41 preschool subjects who participated in the study ranged from three to six years of age. They were initially identified as hyperactive by ratings on the Classroom Teacher's Behavior Check List or BCL (Safer, 1976), which was completed by each child's classroom teacher. The subject children were observed in their intact classes which were randomly assigned to either relaxation training (experimental: N=21) or storytelling (control: N=20) groups. All research conditions were administered by the classroom teachers. The subjects in the relaxation treatment group received at least thirty of forty 10-minute relaxation training sessions in daily sessions for eight weeks. Stories were read to the control group for at least thirty of forty 10-minute sessions in daily sessions for eight weeks. All subjects were observed by trained observers two times daily for a period of five days prior to treatment and two times daily for a period of five days after treatment had been terminated. A time-sample observation system was used to observe the following behaviors: out of chair, modified out of chair, motor behavior (not in seat), motor behavior (in seat), disturbing others directly and aggression, inappropriate vocalizations, inappropriate noise and movements directed toward the body.Multivariate analysis of covariance was used to analyze the research data with the pre-observations treated as the covariates and the post-observations treated as the criteria. The alpha level was set at .05 for any test of statistical significance.No significant differences were found between preschool groups receiving relaxation training to reduce their observed overactive behaviors and a control group, which listened to stories and engaged in active participation in the stories. The results did indicate, however, that although there was not a significant interaction between age and treatment, there was a significant difference for age in both the treatment and control groups. Younger hyperactive preschool children exhibited more motor behavior out of seat and inappropriate vocalizations than older hyperactive preschool children.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/181112 |
| Date | January 1982 |
| Creators | Stanutz, Annette G. |
| Contributors | Fischer, Wyman E. |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | vi, 131 leaves ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
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